Of Flagging Talent and Fairies

William H. Ansley · 29 Mar 2000, 00:09 · from urth-v0028.mbox · original

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From: "William H. Ansley" <wansley at warwick.net>
Subject: Re: (urth) Of Flagging Talent and Fairies
Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2000 00:09:03
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Christy wrote:
>=20
> Hello Urth list, I have a question for you:
>=20
> I've just finished *Strange Travelers* with "The Ziggurat," and have been
> generally dissatisfied with the content (does anyone else here feel the
> same? I haven't picked that up), save for the adaptation of "Koschei the
> Deathless." I feel the list is well-suited to answer the question-- what
> is the deal with Andrew Lang's fairy books? Could you spell it out for
> this hapless Yankee? I know there is a long, colorful series never to be
> referenced by Borges-- are they good, one moreso than the next, order, is
> there a big boxed set the likes of which I can pick up in the Qesque shelf
> above all the regular pulpy fiction? I feel like not knowing about Lang is
> like a hole in my life.
>=20

Christy,

It's interesting that you should write this. I was just thinking along
the same lines. I didn't enjoy _Strange Travelers_ nearly as much as
Wolfe's earlier collections. I think it's less a matter of "flagging
talent" than that Wolfe is putting more of his energy into his novels
and less into his short stories. I suspect that he continues to write at
shorter lengths because he can express ideas that wouldn't fit into his
novels. But I feel he is becoming overly self-indulgent in his short
works. In his earlier collections there were a considerably higher
percentage of stories that could be enjoyed without first having to be deco=
ded.

"The Death of Koschei the Deathless" was my favorite story, too. As far
as Lang's Fairy books go, I highly enjoyed all I have read, and I have
read several. I really don't remember exactly how many it was and some
of them I read long ago, but I recently started re-reading them on-line.
You can find most of them if you do a search on "lang andrew" at the
On-Line Books Page <http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/>.

If you don't like reading lengthy texts on a computer screen, most of
the Fairy books seem to be in print. I saw at least a dozen titles on
Amazon.com. Try your favorite on-line bookseller or Bookfinder.com
<http://www.bookfinder.com/> if you want to try used copies. I don't
know of any boxed set, but it is certainly a good idea; if I find that
such a thing is available, I'll let you know.

William Ansley

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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