Lud-in-the-Mist, by Hope Mirrlees

[sophia_sol]

Lud-in-the-Mist is a fantasy novel published in the 1920's, well before the modern genre of fantasy was really established. It's so interesting to read a fantasy novel from that time before Tolkien dropped like a meteor into the genre landscape, affecting everything from thereafter; everything post-tolkien was either written with inspiration from Tolkien, or in reaction against how much everything was written with inspiration from Tolkien, I feel like. But this one is doing its own thing, but in a way that feels to me maturely developed, as if it came out of a long tradition of fantasy novels just like it, even though it definitely didn't.

I've previously heard Lud-in-the-Mist being praised as a perfect gem of a novel, but although I enjoyed it, I would definitely not go that far. I've also heard it be called things like sweet, and lovely, which led me to certain expectations of the tone of the book which ended up to be rather inaccurate!

The novel takes place in a prosaic town in a vaguely British-feeling secondary world, in the country of Dorimare. The town is close, however, to a boundary with Faerie, and fairy fruit keeps getting smuggled in, with great effect on those who eat of it. The book opens slowly, with an exploration of the setting and context of the story, which I found very interesting, but eventually the major characters and plot are introduced. The long and short of it is: how to keep the fairy influence out of their town?

The book is very good at setting and place and atmosphere, at creating a sense of the liminal space between Faerie and Dorimare. The characters all feel fairly realistic and believable also. But I just couldn't bring myself to care much about most of the major characters, which was a real problem! They're mostly fairly unpleasant people, but I don't think that's what was keeping me at a distance. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, which I think is a book very much in the tradition of Lud-in-the-Mist, is also a novel about a collection of mostly-unpleasant characters, but I find all of them compelling. I'm not sure what JS&MN is doing differently on it than LitM!

Anyway I'm glad I read it, and I would love to read more books like it...but preferably with characters I like better lol.

Comments

[anne]

I think Stardust was another novel trying to be in the tradition of Lud-in-the-Mist, but I read LITM so long ago that I don't remember why I thought that.

[sophia_sol]

yeah I've heard it referenced as such before too so I think you're right! unfortunately I find Gaiman distinctly uninspiring as an author, and I found Stardust just kind of meh when I read it years ago.

[lirazel]

Agreed! I actually find the movie more enjoyable and that almost never happens!

The one Gaiman book I remember loving is The Graveyard Book.

[anne]

I do remember feeling like Stardust was a washed-out copy, yeah. (Amazing what comes back after thinking about it for an hour.) Some of it was deliberate homage, I think.

I also just remembered The Door in the Hedge, by Robin McKinley. No idea if it holds up, but I adored it at the time.

[sophia_sol]

Yes Door in the Hedge is another one I thought of while reading, but I forgot about it by the time I was writing up this post! Unfortunately when I reread The Door in the Hedge a few years ago I discovered it to be very uneven and more bad than good, as much as some aspects of the worldbuilding still hold my heart! (my review from 2020)

[lirazel]

Yeah, the characters are the one thing that really don't work for me about that book, too. It's lovely to read, but I don't want to revisit it again and again the way I do a book with characters I find more engaging like JS&MN.

[sophia_sol]

yeah exactly!

[genarti]

I really should read this sometime! Who knows whether I'll actively like it -- I don't necessarily like a cast of mostly unpleasant characters -- but I'm always intrigued by pre-Tolkien fantasy novels, and more generally by works that predate the seminal works of genres they're in or adjacent to.

I keep thinking I've already read it, is part of why I haven't. But that's me getting it muddled with The King of Elfland's Daughter, which unhelpfully has faded in my head into vague mistiness and no real detailed recollections of what actually happened in it...

[sophia_sol]

Yeah I think it's worth reading despite its flaws, as a historical artefact, and it does still manage to be an engaging read! If you do get to it I will be interested in your thoughts!

I've actually never heard of The King of Elfland's Daughter before - would you recommend it?

[skygiants]

I also remember being really surprised when I read it about how weird and uneasy it was -- I'd also gotten the impression that it was kind of light/whimsical, rather than being in many ways an extended meditation on depression and death.

[sophia_sol]

Yeah exactly! An odd book, and different from how it's represented.

[chestnut_pod]

I do keep meaning to get around to this one! I have somehow managed to avoid the knowledge that fairy fruit has a role to play in this.

[sophia_sol]

It's worth a read! And the importance of fairy fruit is so interesting, given how little a role fairy fruit plays in modern fantasy, even modern fantasy about fairies.