Manlove, C N
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author, Critic.
(1942-2020) Scottish critic, most of whose work of interest focused on Fantasy, beginning with Modern Fantasy: Five Studies (coll 1975). The Impulse of Fantasy Literature (1983) concentrates on UK fantasy, and tends not to deal with the more recent popularity of the genre in the USA. C.S. Lewis: His Literary Achievement (1987) and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Patterning of a Fantastic World: A Reader's Companion competently argue the case for an author who divides critics into acolytes and disbelievers (see C S Lewis); further studies of fantasy interest include Christian Fantasy: From 1200 to the Present (1992); Scottish Fantasy Literature: A Critical Survey (1994) and The Fantasy Literature of England (1999) are both surveys in which Fantasy is taken as extending from the earliest days until now, and consistently illuminating national character. Of direct sf interest is Science Fiction: Ten Explorations (coll 1986), which smoothly (though at times gingerly) engages with the fiction of ten writers, including some, like Philip José Farmer and Gene Wolfe, who had received relatively little academic attention. [JC]
Colin Nicholas Manlove
born Falkirk, Scotland: 4 May 1942
died 1 June 2020
works
- Modern Fantasy: Five Studies (Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1975) [nonfiction: coll: hb/from Aubrey Beardsley]
- The Impulse of Fantasy Literature (London: Macmillan, 1982) [nonfiction: book is dated 1983: hb/from Kay Nielsen]
- Science Fiction: Ten Explorations (London: Macmillan, 1986) [nonfiction: coll: hb/Ron Mercer]
- C.S. Lewis: His Literary Achievement (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1987) [nonfiction: C S Lewis: hb/]
- Christian Fantasy: From 1200 to the Present (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1992) [nonfiction: hb/nonpictorial]
- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Patterning of a Fantastic World: A Reader's Companion (Twayne Pub, 1993) [nonfiction: C S Lewis: pb/]
- Scottish Fantasy Literature: A Critical Survey (Edinburgh, Scotland: Canongate Academic, 1994) [nonfiction: hb/from John Martin]
- The Fantasy Literature of England (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1999) [nonfiction: hb/from Arthur Rackham]
- From Alice to Harry Potter: Children's Fantasy in England (Christchurch, New Zealand: Cybereditions, 2003) [nonfiction: pb/]
- The Order of Harry Potter: Literary Skill in the Hogwarts (no place given: Winged Lion Press, 2010) [nonfiction: pb/]
works as editor
- An Anthology of Scottish Fantasy (Edinburgh, Scotland: Polygon, 1996) [anth: pb/Fionna Robson]
links
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