Author:Eric S. Rabkin

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Fantastic Worlds: Myths, Tales, and Stories

This is an academic reference work rather than a pure anthology. Title 35913 on ISFDB.

Note that this Table of Contents has been corrected to match the body of the publications as the TOC, as stated, has minor errors.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION	3
Fantastic Worlds	3
Organization of the Book	5
Analyzing the Fantastic	7
The Fantastic and Fantasy	16
Exploring These Worlds	23
THE SOURCES OF THE FANTASTIC	27
The Sources of the Fantastic	27
The Need for the Fantastic	29
Notes on Narrative Structures	33
Audience Analysis	36
MYTH	41
Genesis (King James Version)	41
The Blackfoot Genesis (1892)         George Bird Grinnell, ed. (U.S., 1849-1938)	47
The Eye of the Giant (Togoland)         Ada Cardinall, ed. (England, 1890- )	53
How I Brought Death Into the World (Yoruba, 1953)         Amos Tutuola (Nigeria, 1920- )	56
The Myth of Actaeon (A.D. 2-8)         Ovid (Rome, 43 B.C. - A.D. 17)	62
The Myth of Narcissus         Ovid	66
The Myth of Philomela         Ovid	72
FOLKTALE	80
The Ghost Wife (Pawnee, 1889)         George Bird Grinnell, ed.	80
The Magic Swan Geese (1855-64)         Alexandr Afanas'ev, ed. (Russia, 1826-71)	82
Why Tortoise's Shell Is Not Smooth (Ibo, 1959)         Chinua Achebe (Nigeria, 1930- )	84
How Mr. Rabbit Was Too Sharp for Mr. Fox (1880)         Joel Chandler Harris (U.S., 1848-1908)	87
Paul Bunyan on the Columbia (1924)         Esther Shephard (U.S., 1891-1975)	89
FAIRY TALE	96
Little Red-cap (1812-15)         Jakob & Wilhelm Grimm (Germany, 1785-1863;             1786-1859)	96
The Sleeping Beauty         Jakob & Wilhelm Grimm	100
Hansel and Grethel         Jakob & Wilhelm Grimm	104
The Tinderbox (1835)         Hans Christian Andersen (Denmark, 1805-75)	112
The Tale of Cosmo (1858)         George MacDonald (Scotland, 1824-1905)	120
Leaf by Niggle (1964)         J. R. R. Tolkien (England, 1892-1973)	141
THE DIVERSITY OF FANTASTIC LITERATURE	161
The Continuum of the Fantastic	161
The Diversity of Fantastic Literature	165
The Fantastic and Literary History	167
The Fantastic and Genre Criticism	169
FANTASY	175
Our Ideas of Time (1711)         Joseph Addison (England, 1672-1719)	175
Ritter Gluck: A Recollection from the Year 1809 (1809)         E. T. A. Hoffmann (Germany, 1776-1822)	179
The Oval Portrait (1842)         Edgar Allan Poe (U.S., 1809-49)	190
The Garden of Live Flowers (1872)         Lewis Carroll (England, 1832-98)	194
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1939)         James Thurber (U.S., 1894-1961)	202
The Royal Banquet (1961)         Norton Juster (U.S., 1929- )	208
HORROR FICTION	214
The Sandman (1816)         E. T. A. Hoffmann	214
The Black Cat (1843)         Edgar Allan Poe	247
The Picture in the House (1924)         H. P. Lovecraft (U.S., 1890-1937)	257
GHOST STORIES	266
The Hand (1861)         Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (Ireland, 1814-73)	266
The Moonlit Road (1894)         Ambrose Bierce (U.S., 1842-1914?)	274
Lost Hearts (1895)         M. R. James (England, 1862-1936)	284
HEROIC FANTASY	294
Golden Wings (1856)         William Morris (England, 1834-96)	294
The Sword of Welleran (1908)         Lord Dunsany (Ireland, 1878-1957)	311
The Five Black Swans (1973)         Sylvia Townsend Warner (England, 1893-1978)	325
SCIENCE FICTION	333
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar (1845)         Edgar Allan Poe	333
The Birthmark (1846)         Nathaniel Hawthorne (U.S., 1804-64)	343
The Star (1955)         Arthur C. Clarke (England, 1917- )	360
EPICAC (1950)         Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (U.S., 1922- )	372
The Third Level (1952)         Jack Finney (U.S., 1911- )	380
The Star (1897)         H. G. Wells (England, 1866-1946)	385
MODERN FANTASY	393
The Judgment (1913)         Franz Kafka (Czechoslovakia, 1883-1924)	399
A Common Confusion (1931 ; written between         1917 and 1922)         Franz Kafka	410
Cockroaches (1934)         Bruno Schulz (Poland, 1892-1942)	411
Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote (1939)         Jorge Luís Borges (Argentina, 1899- )	415
Axolotl (1967)         Julio Cortázar (Argentina, 1914- )	424
Pastoral (1954)         Tommaso Landolfi (Italy, 1908- )	430
All at One Point (1965)         Italo Calvino (Italy, 1923- )	438
There Is No Such Place as America (1969)         Peter Bichsel (Switzerland, 1935- )	443
The Piano Player (1963)         Donald Barthelme (U.S., 1931- )	450
Homage to the San Francisco YMCA (1971)         Richard Brautigan (U.S., 1935- )	453
The Marker (1963)         Robert Coover (U.S., 1932- )	456
The Zebra Storyteller (1971)         Spencer Holst (U.S., 1926- )	460
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY	463
Bibliographic Tools	463
General Theoretical Studies	464
Specialized Studies	465
Supplementary Readings	468
Index	475

