‘Fantasticals’ in Poetry and Prose

by James Sale
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7 books
I like works that are highly imaginative and include altered states of being, incredible reconstructions of psychologies, histories, and improbabilities, whether it be in prose or poetry. This list contains some very famous examples and some relatively unknown ones: each one’s a classic in its own right.
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The Divine Comedy

Dante Alighieri, 2010
This is a masterpiece and one of the most famous poems in the Western canon – to read the journey into Hell (the Inferno) alone is to thrill the imagination with the sheer invention of what the poet-pilgrim witnesses and experiences. This is one of those books you have to read before you die.

Legends of Liberty

Volume 2
Andrew Benson Brown, 2024
Buy volume 1 as well, it’s almost as good: the American War of Independence as you’ve never seen it before. Andrew Benson Brown is – though you’ve probably never heard of him – probably America’s best poet currently writing. See why – get ahead of the curve – by reading this masterwork: its linguistic facility is extraordinary AND it is so very funny – you will laugh out loud.

Will Shakespeare Die?

Gordon James, 2020
This book is a total obscurity, but having mentioned Dante (the Italian number 1), it seems only right to mention Shakespeare (the English number 1). I am not aware of anything else by this author, but this is an incredible reconstruction of Shakespeare’s life, not only then, but in a contemporary time frame through the use of Simon Forman (a contemporary of Shakespeare who gives us the first recorded attendance at Macbeth!), black magic et al! Unbelievable, but read it – is there a direct descendant of Shakespeare’s living today? Find out.

Virtue's End

A Continuation of Spenser's Faerie Queene
Joseph Sale, 2021
I could have included Spenser’s Faerie Queen in this list – since it is so fantastical! Instead, I am choosing this attempt to complete the FQ in a modern idiom: Virtue’s End is a magical incantation designed to invoke and vivify that which has been lost by the modern world. It is a lyrical, occult fantasy-epic following Horus, a sorcerer blessed with both hellish and heavenly powers, who, upon meeting a demon, embarks on a strange quest to save the mystical seat of human imagination. Say no more!

Paradise Lost

The Biblically Annotated Edition
John Milton, 2011
My favourite poem in the English language: awesome, fantastic and fantastical – the scenes in Hell, the War in Heaven, the journey by Satan across Chaos – all wonderfully rendered and described. Like Lord of the Rings, once you start reading this, you can’t stop. And like Dante, read before you die.

Legacy

Michael Pietrack, 2022
This book is different from the others in that it is a fable – and so fabulous - and also a book you can read to your children too. But it shares in common with them a marvelous imagination: focusing on the epic quest of a bee to save his colony. Lighter relief than Dante, perhaps, but a tale extremely well told. Again, another American poet who should be better known.
The Saga Begin

The Fellowship of the Ring

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, Christina Scull, 2005
This book hardly needs promotion by me, but if you haven’t read it, it is the quintessence of what fantastical means. You may have seen the films instead, or even the new Amazon Rings of Power, which tell the prequel – either way, it’s a story one cannot get enough of! And the films are different from the book – Tom Bombadil, for example, in is the book but not the film trilogy; however, you will find him in the second series of the Rings of Power. Fascinating.