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Hope Mirrlees
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Lud-In-The-Mist Paperback – March 22, 2005

by Neil Gaiman (Author), Hope Mirrlees (Foreword)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 689 ratings
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Originally published in 1926, and unavailable in the US for many years now, this was one of the most well-loved fantasy novels of its day. This is the story of Master Nathaniel Chanticleer, a respectable burgher who learns that his young son has eaten forbidden faery fruit. Lud-in-the-Mist, of the title, is a quasi-medieval town, governed by Master Nathaniel Chanticleer. The town is of the very sensible sort, but being bordered on the west by Fairyland and the Debatable Hills, there are problems in the trafficking of illegal fairy fruit, which Nathaniel's young son eats. The real story underneath concerns the place of fantasy and the imagination in real life, and in the end there is a fine reconciliation of the two. There are swirling subplots as well, which add layers of mystery to an extraordinarily enchanting tale.This is a trade paperback original in the US.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    288 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Cold Spring Press
  4. Publication date
    March 22, 2005
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.5 x 8.25 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1593600410
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1593600419
  8. See all details
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About the Author

Hope Mirrlees (1887-1978) was a British author of novels and poems, whose three novels are Lud-in-the-Mist, Madeleine, and Counterplot, and a book of poetry, Moods and Tensions: Poems. She counted among her good friends T. S. Eliot, William Butler Yeats and Virginia Woolf.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cold Spring Press; Reprint edition (March 22, 2005)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1593600410
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1593600419
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.9 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.5 x 8.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 689 ratings

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Hope Mirrlees

Hope Mirrlees

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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
689 global ratings
Bootleg copy???
2 Stars
Bootleg copy???
This review has entirely to do with the formatting of the actual product of the book… it’s a terribly blurry printed image of what I assume is the original cover of the book, there’s no publishing page and there are no page numbers???? Also, the print is microscopic 🤣🤣🤣 I’m not sure I even got the right book at this point 🤣 it was only 8 dollars so I’m not too mad, but definitely look for another version of this.
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Top reviews from the United States

PhoenixFalls
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant.
Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2010
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I don't think I'm well-read enough to review this book -- as is the case with many British writers of that period, Mirrlees is far better classically educated than I am, and I'm sure I missed quite a few of her references. However, I now firmly agree with Neil Gaiman that this is "the single most beautiful, solid, unearthly, and unjustifiably forgotten novel of the twentieth century" so I felt I should attempt to review it here in the hopes that I get a few more people to seek it out.

This is most distinctly not the sort of fantasy novel that would be able to get published today. Tolkien's Shire feels strongly influenced by Mirrlees' Lud, but it's not the Shire that so many fantasy writers and publishers have taken as their model, it's all that pesky questing and evil-battling. There are no epic quests in this novel, and there is definitely nothing as comforting as a black-and-white delineation of good and bad.

Instead, Lud-in-the-Mist is somehow at the confluence of high fantasy rooted strongly rooted in folktale and a political thriller. It is written in a surprisingly straightforward, earthy style that nonetheless has plenty of room for some of the most beguiling and delightful descriptive passages I've ever read. It uses broad comedy side by side with the melancholy and the bittersweet. It can be read as a parable of class struggle, or as an endorsement of mind-altering drugs (keep in mind that it was published in 1926, so I highly doubt that this was what Mirrlees intended). It is most certainly about balancing the mundane and the miraculous (paraphrasing Gaiman's introduction), which perhaps explains how it came to be all these things at once.

There are quite a few elements that turned people off (judging from the reviews I've seen online) but every single one of them worked for me: yes, the first third or so was highly episodic; yes, Nathaniel Chanticleer seems a bit of a bumbling fool at first, and isn't exactly likable; yes, it is very British, and quite old, so everyone reads white (though the women come off quite a bit better than in most of the fantasy written by men at the time) and as I mentioned above there are plenty of classical references. If your reading diet is entirely post-Tolkien fantasy, this novel will come as a bit of a shock to the senses. But if you actually enjoyed some of those classics they forced on you in school (things like  Gulliver's Travels (Penguin Classics) , for instance, whether you read the satire or not) and want some fantasy with both a brain and a heart, this is absolutely the book for you.
25 people found this helpful
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phrynne
4.0 out of 5 stars A fairy story for adults with a lot of charm.
Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2019
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I read this mostly because I loved the title and that the residents of Lud must be Luddites! I also observed that Neil Gaiman, a favourite of mine, recommended it very highly.

Written in 1926, Lud-in-the-Mist is old fashioned and encompasses some out of date ideas, but mostly it is a fairy story for adults and it has a lot of charm. The author was obviously well educated and she wrote some very beautiful passages. I very much enjoyed her descriptions of Lud and its surroundings and the clever names she gave to places and people.

The story is slow but interesting and does not always go in the direction you expect. Sometimes the least likely people stand up and become heroes. I was very surprised though that after lots of very detailed events I was then short changed right at the end with no account of what happened in Fairyland!

