The Curse of the Wise Woman

by Lord Dunsany

After his father’s interference in Irish politics ends with a band of killers arriving on Christmas night to assassinate him, young Charles Peridore finds himself master of the estate. During idyllic school holidays, Charles enjoys riding to hounds and hunting geese and snipe while his friend Tommy Marlin tells stories of Tir-nan-Og, the land of eternal youth that lies just beyond the bog. But when Progress arrives in the form of an English corporation determined to convert the landscape into factories and housing, it appears that an entire way of life is destined to vanish. Only one thing stands in the way: the sorcery of an old witch, whose curses the English workers do not even believe in. In the novel’s unforgettable conclusion, the ancient powers of the wise woman will be pitted against the machinery of modern corporate greed, with surprising and thrilling results.

Lord Dunsany (1878-1957) is one of the most influential fantasy authors of the 20th century, counting H.P. Lovecraft, J.R.R. Tolkien, Michael Moorcock and Neil Gaiman among his many admirers.

Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Ireland, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Witches, Folklore

222 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1933

About the author

Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, eighteenth baron of Dunsany, was an Anglo-Irish writer and dramatist, notable for his work in fantasy published under the name Lord Dunsany. More than eighty books of his work were published, and his oeuvre includes hundreds of short stories, as well as successful plays, novels and essays. Born to one of the oldest titles in the Irish peerage, he lived much of his life at perhaps Ireland's longest-inhabited home, Dunsany Castle near Tara, received an honourary doctorate from Trinity College, and died in Dublin.

Reviews

[Char · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wouldn't exactly call this book horror. It doesn't neatly fit into any category other than environmentalism. I liked it anyway!

A teenager whose father goes on the run, (From the mafia? From politicians?) becomes the manager of his family's estates. Finding himself in charge, he soon indulges in his favorite pastime of hunting. As the tale progresses, his hunting grounds become the target of Progress. Will his friend's mother be able to hold it off? She is known as a "Wise Woman", (read: Witch) after all, and she vows to stop it.

Who knew that environmentalism was a thing in the 30's? I'm not sure it was a thing, other than the observations, often witty, made in this story.

Quote: "How would some townsman feel who loved his city, and knew that a band of farmers with their ploughs threatened his very pavements and would tear his high buildings down? As he would feel, fearing that turnips would thrive where his busses ran, so I felt and feared for Lisronagh."

These observations brought this story alive for me. In spite of the fact that I do not care for hunting, there are several hunt scenes in this book that did not bother me. (In fact the fox hunt was kind of exciting!) Probably because the animals hunted were valued and utilized, not just tossed aside when the hunt was over.

What prevents me from showing all the love for this story, was the wordiness of it. I'm not the kind of reader that loves page after page of descriptive passages about scenery. There is a bit of that here, but it's not as involved as some gothic novels I've read- The Mysteries of Udolpho, for instance. I feel like I have to mention this, because it may interfere with other reader's enjoyment of the story.

Overall, this book turned out nothing like I expected. Will our young hero and his friend's mother be able to do anything to stop Progress?

Quote: "No teaching could make me care for these strangers as I loved this wild land, and all the grief of which a boy is capable was darkening now round my heart, when I thought of the bog about to be partly spoiled and partly to be cut altogether away."

You will have to read this book to find out.

Recommended for fans of gothic novels!

A free copy of this book was provided to my from Valancourt Books, in exchange for an honest review. This is it!

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have discovered that there is a particular type of book that seems to really appeal to me, which I most commonly find within the Fantasy genre (but also existing in other categories as well). These particular books seem to have some specific themes in common. In very broad strokes, a few of these similarities are:

-) Though containing Fantasy elements, they are grounded in and focused on the real [physical] world; in fact, whether the reader decides magic is actually being portrayed tends to reveal more about the reader than the actual book.

-) The main character tends to be an adult narrator telling a story about a past time in their adolescence; during this past adolescent time they might have been forced to attempt to reconcile the real-seeming magic of a child's imagination with the incessant demands of the rational mature world.

-)Though not an autobiography in the typical sense, the author has added some very clear autobiographical elements to the character and story.

-)Usually the events of the actual story are not what the book is actually about; indeed, the events in the book are usually meant to either underscore a message of the book or to display some sort of symbolism.


