Hope Mirrlees’ Lud-in-the-Mist reads a lot like a story by Lord Dunsany. It’s way pre-Tolkien (published in 1926); it’s set in a quaintly idyllic English world of cottages and trees and pastries, and has an ethereal Fairyland just over the distant hills; and it has a distinctively noticeable narrator. Where it really differs from Dunsany is that the Mirrlees’ characters are less like the motivation-less characters from a fairytale, and more psychologically realistic.
This has the potential for being slightly weird, but it ends up being entirely charming. Good stuff, and highly recommended to anyone who likes that sort of folk-mythic Faerie thing.
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