William Morris ~8 hr read

Stolen as a babe by a witch and raised in captivity, the maiden Birdalone steals a magic boat and sails across enchanted waters toward freedom, love, and wondrous isles.

William Morris's 1897 novel is a landmark of modern fantasy, notable for its brave heroine. Lyrical, archaic, hugely influential. Read it for a beautiful quest-romance centered on a resourceful young woman's escape and adventures, told in Morris's dreamlike prose, a foundational fantasy that gave the genre one of its first great female protagonists.

In its time

Published in 1897, during the 1890s, wells arrives.

Reading it

~8 hr read (a novel-length work, settle in).