Over the Rainbow: Tales of Fantasy and Imagination

by H.G. Wells, Ursula K. Le Guin, E. Nesbit

Stories The Truth about Pyecraft by H. G. Wells, Warriors in the Mist by Ursula Le Guin, The Cats The Cow and The Burglar by E. Nesbit, Dr. Dolittle's Reward by Hugh Lofting, The White-Haired Children by Ruth Ainsworth, Harriet's Hairloom by Joan Aiken, The Way Out by Mary Norton, Riddles in the Dark by J. R. R. Tolkien, The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving, The Lion and the Unicorn by Lewis Carroll, The Wind on the Moon by Eric Linklater, By Caldron Pool by C. S. Lewis, A Ring of Stones by Alan Garner, Particle Goes Green by Helen Cresswell, and Escape to the Emerald City by L. Frank Baum.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Young Adult, Short Stories, Anthologies

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Herbert George Wells was born to a working class family in Kent, England. Young Wells received a spotty education, interrupted by several illnesses and family difficulties, and became a draper's apprentice as a teenager. The headmaster of Midhurst Grammar School, where he had spent a year, arranged for him to return as an "usher," or student teacher. Wells earned a government scholarship in 1884, to study biology under Thomas Henry Huxley at the Normal School of Science. Wells earned his bachelor of science and doctor of science degrees at the University of London. After marrying his cousin, Isabel, Wells began to supplement his teaching salary with short stories and freelance articles, then books, including The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War of the Worlds (1898).

Wells created a mild scandal when he divorced his cousin to marry one of his best students, Amy Catherine Robbins. Although his second marriage was lasting and produced two sons, Wells was an unabashed advocate of free (as opposed to "indiscriminate") love. He continued to openly have extra-marital liaisons, most famously with Margaret Sanger, and a ten-year relationship with the author Rebecca West, who had one of his two out-of-wedlock children. A one-time member of the Fabian Society, Wells sought active change. His 100 books included many novels, as well as nonfiction, such as A Modern Utopia (1905), The Outline of History (1920), A Short History of the World (1922), The Shape of Things to Come (1933), and The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind (1932). One of his booklets was Crux Ansata, An Indictment of the Roman Catholic Church. Although Wells toyed briefly with the idea of a "divine will" in his book, God the Invisible King (1917), it was a temporary aberration. Wells used his international fame to promote his favorite causes, including the prevention of war, and was received by government officials around the world. He is best-remembered as an early writer of science fiction and futurism.

He was also an outspoken socialist. Wells and Jules Verne are each sometimes referred to as "The Fathers of Science Fiction". D. 1946.

More: http://philosopedia.org/index.php/H._...

http://www.online-literature.com/well...

http://www.hgwellsusa.50megs.com/

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._G._Wells

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am disappointed. I was expecting short stories from the selected authors, but what I got was a chapter out of each author's larger books. It felt a bit like reading a very long back cover of each book and I was never happy with the "endings" (as they weren't quite endings and only beginnings) and the stories all end quite unexpectantly. I think the only possible way this collection might be interesting is if you were wondering if any of the included authors were worth reading. But then you're already reading them, so I find it to be an entire waste of time.

I have, however, discovered that I would indeed like to read The Phantom Tollbooth. I've had it recommended to me many-a time and now I know why.

Also, I always thought those two characters on the cover looked remarkably like Bilbo and Gollum.

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a weird little anthology put together by Octopus Books back in 1983. Sarah Silcock did the cover and then interior pen and ink illustrations, some of which appear in the margins instead of the more conventional part(s) of the page.

This is one of those really tiresome and ultimately disappointing anthologies, since it mostly takes chapters from books, rather than relying on complete short stories. I wish anthology editors would stop reprinting the climactic chapters from books, which completely kills one's desire to read the book. Some chapters seem to be taken from the middle, without much of an explanation as to what happened before.

This was aimed for a UK audience. The stories all make England seem like such a jolly, magical place.

