A Chronology of Literature Related to the

Fantastic Writings of the Inklings

This list is an attempt to situate the more fantastic end of the writings of the Inklings within the context of other similar writings, especially those authors they would have liked reading, or those authors which would prove to be an influence on what they themselves wrote. Of course Tolkien’s greatest literary interest and influence comes from the medieval Norse sagas. And Lewis was an omnivorous reader, at least of things before the modern era. This is not a list of what they read generally, or what they were interested in professionally, or works they thought were great literature, but rather writings of the same kind as their fantastic works.

If we were to ask what other writers produced works like the fantasy of Tolkien and Lewis, like the kind of science fiction that Lewis produced, and like the ‘metaphysical thrillers’ of Williams, we would have to find a place for them among these authors. The literature covered goes by many type and genre names, some of which are adventure, fantasy, science fiction, the fantastic, gothic, supernatural and ‘romantic’. Many of these authors would be considered as ‘pulp’ writers of their day. But whether they are mainline literary authors or not, they all share a common element in their works to which Lewis would give his elusive term ‘joy’. Lewis’ concept of ‘joy’ is almost entirely wrapped up in this kind of literature (See Lewis’ comments on the line “Balder the Beautiful is dead” & Beatrix Potter towards the beginning of Surprised by Joy). For background as to what the Inkling writers thought about these types and genres the reader is directed towards these works:

            C. S. Lewis. “Preface to Third Edition” The Pilgrim’s Regress: An Allegorical Apology for Christianity, Reason and Romanticism. London: Geoffrey Bles, 1943.

            C. S. Lewis. Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories / ed. Walter Hooper. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1966. [the essay section]

            J. R. R. Tolkien. “On Fairy-Stories” in Essays Presented to Charles Williams. Oxford University Press, 1947. [along with this the reader should look at: George MacDonald’s essay “The Fantastic Imagination” published as the introduction to The Light Princess & Other fairy Tales (1893) and reprinted in A Dish of Orts (1893), from where it seems the main premises of Tolkien’s talk is derived]

The basic starting point for this list is the period of Romanticism, especially in its Germanic form. The list is arranged by the author’s birth date, with only the most apt examples from their writings given.

Hugh Walpole (1717-1797)

            The Castle of Otranto [1765]

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

            Sorrows of Young Werther [1774] / The Fairy Tale [1795] /

            Faust [1)1808; 2)1832]

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)

Novalis [Friedrich von Hardenberg] (1772-1801)

            Hymns to the Night [1800] / Heinrich von Ofterdingen [1802]

Ludwig Tieck (1773-1853)

            Eckbert the Fair [1797] / The Rune Mountain [1802]

E. T. A. Hoffmann (1776-1822)

            The Devil’s Elixir [1815-16] / Kater Murr [1820-22] / The Golden Pot [1814] /

            The Sandman [1815] / The Serapion Brethren [1819-21]

Friedrich de la Motte Fouque (1777-1843)

            Undine [1811] / the Magic Ring [1813]

Clemens Brentano (1778-1842)

            The Tale of Honest Casper & Fair Annie [1817]

Jacob Grimm (1785-1863) & Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859)

            Children & Household Tales [1812-13]

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly (1797-1851)

            Frankenstein [1818]

Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870)

            The Three Musketeers [1844] / Twenty Years After [1845] /

            The Count of Monte Cristo [1844-5]

Edgar Allen Poe (1809-1849)

            Tales of the Grotesque & Arabesque [1840] / Tales [1845]

Charles Kingsley (1819-1875)

            The Water Babies [1863]

Wilkie Collins (1824-1889)

            Woman in White [1860] / The Moonstone [1868]

George MacDonald (1824-1905)

Phantastes [1858] / The Light Princess [1864] / The Golden Key [1867] /

At the Back of the North Wind [1871] / The Princess & the Goblin [1872] /

The Princess & Curdie [1873] / Lilith [1895]

Jules Verne (1828-1905)

            Five Weeks in a Baloon [1863] / A Journey to the Center of the Earth [1864] /

            From the Earth to the Moon [1865] / Twenty-thousand Leagues Under the Sea

[1869] / The Mysterious Island [1874] / Around the World in Eighty Days [1873]

Lewis Carrol [Charles Dodgson] (1832-1898)

            Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland [1865] / Through the Looking Glass [1871]

William Morris (1834-1896)

            The Story of the Glittering Plain [1891] / The Wood Beyond the World [1894] /

            The Well at the World’s End [1896]

Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

            The Blue Fairy Book [1889]—The Lilac Fairy Book [1910] (12 vols.)

