Phantasmagoria: Collected Essays on the Nature of Fantasy and Horror Literature

This fascinating collection is the product of over fifty years of a love affair with the literature of the fantastic as a vocation and avocation. Many of the essays are reprinted here from distinguished journals. They range over fascinating authors and topics and are accessible and enlightening for both the scholar and the fan. The author’s voracious reading captures definitions of both horror and fantasy and probes the vital importance of the secondary character in fantasy, horror, and literature in general. Topics range among the definitions of fantasy and horror as well as the nature of evil. There are important discussions of feminism, setting, the fool, the artisan, the shaman, the double, specific authors, the sidekick, and others. The authors included span the entire alphabet from Poul Anderson, Robert E. Howard and Ray Bradbury to Andre Norton, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Roger Zelazny. They include the wildly popular, like Stephen King, to the obscure, like Sara Coleridge and Eden Phillpotts. Further, this collection includes suggestions and building blocks for the future and encourage further enlightening journeys.