Crowley, John
Crowley, John (1942– ),American author of Little, Big (1981), an ambitious, highly influential work of American fantasy. The novel begins with a quest motif as the hero sets off from a magical version of New York City to the extraordinary country house where his fiancée awaits him. The tale is set in modern America yet has the flavour of British Victorian fiction, moving leisurely through an enchanted landscape filled with secrets within secrets, stories within stories. Crowley draws upon a dazzling breadth of fairy lore and classic fantasy themes to create a vivid fairy world coexisting with our own. The book weaves numerous disparate threads into a bright and seamless cloth—making use of traditional folklore motifs (‘changeling’ tales, animal guides, fairy godmothers, ‘the sleeper under the hill’) as well as imagery from Mother Goose rhymes, William
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