Plenty of people could more aptly describe what I'm attempting, but a few examples might be Neil Gaiman's Ocean at the End of the Lane, Robert McCammon's Boy's Life, Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine, or Jo Walton's Among Us. Before any of them even existed, Lord Dunsany was showing the world how it should be done.

Dunsany wears his heart on his sleeve in this book, and the torn inner emotions and conflicting worlds (both real and imagined) of the main character seem to be the palpable emotions and conflicts of the author. Constantly vying for the devotion of the character, the old and the new maintain their tug of war. Nature and industry, Christian doctrine and pagan beliefs, imagination and mature responsibility; Dunsany struggles to find his place upon the spectrum of each one and is forced to reconcile a changing world with the immutable world of daydreams and desires.

Some readers (including myself, I must admit) might be momentarily turned off by long descriptions of shooting birds, or a whole chapter devoted to a day-long fox hunt. Yet, ultimately each of those descriptions belies the intended point Dunsany is trying to make; even the chapter-long fox pursuit eventually ends with a passage that reveals the futility of focusing on the fox hunt itself as anything too meaningful. Each seemingly mundane act or escapade of the main character highlights another little aspect of the over-arching painting Dunsany is trying to show the reader. This painting is not simply the natural beauty of his romanticized world or even what such a romantic world means to him, but also what it should mean to him.

In some ways the book is an extremely uplifting book flowing with rich descriptions of natural beauty and wonder, with an epic ending of dramatic proportions. On the other hand, the book is laced with extreme melancholy, and a despair over things lost which threaten to overwhelm the reader. Youth is glorified by Dunsany, not so much in a literal sense, but because youth are able to enjoy a carefree magic of imagination uninhibited by Western dogmas and priorities. "I have lived to see that being seventeen is no protection against becoming seventy, but to know this needs the experience of a life-time, for no imagination copes with it." He's mostly talking literally in the context of that passage, yet he also isn't in the grand scheme of the book. There is a certain inability of a child's mind to comprehend what can be lost with the passage of time; desperately grasping to regain those lost things, and accepting the limitations of attempting to do so, are core aspects of the book.

The war between the heart and the mind are made manifest in this book, and even the character of the doctor literally spelling out the battle lines between the two doesn't detract from the subtly soft application of the conflict in the book. What we think and what we feel are all too often separate drivers of our behavior, yet the little area where they overlap can often be the place of either frightening confusion or real wonder.

I may not be a hunting Irish nobleman with an estate and servants, but I still managed to connect with this book in a fairly personal way. I too am at a life stage where the imaginations of youth seem to fade away daily in the face of adult responsibilities; I too hold a deep love for nature that is constantly jarred by the realities of encroaching industry; I too, have very specific but vivid memories of a youth that I grasp tightly in order to maintain a connection with it. I have a lot of criticisms I could level at the Lord o' Dunsany if I wanted to, but I don't want to; I want to get lost over and over in his magical worlds with his magical words. No matter how imperfect his writing can be at times, it seems to perfectly resonate with me.

[Jon Recluse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lord Dunsany stands as one of the greatest fantasy authors of all time. His beautifully descriptive prose, with it's potent blend of magic and nostalgia, can transport readers "over the hills and far away" to a simpler time and place we used to dream of as children.

This book is a fine example of the master's work, a tale of Man versus Nature, Old versus New, as one woman wields elemental powers to stop the march of Progress across the wild places that are becoming dim memories for us all.

Highly recommended.

[Hon Lady Selene · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Beyond lies the garden that I love. And of course all poets have been there, one time or another; one foot on earth and the other just touching elfland. But here I am only remembering. Remembering Ireland."

Dearest Lord Dunsany, chess and pistol-shooting champion of Ireland, advocate for protection of animals and writer of strange fantasy stories of gods and adventures (Echtra) and journeys (Immram), set in lush dream realms described in an archaic vocabulary, rich and ornate, like precious gems shining under the sun. This is proto-fantasy, before Tolkien left his mark onto the genre it had been Lord Dunsany.

Reproached by his friend Yeats of not writing enough of Ireland, here Dunsany restrains from his fantastical worlds and writes from the heart of exploring and hunting in his native lands, touching upon elements of Celtic folklore such as the Cailleach - an ancestral divine hag associated with the creation of the landscape- and what a witch of the bog indeed, I have thoroughly enjoyed our first interaction with her, in Chapter III:

"Will you give Master Charles some fresh tea, Mother?"
"I will that," she said, "But there's dreams in this one," pointing to the pot.

