Lud-in-the-Mist

Infobox Book |
name = Lud-in-the-Mist
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = cover of the 1970 reprint
author = Hope Mirrlees
illustrator =
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country = United Kingdom
language = English
series =
genre = Fantasy novel
publisher = Collins
release_date = 1926
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardback)
pages = 319 pp
isbn(2008 ed) = 978-1-8579-8767-6
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"Lud-in-the-Mist" (1926) is the third novel by Hope Mirrlees, and the only one still in print as of 2005. It continues the author's exploration of the themes of Life and Art, by a method already described in the preface of her first novel, "Madeleine: One of Love's Jansenists" (1919): "to turn from time to time upon the action the fantastic limelight of eternity, with a sudden effect of unreality and the hint of a world within a world".

Whereas in "Madeleine" and "The Counterplot" Mirrlees took from historical figures, religions and literature the elements with which to build her stage, her use of a secondary-world setting in "Lud-in-the-Mist" links it to a tradition of high fantasy, and thence to its current locus of popularity. In 1970, an American reprint appeared without the author's permission, as part of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series. It was subsequently reprinted by Orion Books in 2000 as part of their Fantasy Masterworks series [cite web
last = Brown
first = Charles N.
authorlink = Charles N. Brown
coauthors = William G. Contento
title = The Locus Index to Science Fiction (2000)
work =
publisher =
date =
url = http://www.locusmag.com/index/yr2000/b32.htm#A1050.1
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accessdate = 2008-02-20 ] . But "Lud-in-the-Mist"'s unconventional elements, equally responsible for its appeal to the fantasy readership and distinction within the genre, are better-understood if they are taken in the context of her whole oeuvre.

In this novel, the law-abiding inhabitants of Lud-in-the-Mist, a city located at the confluence of the rivers Dapple and Dawl, in the fictional state of Dorimare, must contend with the influx of fairy fruit from the bordering Land of Faerie, whose presence they had sought to deny from their rational existence. Their mayor, the respectable Nathaniel Chanticleer, finds himself quite reluctantly at the center of the conflict.

"Lud-in-the-Mist" begins with a quotation by Jane Harrison, whose influence is also found in "Madeleine" and "The Counterplot". It is dedicated to the memory of Mirrlees's father.

Notes

References

*cite book | last=Bleiler | first=Everett | authorlink=Everett F. Bleiler | title=The Checklist of Fantastic Literature | location=Chicago | publisher=Shasta Publishers | pages=201 | date=1948