The Charwoman's Shadow

With an introduction by Peter S. Beagle

An old woman who spends her days scrubbing the floors might be an unlikely damsel in distress, but Lord Dunsany proves once again his mastery of the fantastical. The Charwoman's Shadow is a beautiful tale of a sorcerer's apprentice who discovers his master's nefarious usage of stolen shadows, and vows to save the charwoman from her slavery.

Praise for The Charwoman's Shadow

"Lord Dunsany is the great grandfather of us all."--Jane Yolen, winner of National Book Award, Nebula Award, and Wolf Fantasy Award

"Lord Dunsany is the fountainhead of all twentieth-century fantasy. He was certainly the finest inventor of titles ever to grace English Literature."--Dave Duncan, author of The Gilded Chain

"How wonderful that Del Rey is bringing back The Charwoman's Shadow and The King of Elfland's Daughter for readers, new and old alike, to discover them anew. It will be a delight to read it for the first time again."--Dennis L. McKiernan, author of The H l's Crucible duology

"These two novels have as much of Wonder and Faerie in them as you'll find anywhere in English, and the prose itself is remarkable both for its richness and its simplicity. Dunsany can entertain any reader and teach any writer."--David Drake, author of Lord of the Isles


About the Author
Lord Dunsany was Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, the eighteenth baron of an ancient line. He hunted lions in Africa, taught English in Athens, fought in the Boer and Kaiserian wars, and was wounded in the service of his country. As senior peer of Ireland, he saw three sovereigns crowned at Westminster; part of the renaissance of Irish drama, he hobnobbed with Yeats and Synge and Lady Gregory during the great days of Dublin's Abbey Theatre. He was peer, sportsman, soldier, playwright, globe-trotter, and once chess champion of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. He wrote more than sixty books before his death in 1957 and influenced some of the greatest writers of our time.