The king of Elfland's daughter (1924)

A wish for a magical ruler brings a mortal family into contact with Elfland, where time and attachment do not behave as they do at home. Dunsany's repeated phrases and luminous distances make enchantment feel like an altered state of attention. The cost falls on people trying to love across that difference. Choose it for incantatory language and longing, with an older fairy-tale manner rather than modern conversational prose.