The Travel Tales of Mr. Joseph Jorkens

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The Travel Tales of Mr. Joseph Jorkens
TheTravelTalesOfMrJosephJorkens.jpg
First edition
Author Lord Dunsany
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Series Jorkens
Genre Fantasy
Publisher G. P. Putnam's Sons
Publication date
1931
Media typePrint (hardback)
Followed by Jorkens Remembers Africa  

The Travel Tales of Mr. Joseph Jorkens is a collection of fantasy short stories by writer Lord Dunsany. It was first published in London by G. P. Putnam's Sons in April, 1931, with the American edition following in September of the same year from the same publisher. It was the first collection of Dunsany's Jorkens tales to be published. It has also been issued in combination with the second book, Jorkens Remembers Africa , in the omnibus edition The Collected Jorkens, Volume One , published by Night Shade Books in 2004.

Contents

The Jorkens stories are set in the London gentleman's or adventurer's club of which the title character is a member. They usually open with another member mentioning an interesting experience he has had; this rouses Jorkens, who in return for a whisky-and-soda (merely to "moisten his throat," you understand!) goes the other member one better with an extraordinary tall tale, supposedly from his own past. His stories often tip well over the boundaries of the plausible, into the realms of fantasy, horror, or even science fiction, and his auditors can never be quite sure what proportion of what he relates was truly experienced and to what degree he might have embellished.

The initial Jorkens collection includes thirteen short pieces by Dunsany.

Contents

Importance

Dunsany's Jorkens stories, themselves in the tradition of such tall tales as the Baron Munchausen stories, essentially established the genre of the fantastic tall club or bar tale, inspiring such disparate later descendants as L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt's Tales from Gavagan's Bar , Arthur C. Clarke's Tales from the White Hart , Sterling E. Lanier's Brigadier Ffellowes stories, Larry Niven's The Draco Tavern stories, Isaac Asimov's Black Widowers mysteries, Spider Robinson's tales of Callahan's Place, and even the animated cartoon series "The World of Commander McBragg".

Typically, the club tale features one particular raconteur notorious for his colorful history and unbelievable reminiscences, who relates memoirs of his life to initially incredulous fellow club members; by the end of the story the latter are usually at least half taken in by the unlikely tale, and count the expense well worth it. Major variations include a recurring cast of club members or bar regulars with the story-teller being an outsider, non-fantastic (but still interesting) tales, or settings that are themselves fantastic, rendering the tales themselves more believable within their fictional context. The format has proven endlessly adaptable, with notable instances to be found in the science fiction (Clarke and Robinson) and mystery (Asimov) genres as well as fantasy.

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Jorkens Remembers Africa is a collection of fantasy short stories, narrated by Mr. Joseph Jorkens, by writer Lord Dunsany. It was first published in New York City by Longmans, Green & Co. in October, 1934, with the English edition following in November of the same year from the same publisher. It was the second collection of Dunsany's Jorkens tales to be published. It has also been issued in combination with the first book, The Travel Tales of Mr. Joseph Jorkens, in the omnibus edition The Collected Jorkens, Volume One, published by Night Shade Books in 2004.

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The Peculiar Exploits of Brigadier Ffellowes is a collection of fantasy short stories by Sterling E. Lanier. The stories take the form of tall tales told in a bar or club, similar to the Jorkens stories of Lord Dunsany. It was first published in New York by Walker in 1971, and in London by Sidgwick & Jackson in 1977. The English edition includes an introduction by Arthur C. Clarke. The collection was also published together with John Morressy's Frostworld and Dreamfire as the Sidgwick & Jackson double Science Fiction Special 35 in 1981. The stories originally appeared in issues of the Fantasy and Science Fiction between August, 1968 and July, 1970.

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Tales from the Spaceport Bar is an anthology of science fiction club tales edited by George H. Scithers and Darrell Schweitzer. It was first published in paperback by Avon Books in January 1987. The first British edition was issued in paperback by New English Library in 1988.

References