The Undesired Princess
Fantasy | |
Publisher | Fantasy Publishing Company, Inc. |
---|---|
Publication date | 1951 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Print (hardback) |
Pages | 248 |
The Undesired Princess is a 51,000 word fantasy novella by American writer L. Sprague de Camp. It was first published in the fantasy magazine Unknown Worlds for February 1942.[1] It was published in book form by Fantasy Publishing Company, Inc. in 1951.[2][1] The book version also includes the 10,000 word fantasy short story "Mr. Arson",[2][3] first published in Unknown for December 1941.[3] The book (including both stories) was bound together with Stanley G. Weinbaum's The Dark Other in the omnibus collection Fantasy Twin by the same publisher in 1953.[2][4] The title story was also published in paperback by Baen Books in 1990 together with David Drake's story The Enchanted Bunny, under the combined title The Undesired Princess & the Enchanted Bunny.[1]
The first stand-alone edition of the title story was published as an
Contents
The Undesired Princess
The title story concerns Rollin Hobart, a man transported to another
Mr. Arson
The second story features Carl Grinnig, who accidentally conjures up a
Reception
Critical response to the book has been largely favorable. At the time of its publication P. Schuyler Miller commented that "Hobart's adventures ... have the utterly reasonable brand of unreasonableness which most [de Camp] readers know and relish," and called the second story as "a bonus," concluding "[i]f you like humor-in-fantasy, who can afford to miss a new de Camp?"[7] Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas called it one "of the best novels from 'Unknown,'" and stated it had "that splendid absurd rigorousness which distinguishes such other vintage de Camp items as the Harold Shea series."[8] Groff Conklin, on the other hand, felt the book suffered by comparison to Rogue Queen, another de Camp novel published the same year, which he found much more impressive. He cited the unevenness in quality he perceived between the two books as an example of "why de Camp has puzzled and exasperated his fans." He noted that "[e]verything in the [titular] tale has [a] haywire quality of being or not being, plus a lot of pleasant de Campish plotcident and nonsense along with it." Summing up his opinion of the two stories in the book, he wrote that "[b]oth these fantasies are clever, glib, and wholly unimportant."[9]
In more recent assessments,
References
- ^ a b c d The Undesired Princess title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- ^ a b c Laughlin, Charlotte; Daniel J. H. Levack (1983). De Camp: An L. Sprague de Camp Bibliography. San Francisco: Underwood/Miller. pp. 100–101.
- ^ a b Mr. Arson title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- ^ Fantasy Twin title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- ^ Orion Publishing Group's L. Sprague de Camp webpage
- ^ Amazon.com entry for e-book edition
- ^ Miller, P. Schuyler. "The Reference Library," Astounding Science-Fiction, October 1951, pp.141-142.
- The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October, 1951, p. 59.
- ^ Conklin, Groff. "Galaxy's 5 Star Shelf," Galaxy Science Fiction, October 1951, p.88.
- ^ E. F. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction, Kent State University Press, 1983, p.140
- ^ Silver, Steven H. "Steven Silver's Reviews," The SF Site: The Best in Science Fiction and Fantasy, December 1997.
- ^ D'Ammassa, Don. "De Camp, L. Sprague (1907-2000)," in D.Ammassa, Don. Encyclopedia of Fantasy and Horror Fiction, New York: Facts on File, c2006, page 81.
Sources
- Chalker, Jack L.; Mark Owings (1998). The Science-Fantasy Publishers: A Bibliographic History, 1923-1998. Westminster, MD and Baltimore: Mirage Press, Ltd. p. 271.