The Story of the Glittering Plain
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The Story of the Glittering Plain is an 1891 fantasy novel by William Morris, perhaps the first modern fantasy to unite an imaginary world with the element of the supernatural, and thus the precursor of much of present-day fantasy literature. His earlier fantasies The House of the Wolfings and The Roots of the Mountains were to some degree historical novels. Morris would go on to develop the new genre established in this work in such later fantasies as Child Christopher and Goldilind the Fair, The Wood Beyond the World, The Well at the World's End, and The Water of the Wondrous Isles. It is also important for its exploration of the socialist themes that interested Morris. Its groundbreaking significance was recognized by its republication (as The Glittering Plain) as the first volume of the celebrated Newcastle Forgotten Fantasy Library in September, 1973.
[edit] Plot
The book concerns the quest of Hallblithe of the House of the Raven to rescue his fiance the Hostage, who has been kidnapped by pirates, which ultimately takes him to the utopian Land of the Glittering Plain, also known as the Land of the Living Men, whose inhabitants are supposedly immortal.
[edit] Copyright
The copyright for this story has expired in the United States, and thus now resides in the public domain there. The text is available via Project Gutenberg.
[edit] External link
- The Story of the Glittering Plain, available at Project Gutenberg.