Still, as scary as witches of the bog might be, there is no horror here. In the end, this is a tale of one of the oldest battles in the book: man versus nature set to the tone of an old saga in an ancient bog where the rules of reality do not apply. And beyond there is the sea, and beyond the sea is Tír na nÓg, the Otherworld of Celtic mythology.

Here I find Dunsany at his most mature as a writer, he brings together the natural world with this supernatural realm of beauty by allowing subtle glimpses of these otherworldly mysteries in the natural space of the countryside: in the blossom on an apple bough, for instance, or in the lying of snow or the glinting of dark light in the pool of the marshes....

[Craig Herbertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book. I have to say that it's perfect - carefully plotted, beautiful prose, wonderful characterisation, elegant use of symbolism, wonderful, wonderful imagery and detailed descriptions of the sporting life which thrill the heart. This is literature but only in the sense that you won't know its literature because you are enjoying it. Something I rarely say about 'literature'.

I would make one proviso - I think its a book for romantically minded older folks as a large part of its theme is loss, which is arguably more accessible to those who have experienced more loss. If you want blood and guts, instantiety or explicit things this is not for you.


Certain themes are interwoven throughout the story and the supernatural seems to be a kind of source from which religion and politics and wider themes are carefully drawn. Dunsany was a Unionist but he manages to give an utterly impartial viewpoint and also a deep insight into the 'other' views.

It's a very simple story, easily read and apparently not much to it. I won't offer the plot, which would seem to be summarised in the title. There's not much to it. But I would say just read it if you are over thirty. It's a beauty. If you're younger wait a bit. It's not that you won't appreciate it, you'll just appreciate it more later.

[Andy Weston · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lord Dunsany, Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, the 18th Baron of Dunsany, was a prolific Irish writer and dramatist in the first half of the 20th century. His work is cited by many current fantasy authors as being inspirational, not least Neil Gaiman and Guillermo del Toro.
His books sold better in the second half of the century, and many remain good sellers today. This was reissued by Valancourt in 2014, and represents something of a departure from his usual fantasy work, in that it chiefly concerns Irish folklore and witchcraft.

The story is of an orphaned teenager Charles, left in charge of the family estate in 1890. His mother has been dead for some years, and his father forced to flee the country. He balances his days away at Eton with managing the estate, which basically means hunting.
A worker on the estate, Tommy Marlin, becomes his close friend and role model in the absence of his father. It is Marlin's mother that is the 'wise woman', or witch.

There are two sections that are real highlights of the book.
Firstly very early on, when four armed men arrive at the house looking for the father, who just about, manages to escape.
And secondly, sections involving the character of Tommy Marlin, which are fascinating. Marlin, a few years older than Charles, is hugely knowledgeable of the estate and its wildlife, and the sport (hunting) that takes place on it. He is a huge influence on Charles. He has many old and traditional beliefs which contrast greatly with Charles's learning at Eton. For example, he frequently speaks of Tir-nan-Og, the land of eternal youth that lies just beyond the bog.

The hunting sections were a bit drawn out as far as I was concerned, but I expect at the time of publication they were looked on much differently.

But it does show Dunsany's prose off as being special. Against the rural Irish landscape of the bog, and teamed with the enchanting folklore, there is strangeness, beauty and sorrow, often within the same paragraph.

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Curse of the Wise Woman was first published in 1933; the edition I read was issued by Collins in 1972. The blurb on the cover states that Dunsany's best work, including The Curse of the Wise Woman, was written in the 1930's. I beg to differ. I spent much of this book not liking it much. Dunsany has turned away from the Kent countryside that inspired his early fantasy work and set this book in Ireland. I suspect he was stung by W. B. Yeats refusal to admit him as a full member of the Irish Academy of Letters because Anglo-Irish Lord Dunsany hadn't written anything about Ireland or the Irish up to that time. In response, Dunsany quickly produced this novel. In his early work, fairyland or elfland is Dunsany's metaphor for the eternal, the pure, and the true. In The Curse of the Wise Woman Dunsany instead writes of the pre-Christian Irish paradise of Tir-nan-Og, the Land of the Young. Dunsany's writing is still beautiful and inspired in sections of The Curse of the Wise Woman, but it doesn't reach the transcendent heights of his early fantasy. I felt that in this book, Dunsany has turned from his primary creative source in order to please others, to seek, in other words, for fame and recognition.

