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A Prisoner in Fairyland (1913) is a novel by Algernon Blackwood. Having already established himself as a promising short story writer, Blackwood began publishing novels at the age of 40. A lifelong occultist, Blackwood was interested in the fine line between the human and spiritual realms, often incorporating supernatural elements into his work. A Prisoner in Fairyland is a story of a wealthy retiree's return to the wonderful imaginative world of his youth. Hoping to spend the rest of his life in service of others, he gets the old Starlight Express up and running again. "For, from boyhood up, a single big ambition had ever thundered through his being-the desire to be of use to others. To help his fellow-kind was to be his profession and career." Henry Rogers has always been a dreamer. On the brink of retirement, he plans to use his carefully accumulated wealth to fulfill his philanthropic destiny. Initially unsure of the shape of his charitable contribution to society, a trip to his childhood home changes everything. There, he finds the old train carriage where he would spend days at a time immersed in a world of fantasy and adventure. Back on the Starlight Express, Rogers plans to take deserving passengers to the wondrous realm of Fairyland. He soon discovers, however, that his impassioned beliefs-however well-intentioned-risk condemnation and persecution from those whose investments on Earth prevent them from indulging in imaginative excursions into the unknown. A Prisoner in Fairyland is a story for children and adults alike, a novel that poses timeless questions regarding the nature of our existence, both upon earth and beyond. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Algernon Blackwood's A Prisoner in Fairyland is a classic work of British literature reimagined for modern readers.
About the author
Algernon Henry Blackwood, CBE was an English broadcaster, journalist, novelist, and short story writer who lived from March 14, 1869, to December 10, 1951. He was one of the most productive ghost story writers in history. An expert on literature, S. T. Joshi, said, "His work is more consistently meritorious than any weird writer's except Dunsany's." He also said that his collection of short stories, Incredible Adventures (1914), "may be the premier weird collection of this or any other century." The place where Blackwood was born was Shooter's Hill, which is now in southeast London but used to be in northwest Kent. He stayed at Crayford Manor House in Crayford from 1871 to 1880 and went to Wellington College for school. His dad, Sir Stevenson Arthur Blackwood, ran the Post Office, and his mom, Harriet Dobbs, was the ex-wife of the 6th Duke of Manchester. "Though not devoid of genuine good-heartedness," Peter Penzoldt said of his father, "he had appallingly narrow religious ideas." After reading the writings of a Hindu teacher that were left at his parents' house, Algernon became interested in Buddhism and other eastern ideas.
