The VanderMeers have compiled an eminently readable collection of stories from authors around the world, seeking to introduce fantasy lovers to many rarely seen and underappreciated gems while still including a handful of more well-known authors to balance the mix. . . . This quintessential anthology is destined to become the standard by which future fantasy classic anthologies are measured. . . . [A] must-have anthology. Kirkus Reviews, SF/F/H Novels, Short Stories, and Sequels to Look for in July
The VanderMeers bring to fantasy the same monumental efforts at curation and translation that brought about the massive, absolutely essential 2016 anthology The Big Book of Science Fiction. . . . [This] collection traces the development of an entire genre and places it into glorious context. Tor Invaluable. . . . Varied and textured examples of fantasy in literature that readers and students may not have been exposed to previously. The Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
An impressive cross-section of early fantasy in this fascinating anthology of 90 stories. . . . This sweeping panorama of fantasy is a must-have for those interested in the roots of modern fantasy, and it gives a welcome introduction to many unexpected delights. Publishers Weekly
Dozens upon dozens of seminal fantasy stories, some well-known and others delightfully rescued from obscurity. . . . Like its SF counterpart, this dense and exhaustive collection would serve as an admirable survey course for the genre. Kirkus Reviews
INTRODUCTION by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer
THE QUEEN S SON Bettina von Arnim
HANS-MY-HEDGEHOG Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
THE STORY OF THE HARD NUT E. T. A. Hoffmann
RIP VAN WINKLE Washington Irving
THE LUCK OF THE BEAN-ROWS Charles Nodier
TRANSFORMATION Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
THE NEST OF NIGHTINGALES Théophile Gautier
THE FAIRYTALE ABOUT A DEAD BODY, BELONGING TO NO ONE KNOWS WHOM Vladimir Odoevsky
THE STORY OF THE GOBLINS WHO STOLE A SEXTON Charles Dickens
THE NOSE Nikolai Gogol
THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR Edgar Allan Poe
THE STORY OF JEON UNCHI Anonymous
FEATHERTOP: A MORALIZED LEGEND Nathaniel Hawthorne
MASTER ZACHARIUS Jules Verne
THE FROST-KING: OR, THE POWER OF LOVE Louisa May Alcott
THE TARTARUS OF MAIDS Herman Melville
THE MAGIC MIRROR George MacDonald
THE DIAMOND LENS Fitz-James O Brien
GOBLIN MARKET Christina Rossetti
THE WILL-O -THE-WISPS ARE IN TOWN Hans Christian Andersen
THE LEGEND OF THE PALE MAIDEN Aleksis Kivi
LOOKING-GLASS HOUSE Lewis Carroll
FURNICA, OR THE QUEEN OF THE ANTS Carmen Sylva
THE STORY OF IVÁN THE FOOL Leo Tolstoy
THE GOOPHERED GRAPEVINE Charles W. Chestnutt
THE BEE-MAN OF ORN Frank R. Stockton
THE REMARKABLE ROCKET Oscar Wilde
THE ENSOULED VIOLIN H. P. Blavatskaya
THE DEATH OF ODJIGH Marcel Schwob
THE TERRESTRIAL FIRE Marcel Schwob
THE KINGDOM OF CARDS Rabindranath Tagore
THE OTHER SIDE: A BRETON LEGEND Count Eric Stanlislaus Stenbock
THE FULNESS OF LIFE Edith Wharton
PRINCE ALBERIC AND THE SNAKE LADY Vernon Lee
THE LITTLE ROOM Madeline Yale Wynne
THE PLATTNER STORY H. G. Wells
THE PRINCESS BALADINA HER ADVENTURE Willa Cather
THE RELUCTANT DRAGON Kenneth Grahame
IKTOMI TALES Zitkala- a
MARIONETTES Louis Fréchette
DANCE OF THE COMETS: AN ASTRAL PANTOMIME IN TWO ACTS Paul Scheerbart
THE WHITE PEOPLE Arthur Machen
BLAMOL Gustav Meyrink
GOBLINS: A LOGGING CAMP STORY Louis Fréchette
SOWBREAD Grazia Deledda
THE ANGRY STREET G. K. Chesterton
THE AUNT AND AMABEL E. Nesbit
SACRIFICE Aleksey Remizov
THE PRINCESS STEEL W. E. B. Du Bois
THE HUMP Fernán Caballero
THE CELESTIAL OMNIBUS E. M. Forster
THE LEGEND OF THE ICE BABIES E. Pauline Johnson
THE LAST REDOUBT William Hope Hodgson
JACK PUMPKINHEAD AND THE SAWHORSE L. Frank Baum
THE PLANT MEN Edgar Rice Burroughs
STRANGE NEWS FROM ANOTHER STAR Hermann Hesse
THE METAMORPHOSIS Franz Kafka
THE HOARD OF THE GIBBELINS Lord Dunsany
THROUGH THE DRAGON GLASS A. Merritt
DAVID BLAIZE AND THE BLUE DOOR E. F. Benson
THE BIG BESTIARY OF MODERN LITERATURE Franz Blei
THE ALLIGATOR WAR Horacio Quiroga
FRIEND ISLAND Francis Stevens
MAGIC COMES TO A COMMITTEE Stella Benson
GRAMOPHONE OF THE AGES Yefim Zozulya
ANN VANDERMEER currently serves as an acquiring editor for Tor.com and Weird Fiction Review and is the editor-in-residence for Shared Worlds. She was the editor-in-chief for Weird Tales for five years, work for which she won a Hugo Award. She also has won a World Fantasy Award and a British Fantasy Award for coediting The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories.
JEFF VANDERMEER is the New York Times bestselling author of the Southern Reach trilogy, the first novel of which, Annihilation, won the Shirley Jackson Award and was made into a film by Paramount Pictures. His recent novel Borne has been selected for the NEA Big Reads program and was a finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award.