The first-person author of the book says he was around 16 at the fall of Khartoum, which was in 1885. Therefore, the author would have been born around 1869. Dunsany himself was born in 1878, so the first-person author is around 10 years older than Dunsany himself. The "present," the time in which the first-person author is actually recording events from his youth, is 53 years later, so about 1938, a few years after the date the novel was published. The time Dunsany writes of is one of political troubles in Ireland, which would culminate in the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921). The political troubles deeply affect the first-person author, and are part of the story. Dunsany had written plenty about World War I before this, but probably nothing overtly political. Dunsany doesn't preach, but the story itself expresses the first-person author's attitude towards the troubles. Dunsany appears to take a political stance opposed to the British Empire that he served militarily.

There is a love element, as well, for the young first-person author. There's nothing wrong with a a love story as a side plot, but it seems superfluous and not convincing. Dunsany saves his best poetry for elf maidens, and Laura is obviously no elf maiden.

A strongly Dunsanian element of the story is a struggle to protect the natural environment from the ravages of industrialization and machinery. A company is coming to dig into a beloved bog, to deface and destroy it for financial gain. Dunsany hates this kind of thing. He'd be one with Dickens decrying the growth of the railways in the 1840's, and he harks back with longing to the country life without machinery of the land-owning gentry of pre-industrial times.

Without a hint of intended irony, the young first-person author's real passion is shooting wildlife that comes to the bog. Dunsany throws in a long account of a fox hunt, with graphic description of the gruesome outcome. He mentions positively the barbaric practice of "cubbing"—the method of using fox cubs for training dogs to tear foxes to pieces—though thankfully Dunsany does not include a graphic description of cubbing. We must suppose, because of Dunsany's social class and training, he would have been a keen "sportsman," in the sense of hunting and shooting animals and birds. However, he hasn't previously expressed this side of his life in his fiction until now.

I would forgo all the hunting and the politics and the superfluous love interest. Dunsany is at his best "beyond the fields we know," taking us down the River Yann to Perdondaris, or up to Tong Tong Tarrup, from where you have a good view of the Edge of the World. The best of Dunsany is still present in his descriptions of Tir-nan-Og, the enchanted land that may be descried in the west from afar, across the bog, in the light of the setting sun. Approaching the bog Dunsany writes,

From then on, as we neared the bog, the land changed rapidly.... Little white cottages, much smaller than those behind us, with scarred deep thatches, poplars with queer arms clawing, strange willows, those little lanes that we call bohereens, rambling busily on and fading away into moss; none of these actual things convey the sense of it. I can only say that if you neared World's End, and fairyland were close to you, some such appearance might be seen in the earth and the light, and the people you passed on the way. (p.20)

Well, yes, and so Dunsany does give a nod of recognition to his earlier visions of elfland or fairyland. Indeed, later he writes, "Marlin became for us the pioneer of this strange new world we had found for ourselves, a kind of gate-keeper at the border of fairyland" (p. 96). Of Tir-nan-Og itself, Dunsany connects it with the visions of Marlin, son of the Wise Woman of the title, a witch who will work to save the bog from being despoiled. The young first-person author, having learned of Tir-nan-Og from Marlin, is inspired to speak of it to his girlfriend. He writes,

And so I began to speak of Tir-nan-Og, the land of the young. And as she heard me her eyes darkened, and I saw that no land to which I could have travelled, had I been able to follow wherever youth's spirit led, would ever have excited that interest that was awakened in her by the mention of Tir-nan-Og, which from its place outside geography exerts through the twilight that curious lure to which Marlin had wholly surrendered. It is strange indeed that talking of Tir-nan-Og seemed to strengthen its frontiers; and sentence by sentence, as though they were the steps of a traveller walking westwards through twilight, Tir-nan-Og came nearer. Over the shrubs and through the branches of evergreens, now blackening with the approach of night that seemed to come first to them, we both glanced westwards to where the day was sinking: on what shore, we wondered. (pp. 94-95)