So although I cannot rate it as highly as Mr. Gaiman, it was an enjoyable and interesting tale.
11 people found this helpful
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Julie Korhonen
5.0 out of 5 stars No regrets getting this published edition
Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2022
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Lud-In-The-Mist is a charming, surprising little book. I didn’t know books like this existed. Curiouser House always has such beautiful, thoughtful editions. The inside has a lovely art nouveau border and many surprise additions, especially Mirrlees’s modernist poem Paris at the end! These little butterflies and the decorative pink font on the cover sets the right mood for this beautiful story. This sacred, classic book deserves a presentation like this. No regrets buying this!
6 people found this helpful
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4boyz4me
3.0 out of 5 stars Wanted to like this so much more
Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2013
Lud-in-the-Mist is a sleep little town nestled between two rivers and between the sea and the hills that lead to Fairyland. Not much happens there and that's just the way the residents like it. Master Nathaniel Chanticleer has been there the whole 50yrs of his life as part of a very respectable and long established family and foresees ending his days there and having his son, Ranulph, take over the family home when he dies. But then Ranulph starts acting funny and the rumor is that he has partaken of the forbidden fairy fruit. He is sent away for his health but then many of the young girls are similarly afflicted and by the same thing and run off across the hills into the forbidden Fairyland. Throw in a bit of a murder mystery and you have this story in a nutshell.

I wanted to like this so much more than I did. Beautifully descriptive language in a rich world but I found it slow and tedious and the characters predictable with very little growth or true development about them. It was a quaint little tale but I felt like something was missing and the ending was rushed although that may have been because I predicted it at the outset.
4 people found this helpful
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Darren Lipman
5.0 out of 5 stars A Classic Story for Today's Readers
Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2014
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Lud-in-the-Mist is your classic fairy-story turned on its end and filled with as much magic, mystery, politics, and sociology as you could imagine--and for good results. Not only is it great fantasy on its own, it's also a satire of modern life--the modes we operate under, the ways in which we make sense of the world, and the limits we place upon ourselves as we rise into adulthood. Despite its apparent moralism, Lud-in-the-Mist is rich with entertaining and likeable characters, an elaborate plot, and a light tone that makes it easy to read and very memorable as well. If you like the Hobbit and other classic works of Faerie, you'll no doubt love this book.
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Kimberly Ann Anderson
5.0 out of 5 stars Don't buy "used and new" from e-campus.com
Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2006
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I like the book, its cute and weird, but I lost mine when I had it with me dining at the mall and took it with me into the movie theater there, forgot it in the theater isle during the movie when I set it down and never saw it again.

So I ordered a copy here through e-campus in "new and used" in Nov 05, they told me they would ship on Nov 23.. Its Jan 7th 06 and I still have yet to recieve it. I see they still have copies of it listed in the "buy new and used" section here. Beware, they list books that they do not have. Their ratings section is full of this advice but I did not read it in the first place :(
8 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Tim Pollok
5.0 out of 5 stars A classic!
Reviewed in Germany on August 31, 2017
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This is by right a fine example of classical fantastic literature. It centers on the meeting of two worlds the one of the fae and the one the humans of Lud made for themselves. While the human civilization is based on logic and the order of society, the fae is based on laws and powers maybe impossible to comprehend, but much more in line with nature and what lies beyond.The blurring of the line between both worlds isn't without conflict or pain, but it leads to a memorable finale and the insight of the importance of balance.
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blair mcfarland
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful writing, interesting premise
Reviewed in Australia on September 8, 2018
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One aspect of the book which delighted me was the authors vocabulary- she used many archaic words and phrases which placed the action back in time, gave a flavour of the lost complexity of rural life.
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Darth Maciek
5.0 out of 5 stars A nearly perfect fantasy book, much less known that it deserves
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 19, 2011
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I discovered this old and rare jewel recently and reading it was a quite unique experience. The beauty of this book is not so much in the action, but in the general atmosphere and in the masterly use of English language. After ending it I thirsted for more - but it was in vain, as Hope Mirrlees didn't write any more fantasy books.

Written in 1926 this book was for a longtime out of print and forgotten before being rediscovered in the 90s, to the greatest happiness of fantasy lovers. This element only adds to the aura of mystery surrounding Lud-in-the-mist, the imaginary town in an alternative world where most of the action takes place. I swallowed this book fast the first time and then I read it a second time, in a deliberately slower way, to enjoy it even more. I warmly recommend it to anybody who likes fantasy but also to a wider public, willing to discover an old, half forgotten treasure.

I must however add one - very limited - ounce of criticism. I didn't like the last three chapters (XXX to XXXII). I do not want to take off one star for that, but in my modest opinion this book would be perfect, if it have stopped at the last line of chapter XXIX. So if I can offer an advice, the first time you read this book, stop at that moment, then give yourself a couple of days to savour this experience, and only then read the last three chapters. If you like them, fine. And if you do not, well, you will have always the memory of your first impression...

