Score

What? No Abraham Merritt?

Bryce wrote: "I'm kind of curious as to how The Lord of the Rings made it onto the "Pre-Tolkien" fantasy list? Haha. ;)"

Seriously. It is obvious that they don't belong on this list. Is it possible to remove them?

This is a fantastic list. I'm going to get lynched for it, but I haven't managed to even finish The Fellowship of The Ring. Every time I attempt it, I barely get to a few pages in and fall asleep. I find him grandiose and pompous (and apparently he was kind of racist). To see a list from authors of works before the Tolkien craze is a breath of fresh air :)

Bryce wrote: "I'm kind of curious as to how The Lord of the Rings made it onto the "Pre-Tolkien" fantasy list? Haha. ;)"

Okay, I'm not the only one that had a problem with the "math" here :p

No Francis Stevens?

Renee wrote: "What? No Abraham Merritt?"

Like:
The Ship of Ishtar
Burn, Witch, Burn
Dwellers in the Mirage
and The Moon Pool?
The latter was the first I read but not the best in my opinion. The other three I found most enjoyable

Have another four loaded on the iPad.

That would be the Abraham Merritt. "Dwellers" may have been my favorite, with "The Moon Pool" very close. Also "The Face in the Abyss."

Why is Narnia on here? The first book was published 1950.

Why can't i see Hobbit here ?

NM, i added it :)

Huzefa wrote: "NM, i added it :)"

This is a list of pre-Tolkien fantasy. It obviously shouldn't include Tolkien because he wasn't before himself. Please read the description.

"Fantasy books that predate J. R. R. Tolkien's influence on the fantasy genre that began with his publication of The Hobbit in 1937."

Ian wrote: "Huzefa wrote: "NM, i added it :)"

This is a list of pre-Tolkien fantasy. It obviously shouldn't include Tolkien because he wasn't before himself. Please read the description.

"Fantasy books that ..."

Oops u r right :)
Honest mistake :P
I associated it with pr LOTR

How do The Chronicles of Narnia (#24) predate The Hobbit? Either they don't or their date of first publication is wrong...

Booklovinglady wrote: "How do The Chronicles of Narnia (#24) predate The Hobbit? Either they don't or their date of first publication is wrong..."

Deleted.

Antony wrote: "This is a fantastic list. I'm going to get lynched for it, but I haven't managed to even finish The Fellowship of The Ring. Every time I attempt it, I barely get to a few pages in and fall asleep. ..."
Tolkien may have written about the races in his stories with great detail but he does not really care for real-life racism.

I'm currently reading The Adventures of the Wishing Chair #1 by Enid Blyton and I also loved The Enchanted Wood, The Magic Faraway Tree and the Folk of the Faraway Tree by the same author (I just realized the magic faraway trilogy was published after 1937 and the wishing chair book in 1937, although it was a compilation of earlier stories. Let me add the wizard of oz to my pre-Tolkien list, I think it came out in 1900, and I won't mention all of the other post Tolkien books I like). I started The Hobbit and it was ok at the beginning / at times but I lost interest in it. For a long time I've had this idea that a boring fantasy novel is still more interesting than a boring sci-fi or mundane / non-speculative novel (and children's and YA fiction is, all other factors being equal, more interesting to me than literature for adults) and I'd like to think that I could pull through or somewhat enjoy any fantasy novel but I've had a wake up call with a few novels that's been kind of disappointing. Before The Hobbit I started A Wizard of Earthsea but it was depressingly boring for me as well. It started out interesting, I briefly got a little bored, it was interesting again, then I lost interest, I thought it would pick up after he visited the dragon of Pandor because that part was really interesting to me but I just couldn't get into it and the prose kind of turned me off (if other people enjoy the books I don't that's great. I don't believe they're objectively bad). Long before that it was the Girl Who Drank the Moon that I couldn't finish and there have been others over the years.

I also like traditional mythology (Greek mythology, African mythology, Native American mythology, Grimm's fairy tales, the Arabian nights etc.). It seems to me like most modern fantasy authors will want to avoid the use of magic for the sake of adventure and wish fulfillment because it's seen as 'simplistic' and unsophisticated etc. It's almost like the magic is incidental in many stories and just the means to push a story about good vs. evil or certain literary themes (I also like soft hearted characters, relatively moral role models, themes of universal compassion and insight into the human condition or social commentary though). I wish there was more of a return to the traditional fairy tale.

The Little Prince probably shouldn't be on here. Hobbit was published 1937, Prince was published 1943.

To be fair, while the Hobbit may have technically been published in 1937, it was not until the Ballantine editions in the mid 1960s that he became widely read and influential. I doubt any readers of Weird Tales would have known who he was... at least not before 1965.

I've always wondered what got The Hobbit to be popular, was it a cult book by the 50s fantasy writers?

1937 — C.S. Lewis famously called the book a “marvellous” classic-in-the-making

TIME documented the phenomenon in 1966, declaring that hobbits were the new literary heroes on American college campuses.

“[The] Rings trilogy was first published in the U.S. twelve years ago, had a small but dedicated coterie of admirers, including Poet W. H. Auden and Critic C. S. Lewis, but languished largely unread until it was reprinted last year in two paperback editions,” the story explained.

Since then, campus booksellers have been hard put to keep up with the demand. At the Princeton bookstore, says one salesman, it is the ‘biggest seller since Lord of the Flies.'”