In which William Morris dreams a dream, encounters a merry band of hobbits, watches as they defeat Sharkey's ruffians in the Battle of Bywater... Oops. Wrong book.

"Nevertheless, I say to you, remember the Fellowship, in the hope of which ye have this day conquered; and when ye come to London be wise and wary; and that is as much as to say, be bold and hardy; for in these days are ye building a house which shall not be overthrown, and the world shall not be too great or too little to hold it: for indeed it shall be the world itself, set free from evil-doers for friends to dwell in."

I got bogged down with the formal, 19th-Century prose style, and didn't get much out of reading this book.

I need a refund for my time.

William Morris is an amazing artist, but his writing style dragged. A short book took me 2 hours and half to read because of the strange dialogue. If you begin your story by stating that you're not going to replicate the language because it seemed too strange, then it follows that you should use contemporary Victorian language.

The story was too overtly didactic - large swathes of dialogue dedicated solely to criticism of social climate was too much. I adored the idea of meeting someone in a dream and Morris could have done so much with it, but he instead opted to stuff his narrative with dialogue that was somehow Early Modern English and Victorian English simulataneously.

An inspiring short novel, although slightly dry at parts.