Fifty-One Tales

Lord Dunsany gathered these fifty-one very short pieces, some barely a page long, into one of his most concentrated books. Half fable and half prose poem, they turn again and again to death, time, and the fate of proud cities, often letting a single image carry the whole weight of a story. A hero meets his own legend, the seasons argue, an old god watches the world forget him. The tone shifts from wry to mournful to quietly terrible, but the polished, incantatory prose stays constant throughout. First published in 1915 and sometimes titled The Food of Death, the collection shows the Irish fantasist working in miniature. You can download the full book free as a PDF and EPUB edition.