#3: "The Sword of Welleran" by Lord Dunsany

If you've never read "The Sword of Welleran", I think you're in for a treat. If you already have, you know what you're in for. :) Dunsany is beautiful and strange and original and even funny. Many great and many bad writers have copied him, but nobody can write like him, or in as many strange and original styles as he did.

Here's the scoop. An undefended city. Citizens who have forgotten war. Enemies on the march. Seven dead heroes of old.

"We have loved many women, Merimna, but only one city."

Here's a very nice potted biography of Dunsany, which acknowledges the literary infighting and politics which led to the relative obscurity he enjoys today. You can also read his 1909 collection The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories at Gutenberg.

Download here.