Tolkien Compared to Contemporary Authors - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Bêthberry · 12-22-2009, 09:41 AM

Interestingly, there's another writer aside from Byatt who mines the old veins of Victorian literature for her work, Susanna Clarke. Her Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell might be called fantasy or it might be called an alternate history but she does for the myriad styles of the nineteenth century what Tolkien does for the style of the old Northern epics and like Byatt she uses the tools of scholarly style to instill a sense of verisimilitude. (Is that too Victorianist a word to use here? ) She's particularly good at naming names, another Tolkien trait. Her exploration is with magic and fairie and it's both scary and macabre. Also filled with a few historical anachronisms too, although hers is a bit more significant than Tolkien's umbrellas.

12-22-2009, 09:41 AM	#5
Bêthberry Cryptic Aura Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 6,005	Interestingly, there's another writer aside from Byatt who mines the old veins of Victorian literature for her work, Susanna Clarke. Her Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell might be called fantasy or it might be called an alternate history but she does for the myriad styles of the nineteenth century what Tolkien does for the style of the old Northern epics and like Byatt she uses the tools of scholarly style to instill a sense of verisimilitude. (Is that too Victorianist a word to use here? ) She's particularly good at naming names, another Tolkien trait. Her exploration is with magic and fairie and it's both scary and macabre. Also filled with a few historical anachronisms too, although hers is a bit more significant than Tolkien's umbrellas. __________________ I’ll sing his roots off. I’ll sing a wind up and blow leaf and branch away.