The Curse of the Wise Woman

The Curse of the Wise Woman (1933) is a novel by Lord Dunsany, differing from his earlier books by its Irish setting and restrained use of fantasy elements.

Left in charge of the family estates, he uses his freedom to indulge his love of field sports, focusing especially on wildfowl-shooting on a nearby peat bog.

In his introduction to a 1976 reissue Dennis Wheatley said that it would "appeal to those who love shooting, hunting and magnificent descriptions of the beauties of nature".

He felt that the Irish countryside "comes across so vividly that the reader is all but transported there", but he nevertheless emphasised the importance of its otherworldly elements: "between the finest magical cursing and conjuring scenes Dunsany ever wrote and the vision of Tir-nan-Og, the book has the feel of the purest fantasy".

[8][5] S. T. Joshi called The Curse of the Wise Woman Dunsany's most unified novel,[9] while an anonymous Kirkus reviewer offered the contrary opinion that it fell between the two schools of mysticism and rustic realism.