Basil Davenport (1905–1966)

The abridgment of this volume consists in the omission of some stories from a larger earlier edition; the remaining stories are intact. Davenport's chatty introduction is an admirable overview of the history of diablerie, given its brevity. The tales are an entertaining assortment, more given to the topics of riddles, trickery, gambles, and bargains, than to matters of metaphysics, demonology, or diabolism. I was especially interested in the Dunsany story "A Deal with the Devil," and while I did enjoy it, it was far out of the orbit of the high-fanastic Dunsany that I relish. Two selections are preoccupied with betting on horse races, and many involve a three-wishes mechanism little different than yarns that might feature djinni or leprauchans. On the other hand, a few do emphasize gruesome punishments which the central characters want to avoid, or -- in more than one case -- to administer. Some of the later stories in the book tend toward the science-fictionally satirical, and remind me a little of the work of James Morrow.… (mere)

The complete title goes a little something like this:

An Introduction to Islandia: Its History, Customs, Laws, Language, and Geography as Prepared by Basil Davenport, from Islandia: History and Description, by Jean Perrier, First French Consul to Islandia, and Translated by John Lang, First American Consul. With maps drawn by John Lang.

An Introduction to Islandia originally was the introduction to the 1942 publication of Austin Tappan Wright's outstanding novel Islandia. Primarily, it is a summary of Wright's unpublished "History of Islandia", an immense and detailed work. (Which I really hope I can get my hands on, one day!) Also included are maps and census materials, as well as an annotated bibliography, from the actual "History of Islandia."

It's not a very long book, and I had some difficulty getting a hold of it, but I really enjoyed it when I finally did. . . of course, I am an Islandian fanatic.

Experiments in Reading… (mere)