"Verdict: This is an important collection for all lovers of fantasy and literature."

—Library Journal

"A marvelous mix of classics and rarely seen works, bibliophile's finds and old favorites . . . a treasury in every sense and a treasure!"

-Connie Willis, author of Doomsday Book

The fantastic, the supernatural, the poetic, and the macabre entwine in this incomparable culmination of storytelling. Imaginative stories of wit and intelligence weave through vivid landscapes that are alternately wondrous and terrifying. As major literary figures from the nineteenth and twentieth centuriesfrom Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Edith Wharton to Edgar Allan Poe and Oscar Wildethese masters of English and American literature created unforgettable tales where goblins and imps comingle with humans from all walks of life.

This deftly curated assemblage of notable classics and unexpected gems from the pre-Tolkien era will captivate and enchant readers. Forerunners of today's speculative fiction, these are the authors that changed the fantasy genre forever.