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Some works straddle the border between realism and fantasy. They bring fantastic elements into an otherwise realist work, or create dream worlds that are designed to be reflections of the real magic in our lives.
Surrealism - works with a dream world with incongruous details, sudden metamorphosis and rich symbolism. Surrealism may have a comic or philosophical purpose.
La Belle Bête
Blais, Marie-Claire
Montréal: Cercle du livre de France, 1968.
The love-hate story of a sister who thinks she is too ugly for such a handsome brother.
Not Wanted on the Voyage
Findley, Timothy
Toronto: Viking, 1984.
This retelling of the story of Noah's Ark presents Noah as a tyrant, gives the Ark a concentration camp atmosphere, delivers Lucifer in drag and casts Mrs. Noah and a blind cat in the main roles.
Les Enfants du sabbat
Hébert, Anne
Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1975.
Sister Julie longs to be a nun like the others in her convent. But her dreams and her destructive powers make her very different and the Mother Superior is convinced that the spirit of evil has entered her House and that the Devil has fathered Sister Julie's child.
L'Araignée du silence et autres nouvelles
Jolicoeur, Louis
Québec: L'Instant même, 1987.
Five short stories about Grégoire and the changes he is going through.
Courtesy of Les Éditions de L'instant même.
The Great Victorian Collection
Moore, Brian
New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1975.
Was the priceless collection of Victoriana illusion or reality? How was the collection amassed? And where was the line between fact and dream as the dream took on physical form?
The Heart of the Ancient World
Roberts, Charles G.D.
Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1974.
This fable of an orphan growing up in the wilderness focuses on the impact of love, innocence, exile and death on the human experience of nature.
Courtesy of McClelland & Stewart Inc.
The Double Hook
Watson, Sheila
Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1989, c1966.
Members of a small community in the interior of British Columbia are caught on the double hook of the desire to flee from danger and to search for glory.
Courtesy of McClelland & Stewart Inc.
Man in the Glass Octopus
Yates, J. Michael
Vancouver: Sono Nis Press, 1968.
Set up as reports of Sono Nis' obsession with his own consciousness, these writings are neither short stories nor factual accounts. Hovering somewhere between philosophy, creativity, pretension and hoax (note the name of the publisher) Man in the Glass Octopus is an exercise in surrealistic discomfort.
Inspecting the Vaults. Eric McCormack.
Cover illustration: Sandra Dionisi. Markham, Ont.: Penguin
Books Canada, 1987.
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Copyright. The National Library of Canada. (Revised: 1995-06-17)