This is an excellent book, a rare jewel - to buy, read, keep and pass to your children.
23 people found this helpful
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Linda in Nepean, Canada
3.0 out of 5 stars Not always an easy read
Reviewed in Canada on March 25, 2024
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I am torn when it comes to assessing this book. The overall story is quite good, quirky but good. If I could, I would give the book 3 1/2 stars but I cannot give it 4 because parts of it were tiring to read. The writing goes along quite fine/normal then all of a sudden there will be a paragraph long sentence filled with words that are just this side of sensible. I get that the story is set in an unreal place and that having a strange manner of speaking adds to the atmosphere, but I found myself stopping too many times to reread sentences or paragraphs because there were just too many odd words in a row. For me, that sort of thing distracts from the story and reduces my enjoyment of a book. Maybe it’s just a “me” problem. I am not sorry I used a credit for this book but it was not as good as I had hoped based on the recommendation by Neil Gaiman who is an excellent writer.
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Izzielickedabee
3.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful but oddly paced
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 7, 2018
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Hope Mirrlees has been called the ‘forgotten female modernist’; she and her partner Jane Harrison had close links to writers such as T.S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf - who famously referred to them as ‘living in a Sapphic flat somewhere’ and commented on the size of Mirrlees’s ankles in her diary. Mirrlees’s epic modernist poem ‘Paris’ was originally published by the Hogarth Press, it was widely praised, and said to have influenced Virginia Woolf’s own ‘Jacob’s Room’. Mirrlees also wrote three novels. Yet, unlike Woolf and Eliot, Mirrlees’s work was out of print for many years until her 1926 book ‘Lud-in-The-Mist’ was revived in the 70s, claimed as a founding text in the development of the fantasy genre. It’s also frequently promoted by author Neil Gaiman whose own ‘Stardust’ pays homage to Mirrlees’s work; and now it’s been reissued yet again as a commercial paperback.

Mirrlees draws on her knowledge of classical mythology, folklore and superstition to construct a complex fantasy world centred on the country of Dorimare. Dorimare has a traumatic history, once a land of magic ruled over by the despotic Duke Aubrey it’s now a republic firmly rooted in the material and the mundane, exemplified by its capital the prosperous commercial town Lud-in-the-Mist. Yet the memory of a past ‘dim and evil, a heap of rotting leaves’ although repressed refuses to entirely disappear, the geography of Dorimare won’t allow that: to the south is the sea, north and east are mountains, in the middle regions a lush plain but in the west past the Debatable Hills lies Fairyland, unvisited for centuries. The west, in myth and folklore, is often associated with the setting sun and the ‘land of the dead’ so perhaps it’s unsurprising that no traveller has ever returned from Fairyland to tell their tale. The only trace of Fairyland in Dorimare is the illicit trade in fairy fruit which - as in Christina Rossetti’s ‘Goblin Market’ or the myth of Persephone- has sinister connotations and even more sinister effects for anyone who eats it. The citizens of Dorimare are so anxious to avoid contamination by fairy fruit that anyone who’s suspected of consuming it will be shunned.

The central character of Mirrlees’s story is Master Nathaniel Chanticleer the newly-elected mayor of Lud-in-the-Mist. Chanticleer’s from a prominent family, like his fellow Ludites he appears to take pride in a ‘lack of imagination’ and ‘inability to feel serious emotion’, yet he has a secret fear. As a child he came across an ancient relic from Dorimare’s past, a lute which gave out a note ‘so plangent, blood-freezing and alluring’ that it continues to haunt him – the ‘allure’ suggests a link to the siren song referenced in the novel’s epigraph. The ‘note’ sets him apart and his name – the rooster in fairy tales and fables – suggests he will be instrumental in some kind of ‘awakening’. The story takes off after Chanticleer’s son may have eaten fairy fruit, this is followed by a series of mysterious events: at Crabapple’s Academy for Young Ladies the soles of its pupils’ slippers are worn down by their obsessive, near-ritualistic dancing, like the legendary Maenads they may have conjured up ancient spirits or ghosts; the town is rife with suspicions of hidden identities, murder, and the sense that facts are ‘losing their solidity’, it seems that finally Fairyland must be confronted.

I found this novel fascinating for its construction of other worlds and its invocation of myth and legend. It’s beautifully written, lucid and packed with lush imagery particularly that of the natural world. Mirrlees also introduces familiar tropes that were interesting to track and identify: Chanticleer the unlikely hero forced to undertake a quest for knowledge, although the quest is more an internal one which forces him to question his beliefs; the idea of the world beyond borders which harbours the unknown, a source of pollution, that is simultaneously denied and desired. It was easy to see why the novel’s been subjected to a range of academic considerations of fantasy literature; its themes of mortality, desire and transgression allow for a multiplicity of interpretations, Freudian and beyond. However, as a general reader I found this a challenging read, not in terms of the writing but the structure, for me far too much space is given to exposition at the expense of plot; it wasn't until late in the story that I had any real sense of what the novel’s concerns might be. Although that uncertainty was also pleasurable, the novel was clearly written in relation to the complex, mysterious fairy tales that preceded it –George MacDonald’s for instance – rather than the fantasy novels that came after, which meant that the narrative didn’t progress in accordance with genre conventions I could easily identify. Overall, I think this book is worth reading but only if the reader is prepared to match their pace with its own leisurely steps, otherwise I think it could be a frustrating encounter.
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