Lud-in-the-Mist by Helen Mirrlees

Friday, May 23, 2008

Challenges
Decades Challenge - 1920's
Once Upon a Time II Challenge
Spring Reading Challenge
Once Upon a Time Challenge - Since I first read about this book on Carl's blog, I felt his challenge was the best time to finally read it. Here is a breakdown from Amazon on the story: "Lud-in-the-Mist, the capital city of the small country Dorimare, is a port at the confluence of two rivers, the Dapple and the Dawl. The Dapple has its origin beyond the Debatable Hills to the west of Lud-in-the-Mist, in Fairyland. In the days of Duke Aubrey, some centuries earlier, fairy things had been look upon with reverence, and fairy fruit was brought down the Dapple and enjoyed by the people of Dorimare. But after Duke Aubrey had been expelled from Dorimare by the burghers, the eating of fairy fruit came to be regarded as a crime, and anything related to the Fairyland was unspeakable. Now, when his son Ranulph is believed to have eaten fairy fruit, Nathaniel Chanticleer, the mayor of Lud-in-the-Mist, finds himself looking into old mysteries in order to save his son and the people of the city. " I especially enjoyed Mirrlees magical descriptions of the land of Dorimare and the fanciful names of some of the characters: Endymion Leer, Miss Primrose Crabapple, the school mistress, as examples. The hero, Nat, is unexpectedly middle-aged, the leader of the country, and quite stodgy. This is not an easy, light-hearted fantasty. It takes some time and thought to really get into the story. As one who likes to breeze through books, I will probably have to read this one several times in order to enjoy all the layers.
Decades Challenge: Mirrlees was born in 1887 and lived with with Jane Harrison, another author for many years. She only wrote three novels of which Lud is the most famous. The language of the novel dates back to the twenties which I found very charming. Neil Gaiman wrote the forword in my copy in which he states, "The single most beautiful, solid, unearthly and unjustifiably forgotten novel of the twentieth century."
Spring Reading Challenge: There is something about fantasies which just seem to go along with spring. Maybe it's the flowers springing forth and all the warmth and rebirth, fairy breezes, and magical mists.
Rating: 4.5
Posted by Framed at 12:29 PM

4 comments:
Booklogged said...
Sounds like one I will want to read, but WHEN?! You'd think with all I want to read that I would be doing nothing but reading. Not so - I've had a very slow reading month. I finally bought Odd Hours, thinking that Dean Koontz would surely get me back in the mood. I guess the next step is to pick it up and open the cover!
5/23/2008 5:30 PM
gautami tripathy said...
The Title is so fascinating! I want to read this!
5/24/2008 7:24 PM
Nymeth said...
Her use of language really is charming. I fell in love with this novel when I read it last year. I'm glad you did, too :)
5/26/2008 9:54 AM
Trish said...
I've seen this on a lot of lists for the OUT2 challenge--I really need to get my hands on a copy! Thanks for the review.