Bram Stoker (1847-1912)

            Dracula [1897]

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

            Treasure Island [1883] / Kidnapped [1886] /

            Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde [1886]

L. Frank Baum (1856-1919)

            Wizard of Oz [1900]

H. Rider Haggard (1856-1925)

            King Solomon’s Mines [1885] / She [1887] / She & Allan /

Allan Quatermain [1887] / Ayesa; or, The Return of She [1905] /

The World’s Desire (with Andrew Lang) [1891]

Edith Nesbit (1858-1924)

            The Treasure Seekers [1899] / The Wouldbegoods [1901] / The Five Children &

It [1902] / The Phoenix & the Carpet [1904] / The New Treasure Seekers [1904]

The Story of the Amulet [1906] / The Enchanted Castle [1907] / The Railway

Children [1908] / The Magic City [1910]

Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932)

            The Golden Age [1895] / Dream Days [1898] /

The Wind in the Willows [1908]

Arthur Machen (1863-1947)

            The Great God Pan & the Inmost Light [1894] / The Terror [1917] /

            Far Off Things [1922] / Things Near & Far [1923]

A. Merritt (1864-1943)

            The Moon Pool [1919] / The Ships of Ishtar [1926] /

Dwellers in the Mirage [1932]

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

            The Man Who Would Be King [1888] / The Jungle Book [1894] /

            Kim [1901]

Beatrix Potter (1866-1943)

            The Tale of Peter Rabbit [1902] / The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin [1903] /

            The Tale of Benjamin Bunny [1904]

H. G. Wells (1866-1946)

            Time Machine [1895] / Invisible Man [1897] / War of the Worlds [1898] /

            First Men in the Moon [1901]

Algernon Blackwood (1869-1951)

            The Empty House [1906] / John Silence [1908]

G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936)

            The Man Who Was Thursday [1908]

Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950)

            Tarzan of the Apes [1914] / A Princess of Mars [1917] /

The Pirates of Venus [1934] / Pellucidar [1923]

David Lindsay (1876-1945)

            A Voyage to Arcturus [1920] / The Haunted Woman [1922] / Sphinx [1923] /

            Devil’s Tor [1932]

Lord Dunsany [Edward J. M. D. Plunkett] (1878-1957)

            The Gods of Pagana [1905] / Time & the Gods [1906] /

The Sword of Welleran [1908] / A Dreamer’s Tale [1910]

The Book of Wonder [1912]

John Masefield (1878-1967)

            The Midnight Folk / The Box of Delights

James Branch Cabell (1879-1958)

            The Cream of Jest [1917] / Jurgen [1919] / The High Place [1923]

E. R. Eddison (1882-1945)

The Worm Ouroboros [1922] / The Zimiamvian Trilogy: Mistress of Mistresses [1935], Fish Dinner in Memison [1941], Mezentian Gate [1958]

Charles Williams (1886-1945)

Olaf Stapledon (1886-1950)

            Last & First Men [1930] / The last Men in London [1932] / Odd John [1935] /

            Star Maker [1937] / Sirius [1944]

H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937)

            The Case of Charles Dexter Ward [1928] / At the Mountains of Madness [1931] /

            The Shadow Over Innsmouth [1936]

J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973)

C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)

T. H. White (1906-1964)

            Mistress Masham’s Repose / The Once & Future King [1958]

Mervyn Peake (1911-1968)

            Titus Groan [1946] / Gormenghast [1950] / Titus Alone [1959]

PJS [rev. 8/06]