A review by foggy_rosamund
Kingdoms of Elfin by Sylvia Townsend Warner

4.0

These stories were written towards the end of Warner's life, following the death of her partner. They are largely melancholy, and tend to have an air of ironic detachment from their subject matter. They are a departure from Warner's other work, because while supernatural elements do enter her novels, most notably Lolly Willowes, these are strictly fantasy stories. They are concerned with the different Kingdoms of Elfin, which exist alongside the human world, in Scotland, Brittany, Austria, Turkey, and almost any country imaginable. The elfin, who have wings and sometimes green skin, but are around the same size as humans, take little interest in humans, except to take human children and use them as companions or servants. They are concerned with the rituals of courtly life, and live long, unchanging lives, and have no immortal souls or sense of an afterlife. The stories are reminiscent of Susanna Clarke's work, particularly the short story collection, The Ladies of Grace Adieu, although Warner is more concerned with the internal workings of the elfin kingdoms, than with their interactions with the human world. At times, this is almost an academic history of imaginary kingdoms -- Warner said she wanted to include footnotes, and I wish she had done, as they would have added to the reader's sense of an immersive history. This collection is very enjoyable in the way Borges's stories, or the history of faerie parts of Clarke's work, are enjoyable. They are clever, chilling, and imaginative. It's definitely an esoteric work, and would not have broad appeal -- but I found it to be a lot of fun!