01 November 2007

Horn Book Fantasy Roundup

This month the Horn Book's website added a selection of fine essays on fantasy from issues past.

I particularly enjoyed Lloyd Alexander on E. Nesbit's narrative voice in a 1985 essay:

A lot of Victorian children's writers give off a sort of mealy-potato quality: much rolling of eyes heavenward; children dying beautifully of some unidentified (but not messy) ailment. But E. Nesbit has a freshness, tartness, without gushing or talking down. Today's writers owe her a debt. We are modern thanks largely to her. As much as anyone, perhaps more, she helped us to find our twentieth-century voices.
Interesting samples of that narration posted here and here.

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