It’s a tightly woven story that packs a lot into its slightly-over 300 pages and it reaches a dramatic, satisfying conclusion. It has ordinary people moved to do the extraodinary and ordinary people being ordinary. It has heroes and villains and a villain who thinks he’s a hero. It has a bit of mystery and a bit of courtroom drama. There is a tension throughout the narrative that grows as the story progresses. The language and imagery are breathtaking. It’s a beautifully written tale with layers upon layers of meaning. Written in 1926, “Lud-in-the Mist” is one of the most charming fantasies I have ever read. However, none of the novels I mentioned have quite the impact of “Lud-in-the-Mist”. They all share a theme of the real world bordering on the fairy world and how the two interact. Other recent novels that are reminiscent of “Lud-in-the-Mist” are “Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell” by Susannah Clarke and “Little, Big” by John Crowley. His own “Stardust” draws very heavily on “Lud-in-the-Mist”, especially in setting and tone.
Neil Gaiman wrote an introduction to the edition I read and I can see that he meant every word.
30-odd years before Tolkein published “The Lord of the Rings”, a British woman named Hope Mirrlees wrote a fantasy called “Lud-in-the-Mist”.
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