There be islands in the Central Sea, whose waters are bounded by no shore and where no ships come -- this is the faith of their people.

*

In the mists before the Beginning, Fate and Chance cast lots to decide whose the Game should be; and he that won strode through the mists to MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI and said: "Now make gods for Me, for I have won the cast and the Game is to be Mine." Who it was that won the cast, and whether it was Fate or whether Chance that went through the mists before the Beginning to MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI -- none knoweth.

From "The Last Dream of Bwona Khubla":

From steaming lowlands down by the equator, where monstrous orchids blow, where beetles big as mice sit on the tent-ropes, and fireflies glide about by night like little moving stars, the travelers went three days through forests of cactus till they came to the open plains where the oryx are.

When Bwona Khubla had gone there three years ago, what with malaria with which he was shaking all over, and what with disgust at finding the water-hole dry, he had decided to die there, and in that part of the world such decisions are always fatal. In any case he was overdue to die, but hitherto his amazing resolution, and that terrible strength of character that so astounded his porters, had kept him alive and moved his safari on.

There is not doubt that he was a fearful man. . . .

*

Dunsany had a weird, "weird" imagination, but unlike most folks who think weird thoughts, he had a powerful ability to write (as you can see from the above). This peculiar collection is a very real treat: we envy you the reading of it. Among the treasures in this volume are "The Last Dream of Bwona Khubla," "How the Office of Postman Fell Vacant in Offord-Under-the-Wold," "The Prayer of Boob Aheera," "East and West," "A Pretty Quarrel," "How the Gods Avenged Meoul Ki Ning," "The Gift of the Gods," "The Sack of Emeralds," "The Old Brown Coat," "An Archive of the Older Mysteries," and "A City of Wonder," and a section he called Beyond the Fields We Know, which included "Publisher's Note," "Idle Days on the Yann," "A Shop in Go-By Street," and "The Avenger of Perdndaris."

Lord Dunsany was an Irish poet and dramatist. He spent his life living in the famous Dunsany castle in Ireland. This collection of 19 short fantasy stories is also published under the name The Last Book of Wonder. These stories greatly influenced Tolkein, LeGuin, and other fantasy writers.

Dunsany's Preface to this book is brief in the extreme: "I hope for this book that it may come into the hands of those that were kind to my others and that it may not disappoint them."

-- Lord Dunsany

But the contents of this little volume are pretty special, and include "Poltarnees, Beholder of Ocean," "Blagdaross," "The Madness of Andelsprutz," "Where the Tides Ebb and Flow," "Bethmoora," "Idle Days on the Yann," "The Sword and the Idol," "The Idle City," "The Hashish Man," "Poor Old Bill," "The Beggars," "Carcassonne," "In Zaccarath," "The Field," "The Day of the Poll," and "The Unhappy Body."

There be islands in the Central Sea, whose waters are bounded by no shore and where no ships come -- this is the faith of their people.

*

In the mists before the Beginning, Fate and Chance cast lots to decide whose the Game should be; and he that won strode through the mists to MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI and said: "Now make gods for Me, for I have won the cast and the Game is to be Mine." Who it was that won the cast, and whether it was Fate or whether Chance that went through the mists before the Beginning to MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI -- none knoweth.

My dreams are here before you amongst the following pages; and writing in a day when life is cheap, dreams seem to me all the dearer, the only things that survive. I offer you these books of dreams from Europe as one throws things of value, if only to oneself, at the last moment out of a burning house. . . .

Included in this 1908 compilation are a number of Dunsany's classic tales, incuding "The Sword of Welleran," "The Fall of Babbulkund," "The Kith of the Elf Folk," "The Highwayman," "In the Twilight," "The Ghosts," "The Whirlpool," "The Hurricane," "The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth," "The Lord of Cities," "The Doom of La Traviata," and "On the Dry Land."