The Disappearing Dwarf (1983) is James Blaylock’s

James Blaylock

James Paul Blaylock is an American fantasy author.He is noted for a distinctive, humorous style, as well as being one of the pioneers of the steampunk genre of science fiction....

 second published book, and the second of the trilogy that started with The Elfin Ship

The Elfin Ship

The Elfin Ship was James Blaylock’s first published book. It is the first of three fantasies by Blaylock about a world peopled by elves, dwarves, goblins, and normal people, as well as a smattering of wizards, witches, and other fanciful beings. The world has magic well as pseudo-science...

. The characters are mostly drawn from the first book, while the plot revolves around another encounter with the villain Selznak. As before, the world has magic well as pseudo-science, and scientific explanation depends on tongue-in-cheek scientific concepts.

The story is set in a world in which human beings live alongside elves, dwarves, goblins, and other fanciful beings including linkmen, a kind of gnome

Gnome

A gnome is a diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, first introduced by Paracelsus and later adopted by more recent authors including those of modern fantasy literature...

.

Plot summary

Professor Wurzle, a know-it-all scientist, inveigles Jonathan, the master cheeseman of the High Valley, into accompanying him on a trip downriver. Wurzle's real plan is to revisit Hightower Castle, from which the heroes routed Selznak in the previous novel. There the pair discover a treasure map and encounter Miles the Magician, a travelling wizard, in a nearby inn. Miles alerts them that the Squire, a linkman they befriended in the previous novel, has disappeared. Learning that Selznak was seen nearby at the time they fear the worst.

The trio travel to the Territory, ruled by the Squire's father. There they once again encounter linkmen poets Bufo and Gump, as well as Twickenham the elf

Elf

An elf is a being of Germanic mythology. The elves were originally thought of as a race of divine beings endowed with magical powers, which they use both for the benefit and the injury of mankind...

, who flies the mysterious elfin airship. Twickenham and Miles determine that the Squire has accidentally activated the Lumbog Globe, a magical paperweight allowing travel into the land of Balumnia. Balumnia can also be reached through magical doors, using one Jonathan, Ahab, the Professor, Miles, Bufo, and Gump enter Balumnia.

The group has adventures as they make their way to Landsend, a major port and subject of the treasure map. The dark presence of Selznak and an omnipresent, sinister witch is mitigated by light encounters with an inept stage magician, and an extraordinarily extended panegyric

Panegyric

A panegyric is a formal public speech, or written verse, delivered in high praise of a person or thing, a generally highly studied and discriminating eulogy, not expected to be critical. It is derived from the Greek πανηγυρικός meaning "a speech fit for a general assembly"...

 to the virtues of coffee. In Landsend the adventurers encounter the natural fool Dooly with his grandfather Theophile Escargot, who trades in Balumnia using his marvellous submarine. After searching for the treasure, the group splits and Jonathan, Ahab, and the Professor find themselves once again menaced by the evil Selznak, who is plotting to use the Lumbog Globe to terrorize the High Valley. As in the previous novel, however, unexpected allies such as the Strawberry Baron and Cap'n Binky of the magical blend prove crucial in resolving the plot.

Literary Precedents

The first novel Blaylock wrote to completion was The Man in the Moon

The Man in the Moon (book)

The Man in the Moon was James Blaylock’s first completed novel, however it remained unpublished for decades...

, a fantasy inspired by Kenneth Grahame

Kenneth Grahame

Kenneth Grahame was a Scottish writer, most famous for The Wind in the Willows , one of the classics of children's literature. He also wrote The Reluctant Dragon; both books were later adapted into Disney films....

’s Wind in the Willows, Mark Twain

Mark Twain

Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...

's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel by Mark Twain, first published in England in December 1884 and in the United States in February 1885. Commonly named among the Great American Novels, the work is among the first in major American literature to be written in the vernacular, characterized by...

, The Brownies and the Goblins by Nathaniel Moore Banta, and illustrations by Arthur Rackham

Arthur Rackham

Arthur Rackham was an English book illustrator.-Biography:Rackham was born in London as one of 12 children. At the age of 18, he worked as a clerk at the Westminster Fire Office and began studying part-time at the Lambeth School of Art.In 1892 he left his job and started working for The...

. Submitted for publication circa 1978, the novel was initially rejected by editor Lester Del Rey

Lester del Rey

Lester del Rey was an American science fiction author and editor. Del Rey was the author of many of the Winston Science Fiction juvenile SF series, and the editor at Del Rey Books, the fantasy and science fiction branch of Ballantine Books, along with his fourth wife Judy-Lynn del Rey.-Birth...

and subsequently rewritten and published as The Elfin Ship in 1982. In 1983 The Disappearing Dwarf reunited the characters for a second adventure.