My favorite story in Great Irish Tales of the Unimaginable (1994) is “The Last Warrior Quest” by Peter Tremayne. I’ve read several of Tremayne’s mysteries featuring Sister Fidelma and enjoyed all of them. But this short story concerns an older warrior on his Last Quest. Moving and compelling.
I also enjoyed Julia O’Faolain’s “Legend for a Painting” about a lady living with a dragon and a knight who wants to “save” her.
I’ve read several anthologies edited by Peter Haining. My one criticism of Hailing’s choices is that sometimes he chooses very old and very dated stories that I find tedious. You might struggle with this, too. GRADE: B
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction — 9
I. GODS AND HEROES
Hound of Ulster / Standish James O’Grady –17
Wisdom of the king / W. B. Yeats — 22
Call of Oisin / Lady Gregory — 29
Laughing stranger / James Stephens
Balor and the wonder-smith / Ella Young — 44
Death of Macha Gold-Hair / Dermot O’Byrne — 61
Outlaw / Joseph O’Neill — 72
Earth-bound / Dorothy Macardle — 80
II. THE ROMANTIC SAGAS
Flight of angels / Austin Clarke — 91
Midir and Etain / Sir Shane Leslie — 109
A prince in disguise / Sinead de Balera — 116
Legend for a painting / Julia O’Faolain — 122
The Kiss / Michael Scott — 126
Woman without mercy / Maurice Walsh — 135
Bewitching of Fursey / Melvyn Wall — 145
A fable / Mary Lavin — 159
III. THE WONDER QUESTS
Voyage of Maildun / P. W. Joyce — 173
Hero of Michan / James Joyce — 207
Return of Cuchulain / Eimar O’Duffy — 212
End of the rainbow / Lord Dunsany — 231
Crotty Shinkwin / A. E. Coppard — 247
Ark of Cashelmor / T. H. White — 257
Devil and democracy / Brian Cleese — 266
Last warrior quest / Peter Tremayne — 281
Acknowledgements — 310
Haining was an indefatigable anthologist but not necessarily the best researcher. Once he had a hook for an anthology he would go all out, as a result he would often add creaky and often obscure stories to the mix, feeling ( I suppose) that even if a story was basically unreadable, it deserved inclusion solely because of its rarity, He also had a habit of including extracts from longer works, giving us not a short story proper but a fragment in the guise of a story. In the case of this volume, well over half a dozen tales are excerpts (from older volumes such as the O’Grady and the Lady Gregory) or snippets from fairly well-known novels (Wall’s THE UNFORTUNATE FURSEY, Dunsany’s THE CURSE OF THE WISE WOMAN, White’s THE ELEPHANT AND THE KANGAROO, and James Joyce’s ULYSSES all worthwhile books that — with the exception of ULYSSES, which is in its own special category as an Irish novel — deserve to be read in their entirety).
That being said, there are many delights here: the Tremayne, the Macardle, the Coppard, and the Cleeve, among them. As with other Haining anthologies, I would not hesitate to recommend it…in part.
Jerry, thank you for that incisive analysis of Peter Haining’s anthology style! You nailed it! While Haining includes some excellent stories, there’s a lot of questionable stories and fragments.
I agree about Peter Tremayne. I’ve also read a lot of Lord Dunsany’s stories.
Jeff, as Jerry points out, there’s some dreck mixed in with the excellent stories.
I’m currently reading James Sallis’s and Curtis Sittenfeld’s collections.
Jeff, Diane’s Book Club has read several of Curtis Sittenfeld’s books. I’m sure they will be considering Sittenfeld’s new short story collection.
I have a number of Haining anthology and they’re OK although I may be more forgiving than many other readers. This one doesn’t particularly catch my eye and the quantity of novel extracts seems questionable. I also just never caught the Irish bug. I’m not even sure I’d give it a look if I stumbled across a copy in the library.
If anything I’m left craving a first-rate Dunsany collection with a substantial, insightful introduction. That Dover thrift edition and shabbily-printed Penguin volume just don’t cut it.