George MacDonald
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"The strife of thought, accusing and excusing, began afresh, and gathered fierceness. The soul of Lilith lay naked to the torture of pure interpenetrating inward light. She began to moan, and sigh deep sighs, then murmur as if holding colloquy with a dividual self: her queendom was no longer whole; it was divided against itself…. At length she began what seemed a tale about herself, in a language so strange, and in forms so shadowy, that I could but here and there understand a little." —Lilith (1895) by George MacDonald |
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George MacDonald (10 December 1824 — 18 September 1905) was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister.
Though no longer well known, his works (particularly his fairy tales and fantasy novels) have inspired admiration in such notables as W. H. Auden, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Madeleine L'Engle. For instance C. S. Lewis wrote that he regarded MacDonald as his "master". Picking up a copy of Phantastes one day at a train-station bookstall, he began to read: "A few hours later," said Lewis, "I knew that I had crossed a great frontier." G. K. Chesterton cited The Princess and the Goblin as a book that had "made a difference to my whole existence."
Elizabeth Yates wrote of Sir Gibbie, "It moved me the way books did when, as a child, the great gates of literature began to open and first encounters with noble thoughts and utterances were unspeakably thrilling."
Even Mark Twain, who initially disliked MacDonald, became friends with him, and there is some evidence that Twain was influenced by MacDonald.
Partial list of works
- Within and Without (1855)
- Poems (1857)
- Phantastes (1858)
- Cross Purposes (1862)
- David Elginbrod (1863) (republished as The Tutor's First Love)
- The Portent (1864)
- Adela Cathcart (1864) (contains The Light Princess, The Shadows, The Giant's Heart, My Uncle Peter, A Journey Rejourneyed and other shorter stories)
- A Hidden Life and Other Poems (1864)
- Alec Forbes of Howglen (1865) (republished as The Maiden's Bequest)
- Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood (1867)
- Unspoken Sermons (1867)
- Dealings with the Fairies (1867) (contains The Golden Key)
- The Disciple and Other Poems (1867)
- Guild Court: A London Story (1868)
- Robert Falconer (1868) (republished as The Musician's Quest)
- England's Antiphon (1868, 1874)
- The Seaboard Parish (1868)
- The Miracles of Our Lord (1870)
- At the Back of the North Wind (1871)
- Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood (1871)
- Works of Fancy and Imagination (1871)
- Wilfrid Cumbermede (1871, 1872)
- The Vicar's Daughter (1871, 1872)
- The Princess and the Goblin (1872)
- The History of Gutta-Percha Willie, the Working Genius (1873)
- Malcolm (1875) (republished as a two-volume work containing The Fisherman's Lady and The Marquis' Secret)
- The Lost Princess (1875) [alternative title: * The Wise Woman: A Parable]
- Exotics (1876)
- St. George and St. Michael (1876)
- Thomas Wingfold, Curate (1876) (republished as The Curate's Awakening)
- The Marquis of Lossie (1877) (republished asThe Marquis’ Secret)
- Paul Faber, Surgeon (1879) (republished asThe Lady's Confession)
- Sir Gibbie (1879) (republished as The Baronet's Song)
- A Book of Strife, in the Form of the Diary of an Old Soul (1880)
- Mary Marston (1881) (republished as A Daughter's Devotion)
- Warlock O' Glenwarlock (also entitled The Laird's Inheritance or Castle Warlock)
- Weighed and Wanting (1882) (republished as A Gentlewoman's Choice)
- The Gifts of the Child Christ and Other Tales (1882)
- Orts: Chiefly Papers on the Imagination, and on Shakespeare (1882)
- The Day Boy and the Night Girl (1882)
- The Princess and Curdie (1883, sequel to ' The Princess and the Goblin ')
- Donal Grant (1883) (republished as The Shepherd's Castle) Companion story of Gibbie and his friend Donal
- A Threefold Cord: Poems by Three Friends (1883)
- Stephen Archer and Other Tales (1883)
- Preface to Letters from Hell by LWJS (1884)
- The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: A Study with the Test of the Folio of 1623 (1885)
- Unspoken Sermons, Second Series (1885)
- What's Mine's Mine (1886) (republished as The Highlander's Last Song)
- Poems (1887)
- Home Again, a Tale (1887) (republished as The Poet's Homecoming)
- The Elect Lady (1888) (republished as The Landlady's Master)
- Unspoken Sermons, Third Series (1889)
- A Rough Shaking (1891)
- There and Back (1891 (republished as The Baron's Apprenticeship)
- The Flight of the Shadow (1891)
- A Cabinet of Gems (1891)
- Life Essential: The Hope of the Gospel (1892)
- Heather and Snow (1893) (republished as The Peasant Girl's Dream)
- A Dish of Orts (1893)
- The Poetical Works (1893) (including many previously unpublished poems)
- Scotch Songs and Ballads (1893)
- Lilith (1895)
- Salted with Fire (1896) (republished as The Minister's Restoration)
- Far above Rubies (1898)
- Evenor (1972 (collection of three stories)