Classic Fantasy
Before Tolkien there were others: George MacDonald's shadowy fairylands, Lord Dunsany's gods of Pegāna, William Morris at the Well at the World's End, Hope Mirrlees in Lud-in-the-Mist. The pre-modern fantasy that shaped every genre that followed — character avatars for the invented courts and pantheons, click-to-explain on every coined name, and chapter music that moves from pastoral quiet to underworld dread.
95 books
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
The Odyssey by Homer
Paradise Lost by John Milton
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
Orlando by Virginia Woolf
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting
Beowulf by Anonymous
The Roots of the Mountains by William Morris
The Tempest by William Shakespeare
Peter and Wendy by J. M. Barrie
Le Morte d’Arthur by Thomas Malory
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz by L. Frank Baum
Metamorphoses by Ovid
The Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum
The King of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord Dunsany
The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton
Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling
The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald
The House of the Wolfings by William Morris
Children’s Stories by Oscar Wilde
Phantastes by George MacDonald
Lilith by George MacDonald
The Book of Wonder by Lord Dunsany
The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser
Fifty-One Tales by Lord Dunsany
The Well at the World’s End by William Morris
The Gods of Pegāna by Lord Dunsany
The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
At the Back of the North Wind by George MacDonald
The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum
A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay
Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum
The Wood Beyond the World by William Morris
The Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish
The Worm Ouroboros by E. R. Eddison
She by H. Rider Haggard
The Nibelungenlied by Anonymous
The Charwoman’s Shadow by Lord Dunsany
Five Children and It by E. Nesbit
The Enchanted Castle by E. Nesbit
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
The Golden Ass by Apuleius
The Return by Walter de la Mare
The Kalevala by Elias Lönnrot
Idylls of the King by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto
The Moon Pool by A. Merritt
The Wonderful Adventures of Nils by Selma Lagerlöf
The Revolt of the Angels by Anatole France
The Magic City by E. Nesbit
Gudrun by Anonymous
The Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes
Sylvie and Bruno by Lewis Carroll
Vathek by William Beckford
The Wonderful Visit by H. G. Wells
The Demi-Gods by James Stephens
Jurgen by James Branch Cabell
The Napoleon of Notting Hill by G. K. Chesterton
The Blue Bird by Maurice Maeterlinck
Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees
The Story of the Amulet by E. Nesbit
The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley
The Phoenix and the Carpet by E. Nesbit
Kai Lung’s Golden Hours by Ernest Bramah
The Unicorn from the Stars by Lady Gregory
The Crock of Gold by James Stephens
The Water of the Wondrous Isles by William Morris
The Little White Bird by J. M. Barrie
The Pilgrim Kamanita by Karl Gjellerup
Harding’s Luck by E. Nesbit
Wet Magic by E. Nesbit
The House of Arden by E. Nesbit
Domnei by James Branch Cabell
Master Flea by E. T. A. Hoffmann
Lais by Marie de France
The Cream of the Jest by James Branch Cabell
Lady Into Fox by David Garnett
Figures of Earth by James Branch Cabell
The Shaving of Shagpat by George Meredith
Memoirs of a Midget by Walter de la Mare
The House Without Windows by Barbara Newhall Follett
Khaled by F. Marion Crawford
Chivalry by James Branch Cabell
The Created Legend by Fyodor Sologub
Styrbiorn the Strong by E. R. Eddison
The Princess and Curdie by George MacDonald
The Sundering Flood by William Morris
