Fantastic worlds : myths, tales, and stories / edited and with commentaries by Eric S. Rabkin.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- The sources of the fantastic -- Genesis (KJV) -- The Blackfoot Genesis / George Bird Grinnell, ed. -- The eye of the giant / Ada Cardinall, ed. -- How I brought death into the world / Amos Tutuola -- The myth of Actaeon ; The myth of Narcissus ; The myth of Philomela / Ovid -- The ghost wife / George Bird Grinnell, ed. -- The magic swan geese / Alexandr Afanas'ev, ed. -- Why tortoise's shell is not smooth / Chinua Achebe -- How Mr. Rabbit was too sharp for Mr. Fox / Joel Chandler Harris -- Paul Bunyan on the Columbia / Esther Shephard -- Little Red-cap ; The sleeping beauty ; Hansel and Grethel / Jakob Grimm ; Wilhelm Grimm -- The tinderbox / Hans Christian Andersen -- The tale of Cosmo / George MacDonald -- Leaf by Niggle / J.R.R. Tolkien -- The diversity of fantastic literature --Our ideas of time / Joseph Addison -- Ritter Gluck / E.T.A. Hoffmann -- The oval portrait / Edgar Allan Poe -- The garden of live flowers / Lewis Carroll -- The secret life of Walter Mitty / James Thurber -- The royal banquet / Norton Juster -- The sandman / E.T.A. Hoffmann -- The black cat / Edgar Allan Poe -- The picture in the house / H.P. Lovecraft -- The hand / Joseph Sheridan LeFanu -- The moonlit road / Ambrose Bierce -- Lost hearts / M.R. James -- Golden wings / William Morris -- The sword of Welleran / Lord Dunsany -- The five black swans / Sylvia Townsend Warner -- The facts in the case of M. Valdemar / Edgar Allan Poe -- The birthmark / Nathaniel Hawthorne -- The star / H.G. Wells -- EPICAC / Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. -- The third level / Jack Finney -- The star / Arthur C. Clarke -- The judgment ; A common confusion / Franz Kafka -- Cockroaches / Bruno Schulz -- Pierre Menard, author of the Quixote / Jorge Luis Borges -- Axolotl / Julio Cortázar -- Pastoral / Tommaso Landolfi -- All at one point / Italo Calvino -- There is no such place as America / Peter Bichsel -- The piano player / Donald Barthelme -- Homage to the San Francisco YMCA / Richard Brautigan -- The marker / Robert Coover -- The zebra storyteller / Spencer Holst.

An anthology of over fifty tales, myths, and stories of fantastic fiction that were collected from various lands and time periods.