/lit/ - Literature

Idle Days On The Yann (1910) is a picturesque short story by Lord Dunsany. There is little dialogue, little plot and structure, only the narrator's recollection of a dream where he sails on a merchant ship down a broad river in a fantastical landscape. He is acquainted with the captain and the crew and observes their customs as well as the diverse cities and geography they sail by. The prose is reflective, visual and reads like a folk tale or piece of oral storytelling, not the King James Bible vernacular Dunsany is commonly associated with. I suppose this is a direct influence on Lovecraft's dream cycle, but this reads more smoothly and lucidly. I was also reminded of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities. This is more of a fifteen page prose poem than a short story but it deserves full marks. Great summer evening reading. 5/5.