He continues,

Then as the light went out of the sky and colour grew more triumphant, and mystery as though on tiptoe stole into the sleeping air, we spoke again of the West and the Land of the Young. And if Tir-nan-Og have its foundations more firmly based upon the dreams of a few people, growing, I fear, fewer, than upon whatever land there may be in the Atlantic a little out from our coasts, then how much of its twilight may not be lit by the love of Laura and me, which soon rose up and glowed as we talked of Tir-nan-Og? It shines upon all my youth and lit many years for me: may not some rays of it have ripened the apple-blossom on those immortal branches? (p. 96)

And then,

But we're all aging here. [Tir-nan-Og is] only for youth, and for those that are young for ever. It's to brighten the apple-blossoms in the Land of the Young, and to shine on the faces of the kings and queens of the Irish, who have cast old age away, with the lumber of time, on the rocks and roads of the world. (p. 111)

Dunsany's treatment of Tir-nan-Og certainly recalls his early fantasy, but the uncharacteristic elements of the book weaken it for me. The plight of the bog and the efforts of the witch to save it would make a fine story. I did not like so much the politics, the hunting and shooting, nor the sidebar love story. However, the whole book is almost saved by its last lines. I suspect Dunsany himself is writing now as the older scribe of the first-person account that we read. "How does Heaven judge?" he asks himself. And he answers the question in such a way that we know, whether we consider elfland or fairyland or Tir-nan-Og—or even the Christian Heaven—all visions of beauty, eternity, and truth are valid for Dunsany.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable, semi-autobiographical novella from Lord Dunsany, set in Ireland in the late 19th century. The narrator is the son of a landowner, home from Eton for the holidays. His father disappears just ahead of Irish nationalists come to kill him.

Much of the book is taken up with accounts of the narrator's hunting - geese and snipe in the bog, a fox hunt, and so forth. Bits of Irish folklore and the politics of the time filter through. Later in the piece, the narrator finds out his father had leased the bog to a British consortium intending to mine the peat. As this happens, the book veers into the tension between progress and tradition, until the curse of the title comes to pass.

The paperback I read was part of the 'Dennis Wheatley Library of the Occult,' but there is very little 'occult' going on here. An interesting piece of Dunsaniana, and also of interest to those who enjoy Ireland.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Valancourt Books has put out a beautiful edition of this book. If you enjoy dignified and graceful prose with a heady atmosphere you'll want to pick this up. The descriptions of the Irish bog are particularly compelling and the theme of natural conservation is still very relevant today. It's no wonder writers like Lovecraft claim this as an influence!

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are reading the Dennis Wheatley Library of the Occult edition of this book, DO NOT READ THE INTRODUCTION!! At least not until you have read the story itself. I started to read the introduction and find that the editor gives away plot details and what I suspect will be spoilers - stupid man!!

I will read the introduction in full once I've completed the novel and will amend the above if I find that I've done Mr Wheatley an injustice. Now I have to try to forget the bit I just read so that it doesn't spoil my enjoyment. Shall I hit my head on the table, or use a frying pan to pummel out the knowledge?

UPDATE: I'm sure that Mr Wheatley wasn't actually a stupid man, but he did fill his introduction with a reasonably detailed summary of the story which was a massive spoiler. OK, he didn't say what happened at the very end, but the introduction contains no examination of the text, and just a few sentences of (admittedly interesting) biographical info, being otherwise pointless. Anyway, that's the first two pages of the book reviewed.

This book is something of a Curate's Egg - good in parts. The first 20 or so pages are very atmospheric and seemed a good sign. The next three quarters of the book is taken up with long descriptions of the narrator's memories of shooting various wild fowl. If your idea of getting in touch with nature is to lie in a field and blow bits of it apart with a shotgun, you may find this interesting, but I found it interminably boring (I'm a semi-rural vegetarian townie, though, so go figure). These sections are interspersed with little gems of Dunsanian fancy involving the eponymous Wise Woman, her son, ruminations on Tir-nan-Og, the Celtic otherworldly Land of the Young, and Irish Home Rule politics. These will-o-the-wisps in the grey mist kept me going - just - to the last quarter, which takes off again and was reward for perseverance.

What did work very well was the narrative device of the story being told as the memoir of an old man looking back on the formative years of his youth, interspersing his tale with his musings on youth and old age, and apologising to the reader for occasionally rambling off topic. This I found endearing, despite my disinterest in, if not to say disapproval of, the protagonist's penchant for killing birds and beasts.

