Lud-in-the-Mist
core novel 1926 Lud-in-the-Mist
Record
| First published | 1926 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.85 (10,252 ratings, collected 2026-09-14) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9781434487520 |
Synopsis
Lud-in-the-Mist is set in the orderly, prosperous town of Lud-in-the-Mist, whose respectable citizens have for generations banished all thought of the neighboring, otherworldly land of Fairyland from their lives, their laws, and even their language, treating the very subject as indecent. That carefully maintained denial is threatened when forbidden fairy fruit begins infiltrating the town's shops and homes, working a strange, unsettling influence on its young people that the town's staid authorities are ill-equipped to understand, let alone stop. As the fruit's effects spread and Lud-in-the-Mist's carefully ordered civic life begins to fray, the town's newly appointed mayor, Nathaniel Chanticleer, is forced, against every instinct of his upbringing, to confront the Fairyland his society has spent generations pretending does not exist, and to reckon with what that long denial has actually cost the town.
Where it sits
- Universe: Lud-in-the-Mist
- Series: not part of a registered series (standalone work within its universe)
- Author: Hope Mirrlees
Notes
- First published 1926. Mirrlees' third and final novel, and her only fantasy work -- her other 2 novels (Madeleine: One of Love's Jansenists, 1919; The Counterplot, 1920) are unrelated mainstream/modernist fiction, not part of this universe or any shared fantasy continuity, so this remains a genuine single-work fantasy universe despite not being its author's only published book. Named by Neil Gaiman (already in this canon many times over) as one of his favorite novels and 'one of the finest [fantasy novels] in the English language.' Predates the Hugo Award (1953) by decades -- zero contemporary genre awards exist.
Sources
← Lud-in-the-Mist dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.