The Essence of Fantasy: A Matter of Belief

The purpose of this book is to offer a reading of modern fantasy that asserts the primacy of belief as the cornerstone of the genre. Analytical definitions of fantasy by recent critics are inadequate because belief, a non-structural component of fantasy, has been largely ignored. The question of belief is sloppy’. A balance must be created between the analysts concerned with the form of fantasy, and those writers, including George MacDonald, Arthur Machen, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Stephen Donaldson and Mervyn Peake, who are more concerned with the heart of fantasy, which I believe can be described as a belief in either the supernatural underpinnings of the universe, or in man as he stands alone in the universe.