Corrections to the Table of Contents

While these corrections are for the trade paperback edition it's believed the hardcover is identical and thus the table of contents above and corrections would apply to both editions. The number at the start of each bullet-point is the page number the story appears on.

• 266 - The Hand is listed as being on page 265 in the Table of Contents but it starts on page 266.
• 284 - Lost Hearts - While the date of this story is stated as 1904 it first appeared in the December 1895 Pall Mall Magazine.
• 365 - The Table of Contents lists The Star by H. G. Wells on page 365 and The Star by Arthur C. Clarke on page 385. However, these are reversed in the body of the publication with the Arthur C. Clarke story appearing on page 365 and H. G. Wells' on page 385.
• 424 - Axolotl - The Table of Contents states the date as 1951 but the copyright page states the copyright as 1967, 1963. The publications available in ISFDB support 1967. The source of 1951 unknown and is assumed to be a typo.

ISFDB Notes

As ISFDB is a database entry of records needs to follow a fixed structure that the editors did not need to follow. The following are notes on how ISFDB's recording of the publications differs from what's stated.

• 41 - Genesis (King James Version) - The publication does not credit an author for this story while ISFDB credits "Unknown."
• 47 - The Blackfoot Genesis - The publication does not credit an author for this story while ISFDB credits Blackfoot Myth.
• 53 - The Eye of the Giant - The publication credits Togoland for this story while ISFDB credits Togoland Myth.
• 56 - How I Brought Death Into the World - The publication credits Yoruba, 1953 for this story while ISFDB credits Amos Tutuola. While Amos Tutuola work is based on Yoruba folktales the stories are largely his own creation rather than an English interpretation or translation of Yoruba folktales. (source: Wikipedia article on The Palm-Wine Drinkard which contains the story How I Brought Death Into the World.)
• 80 - The Ghost Wife - The publication credits Pawnee for this story while ISFDB credits Pawnee Folktale.
• 82 - The Magic Swan Geese - The publication does not credit an author for this story while ISFDB credits Russian Folktale
• 424 - The publication lists the author of Axolotl as Julio Cortazar. The author is in ISFDB as Julio Cortázar as ISFDB's name matching considers Cortazar and Cortázar to be equivalent and thus a pseudonym can't be added to handle Julio Cortazar.
• Prior to verification ISFDB listed On Fairy-Stories (1939) essay by J. R. R. Tolkien. However, I could not locate this essay in the publication. It's possible records got mixed up with another publication as several stories were missing from ISFDB and needed to be added to get it to match the publication.

Other Notes

• xi - The Preface is signed "E.S.R" but it's clear this is the editor, Eric S. Rabkin.
• 179 - The story Ritter Gluck is listed without the sub-title A Recollection from the Year 1809 in the Table of Contents but is listed that way in the body of the publication. Some sources may list this story as just Ritter Gluck.
• 284 - The story Lost Hearts (1895) is M. R. James in the Table of Contents and as by M(ontague) R(hodes) James in the body of the book. As M. R. James is the canonical name I left it as M. R. James rather than creating a variant title.
• 311 - The story The Sword of Welleran is listed as by Lord Dunsany. The body of the publication lists the same but adds "(Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany)".
• 380 - The story The Third Level is listed as by Jack Finney. The body of the publication lists the same but adds "(Pseudonym of Walter Braden Finney)".