"A literary rebirth of wonder has produced an outpouring of imaginative books filled with elves, gnomes, dragons, giants, and unicorns. From the movemen'ts dawn-song or prelude in Granny's Wonderful Chair to such contemporary tales as Watership Down, fantasy writers have thrown open 'magic casements' on worlds filled with marvels, fresh insights, and a very special joy. Now Marion Lochhead's charming and enlightening Renaissance of Wonder reveals the nineteenth-century roots and modern flowering of such fantasy and faery literature. Renaissance of Wonder begins with a study of the achievement of George MacDonald, one of the key figures in this movement. Marion Lochhead then traces the development of the genre through the writings of Juliana Ewing, Mrs. Molesworth, Mary de Morgan ('Mrs. Oakchest'), E. Nesbit, Rudyard Kipling, John Masefield, and Walter de la Mare. The book culminates in brilliant studies of the major contributions of J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis." --