Little Kingdoms is a collection of three novellas.
The first, "The Little Kingdom of J. Franklin Payne," is quintessential Millhauser. It tells the story of an artist (a cartoonist) in a early 20th century who constructs ever more elaborate and fantastical art, using a wealth of period detail and a traditional prose style littered with passages that clearly describe Millhauser's methods as much as they do Payne's. It feels very much like a rehearsal for Martin Dressler.
"The Little Kingdom of J. Franklin Payne" ultimately reveals itself to be a fairy tale told with realist trappings. The second story, "The Princess, the Dwarf, and the Dungeon," takes the opposite approach. As its title suggests, it is explicitly a fairy tale but is really about the concerns of the townspeople and not the residents of the castle.
"Catalogue of the Exhibition" is a biography of an artist told through the interpretive labels on his paintings. I found it less compelling than the other two, although the story does build to a nicely grand and violent climax.
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