How much of it do people still read, that you'd be likely to find in a typical bookstore? Aside from George MacDonald and things that are similar but not exactly the same as modern fantasy novels, such as various collections of fairy tales and epics like the Odyssey, I can't think of any examples. The Chronicles of Narnia were published in the 50's, whereas the Hobbit was released in 1937.
No clue why you are being downvoted. You are 100 percent correct. If anything, we are now saddled with Tolkien's dry tropes as the defining element of "fantasy".
Here are some pre-Tolkien authors people may be interested in:
* Dunsany
* Mirrlees
* Hodgson
* Eddison
* Howard
* Lovecraft
* and there are more, just google them, these are just the ones that come to mind
