The Book of Wonder · Chapters

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Chapter companions for The Book of Wonder by Lord Dunsany.

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Chapter 1
Acknowledgments
The author thanks the editors of The Sketch and The Saturday Review for permission to reprint the tales in this collection, noting that some were abbreviated for publication and are now presented in full.
Chapter 2
The Book of Wonder
A collection of fantastical adventures set at the edge of the world, introducing various characters and their quests in a mythic, wonder-filled landscape.
Chapter 3
The Bride of the Man-Horse
On his 250th birthday, the centaur Shepperalk leaves his mother's cavern in the Athraminaurian mountains, taking a golden amulet and the silver horn of the centaurs. He gallops across the mundane plain, reveling in freedom and speed, passing through cities of men who tremble at the memory of ancient mythical wars. His goal is Zretazoola, the city of Sombelenë, a being of divine and mythical lineage, unwed and unwooed. He finds her temple by a lake, seizes her by the hair, and carries her away, blowing three blasts on his horn as his wedding bells.
Chapter 4
Distressing Tale of Thangobrind the Jeweller
Thangobrind, a renowned thief-jeweller, accepts a Merchant Prince's quest to steal the Dead Man's Diamond from the spider-idol Hlo-hlo. He successfully drugs the priests and steals the gem, but Hlo-hlo follows him. In a final battle on the narrow way, Thangobrind is overcome and hanged in place of a left-hand man, while the Merchant Prince's daughter becomes tediously respectable.
Chapter 5
The House of the Sphinx
The narrator arrives at the House of the Sphinx seeking shelter from a dark forest. The Sphinx and her attendants are in a state of dread following a mysterious 'deed,' and they fear the arrival of an 'arch-inquisitor of the forest.' The narrator attempts to help by oiling the lock, but the door is too decayed to hold. As a hideous laughter approaches, the narrator escapes through a back route, climbing down a pine tree into the forest, leaving the Sphinx to her uncertain fate.

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Acknowledgments

The Book of Wonder

The Bride of the Man-Horse

Distressing Tale of Thangobrind the Jeweller

The House of the Sphinx