A Voyage to Arcturus is an intensely inventive work of the imagination, set in a wild and wholly original fantasy world. It proved a seminal influence on J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis (who called it the "real father" of his Space Trilogy), it was one of the first books to be reprinted in the cele-brated Ballantine Adult Fantasy series of the late 1960s, it has been adapted for radio, theatre, and film (in a 1971 version by William Holloway), and it has inspired the work of musicians, composers, and artists. It remains one of the strangest works of twentieth century literature. -Murray Ewing