All-in-all, a mixed bag and a bit of a disappointment, given how much I've enjoyed Dunsany's other writings. Not that it's badly written, of course, but for me this could have been reduced by about half (I'd allow him a bit of hunting, as he likes it so much) and would have been five times more effective.

[Stephen Brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

One sometime finds Lord Dunsany’s novel ‘The Curse of the Wise Woman’ listed among his fantasy works. This is not too surprising, considering the book’s title and the fact that he is best known for his fantasy stories (Dunsany is arguably the most important and influential fantasy writer of all time). But it is not fantasy; it is novel of the Ireland in which the author grew up.

A bit of mysticism does creep in, to be sure, but it is never accepted as ‘true’ in any literal sense. Dunsany wisely leaves it to the reader to decide how to take it, how much of it to believe. Yet it is woven through the narrative and as integral to his Ireland as all the rest.

The novel is something of a love-letter to that Ireland, and there is most certainly some autobiographical material included. A great deal of hunting and shooting fills the pages, along with lessons in old-school conservation. There is also surprising darkness at times.

This is not the urban Ireland of Joyce, et al, but a wild countryside that fades into the mythical Tir-nan-Og*—at least in the mind of the narrator and other characters. Tir-nan-Og translates as ‘Land of Youth,’ and that is just what Dunsany portrays here; it is the lost Ireland of his youth, in all it beauty and danger.

At the time Dunsay wrote ‘Wise Woman’ he was becoming best known for his humorous Jorkens tall-tales. There is certainly gentle humor and satire in the novel, as there is in much of his writing, but it is, at heart, a serious work. It is also an exceptionally good novel, acclaimed at the time of its publishing (1933), but somewhat forgotten since.

A couple years later, Dunsany published ‘Up in the Hills,’ also set in Ireland but somewhat later, in the aftermath of the establishment of the Free State. More broadly satirical than ‘The Curse of the Wise Woman,’ it is not quite as good (and could possibly offend some) but worth a read.

Early on, the plot of ‘The Curse of the Wise Woman’ revolves (though not very closely) around the ‘political’ murder of the young protagonist’s father. Then it resolves on the need to stop a scheme to drain the bogs—his father had unwisely optioned them to a corporation—and cut all the peat. This is where the Wise Woman’s curse comes in. The fight against those draining the bog and that of Tir-nan-Og against the Church are much the same—and it’s a fight to be found everywhere, then and now, the old ways against the new and, perhaps, nature against man.

Despite loving Dunsany’s fantasy, both short stories and novels, I was new to this book. ‘The Curse of the Wise Woman’ is a fine work of fiction and should not have been forgotten. It may well rival ‘The King of Elfland’s Daughter’ as his best novel of any genre. I strongly recommend the book.

*That’s the way Dunsany spells it. One can find other variants.

[Dr. des. Siobhán · Rating 4 out of 5]

My father was shocked that I hadn't read any Lord Dunsany so far, which is why I got several books for Christmas.

I liked "The Curse of the Wise Woman", it is a very Irish novel, and very light on the supernatural. I was waiting to see more of Tir na nOg, but the majority of the novel is pretty normal. The bog close to his ancestral home is to be cut up and our protagonist (whose father had to flee the country because of 'politics' which are always on the margins of the narrative) spends his time hunting (I really disliked that part) and talking to people.

The nature writing was really well done and the ending when the lands defends itself (supernatural intervention or not) was magnificent. But I have a lot of questions and as I said, the protagonist's fascination with hunting is lost on me.

4 stars.

[Eva Mittermair · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my cup of tea, but so is most long fiction from before...1980 or so, at least in English. There is a plot somewhere, buried under long-winded descriptions of the main character's hunting exploits, but I'm not sure it's worth the digging.

[Lenn-Emezi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Malheureusement assez inégal... La prose est très belle, mais les longueurs rendent la lecture laborieuse (notamment en ce qui concerne les très nombreuses scènes de chasse) ; les descriptions de la tourbière, en revanche, sont un plaisir, et la narration a par moments des éclats assez fulgurants.

[Cookie M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

More about hunting and shooting than any wild fantasy, this book is a great introduction to Lord Dunsany's poetic, descriptive writing style. It is partly autobiographical and very ecologically aware, showing his love for Ireland and the animals that populate it.

[S.M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3.5 Never mess with a bog witch.