Ursula K. Le Guin’s "A Wizard of Earthsea"
A Critical Companion
Ursula K. Le Guin’s "A Wizard of Earthsea" A Critical Companion
Written not so long after "Tolkien mania" first gripped the United States in the 1960s, Ursula K. Le Guin's novel A Wizard of Earthsea (1968) has long been recognized as a classic of the fantasy genre, and the series of Earthsea books that followed on it over the next several decades earned its author both considerable sales and critical accolades. This new introduction to the text will closely contextualize the original novel in relation to its heady decade of composition and publication — a momentous time for genre publishing — and also survey the half century and more of scholarship on Earthsea, which has shifted in direction and emphasis many times over the decades, just as surely as Le Guin frequently adjusted her own sails when composing later works set in the fantasy world. Above all, this book positions A Wizard of Earthsea as perhaps an "old text" that nevertheless belongs in a "new canon," a key novel in the author's career and the genre in which it participates, and one that at once looks back to Tolkien and his own antecedents in masculinist early fantasy; looks forward to Le Guin's own continuing feminist and progressive education; and anticipates and indeed helped to shape young adult literature in its contemporary form.
Reviews

frances@tanghalian

Ghazal@lazaqazal

A. D. Knapp@haselrig

Maria@nocturnes

Terra Ganey@tmganey

Bilge Ince@bilge

levipack@levipack

Louis Connaire@louisjc

Winona @notnoni

Erik Wallace@erikwallace

Jacque@jacque_who

rumbledethumps@rumbledethumps

Ahmet Emre Aslan@aemreaslan

Ira Cummings@irafcummings

Boothby@claraby

Ed Kay@edk

Andrew Louis@hyfen

Jeff James@unsquare

Ryan LaFerney@ryantlaferney

andrea@adolin

Briar Rose@briarrosereads

Mike M@magikalmichael

Janice Hopper@archergal

Tilde C@slettlune
Highlights

daniela@typenull
Page 8

Bilge Ince@bilge

Bilge Ince@bilge

Bilge Ince@bilge

Bilge Ince@bilge

Bilge Ince@bilge

Phoemela Ballaran@comoballar

Phoemela Ballaran@comoballar

loisesya@lois
Page 168

loisesya@lois

loisesya@lois
Page 112