Selections:

* "The Truth About Pyecraft" by H. G. Wells. A subject kids love to read about -- Victorian gentleman at their posh clubs. A really fat toffee-nosed git goes to desperate measures to lose weight. Shows you the danger of synonyms.
* "Warriors in the Mist" by Ursula K. LeGuin. From A Wizard of Earthsea. Although a chapter from the classic fantasy novel, it's a complete tale in and of itself. The boy Duny learns that he has magical powers, but all magic comes with a cost.
* "The Cat, the Cow and the Burglar" by E. Nesbit. From The Phoenix and the Carpet. This is like a parody of an English kid's book from the 1930s. The illustrator had zero idea of what a Persisn cat looked like.
* "Doctor Doolittle's Reward" by Hugh Lofting. From The Story of Doctor Doolittle. This is the bit about the pushmi-pullyu. Tiresome. Odd to read about the Land of the White Men.
* "The White-Haired Children" by Ruth Ainsworth. A very good complete story about strangely beautiful kids visiting an English country village, and two village kids who want to be friends with them.
* "Harriet's Hairloom" by Joan Aiken. From A Small Pinch of Weather. This was written in 1968, which explains how bizarre it is.
* "The Way Out" by Mary Norton. From The Borrowers Afloat. I know this series is considered a classic, but this excerpt is just too hard to take if you, like me, have never read the books before.
* "Riddles in the Dark" by J. R. R. Tolkien. From The Hobbit. Bilbo meets Gollum, and finds the Ring.
* "The Phantom Toolbooth" by Norton Juster. The first part from the novel of the same name. Milo, "who has plenty of time" is given a toy toolbooth, and meets the Watchdog, here drawn quite differently than in the original book.
* "Rip Van Winkle" by Washington Irving. I'm too old to read this bastard again.
* "The Lion and the Unicorn" by Lewis Carroll. From Through the Looking-Glass. Ditto. The illustrations are much like the original.
* "The Wind on the Moon" by Eric Linklater. Excerpt from the book of the same name. Absolutely horrible.
* "By Cauldron Pool" by C. S. Lewis. From The Last Battle. Out of all the books in the Narnia series, Our Editor decides to choose a bit from the worst, most depressing one.
* "A Ring of Stones" by Alan Garner. From The Weirdstone if Brisingamen. Although there is a brief backstory given, it wasn't enough for me to make heads or tails of this, so I gave up.
* "Particle Goes Green" by Helen Cresswell. This is a complete story of a nine year old boy experimenting with a spell and turns green. Odd to see Harry Potter looking illustrations from the 1980s.
* "Escape to the Emerald City" by L. Frank Baum. From The Marvellous Land of Oz.. You knew Oz had to come in here sometime. This bit is with Jack Pumpkinhead -- which totally loses any kind of innocence with me, since I can't help but think of A Nightmare Before Christmas. At least the Saw-Horse is here.

[Ken Bickley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This little book of fantasy stories for children (ostensibly) is NOT by H. G. Wells. The editor goes un-credited; the first story is by Wells. It's a fun read, including stories by C. S. Lewis (from Narnia), Tolkien (from "The Hobbit") and Baum (from "The Wonderful Land of Oz") as well as other less-well-known authors. If you like whimsical fantasy, or just like to re-live childhood memories, you will enjoy it too.

[Kathryn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book really frustrated me. Some of the stories are quite good, but few of them are standalone tales; instead, they are single (and sometimes SO ill-chosen) chapters from works by well-known authors. Of the 16 entries in the collection, only 5 were not excerpts of other stories. Nearly all of the original books would rate 4 or 5 stars, but these disembodied snippets from them do not. This was saved from a 1-star rating because I already love so many of the included authors, and was introduced to a few that I really liked.

This collection should have been clearly titled as a sampler or somehow indicated that it wasn’t an anthology of individual stories; there’s no introduction, foreword, or preface to clue you in, and the page headers name the chapter titles rather than the original books they come from. Only the table of contents notes which are excerpts.

I know I wouldn’t have enjoyed the chapters by Tolkien, Le Guin, C.S. Lewis, Baum, and Carroll all that much if I hadn’t already known and loved the books they came from, not to mention having the benefit of context. I liked most of the excerpts by authors new to me, but the inclusion of so many unfamiliar elements/characters without the explanations that would have been in the original stories (not to mention the arbitrary endings!) was extremely frustrating.

The best: I really liked the excerpts by Mary Norton and Alan Garner, and want to read more from them. Of the complete stories, I especially liked “The White-haired Children;” it was haunting and lovely.

The worst: “By Caldron Pool” from C.S. Lewis’ The Last Battle—It started with a lot of unpleasantness, got even worse, and finally ended on a truly awful note with no resolution whatsoever. The worst choice for an excerpt I’ve ever seen. It upset me so much that even as a Narnia fan, I wish I hadn’t read it at all.

[Cindy Tucker · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great introduction to classic fantasy books-encourages young readers to read the books featured.

[Melissa Jacobson · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75

This was a fun bind-up of random stories and I enjoyed it! It wasn't brilliant but it was fun and I had fun reading it.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection of short and abridged stories. For the young and young at heart