Zalane itibaren Anielewo, Polandia itibaren Anielewo, Polandia

A book within a book. Another of Gardner's reinterpretations of fantasy from a modern context. Freddy is a monstrous boy locked in his room by his father, a professor of scandinavian literature. He writes a book which the narrator, a colleague of the professor's, gets his hands on, and reads - as do we. The boy's novel is set in a fantastical Scandinavia where the devil walks the earth wrestling with the King and his knights. The book within a book presentation provides an interesting perspective on mythical fantasy which resonates with me. The fantastical novel is pretty clearly an outgrowth of Freddy's reaction to the life he is living - not so much an escape as a transformative dream.