Please note: This audiobook has been created using AI voice.
The Water of the Wondrous Isles is a landmark in fantasy fiction. First published a year after Morrisâs death in 1897 by Kelmscott PressâMorrisâs own printing companyâthe novel follows Birdalone, a young girl who is stolen as a baby by a witch who takes her to serve in the woods of Evilshaw.
After she encounters a wood fairy that helps her escape the witchâs clutches, Birdalone embarks on a series of adventures across the titular Wondrous Isles. These isles are used by Morris both as parables for contemporary Britain and as vehicles for investigating his radical socialist beliefs. As Birdalone travels through the isles she slowly evolves into the embodiment of the Victorian ânew woman,â embracing hard physical labor, healthy exercise, higher education, socialist values, and financial freedom, while rejecting sexual exploitation, physical abuse of both women and children, and the restrictive sexual mores of the era. This makes her unique in the fantasy fiction of the era as one of the genreâs first examples of a strong female hero.
This socialistfeminist allegory is presented in an Arthurianstyle fantasy world complete with magic, witches, fairies, knights both chivalrous and evil, and castles (indeed, anyone doubting the allegorical nature of the work only needs to look at the name of the taleâs main redoubt: âThe Castle of the Questâ). The language is purposefully archaic, reveling in vocabulary drawn from the languageâs Anglo roots; and the prose is lent a hypnotic quality by its lack of quotation marks to offset dialog, and its short chapters characterized by a fairytalenarrative voice.