George MacDonald

This book has been considered by academicians and scholars of great significance and value to literature. This forms a part of the knowledge base for future generations. We havent used any OCR or photocopy to produce this book. The whole book has been typeset again to produce it without any errors or poor pictures and errant marks.

"Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood" is the first part of the Parish Trilogy. The novel is actually a collection of reminiscences of the new minister at the small place, his work and relationship with people in the parish on the other hand and his rising love for the daughter in Oldastle Hall on the other hand. It is fascinating to observe how a vicar's life looked like and how he dealt with certain situations in order to bring his people towards God. "The Seaboard Parish" is the sequel to The Annals and it is the second part of the trilogy. The story of a vicar Harry Walton continues with bringing on some of the new characters, firstly Mr. Percival, a struggling artist who steals the heart of a vicar's daughter, young Ethelwyn. "The Vicar's Daughter" is the third and final part of the trilogy. It is a fictional autobiography narrated by Ethelwyn Percivale, whose father is a gentle, intelligent clergyman. Wynnie has a happy childhood and falls in love with a struggling painter. The book is a series of anecdotes, involving both Wynnie and her family and also her increasing circle of friends, including an extraordinary Miss Marion Clare, a fine young lady who decides to live among the poor and tend to their spiritual needs. George MacDonald (1824-1905) was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister. He was a pioneering figure in the field of fantasy literature and the mentor of fellow writer Lewis Carroll. His writings have been cited as a major literary influence by many notable authors. G. K. Chesterton cited The Princess and the Goblin as a book that had "made a difference to my whole existence".

George MacDonald was a spiritual and literary forbear of writers such as C. S. Lewis, W. H. Auden, G. K. Chesterton, and Madeleine L'Engle. "Lilith" is the account of a man who has never thought much about the laws of nature or his place in the universe or much of anything for that matter. Then, while minding his own business in his own home and his own library, he suddenly finds himself face to face with another world. It is his own world, but he had never known there was more to it. Likewise, he discovers that there was more to himself. But first he must meet Lilith, and find his way, and himself, in the swirling relationship between her, Adam and Eve, and God himself.

George Macdonald, scrittore di genere fantastico, si dice abbia influenzato Tolkien e Lewis, oltre che rivestire un ruolo importante in ambito teologico, essendo un ministro di culto cristiano scozzese. Lewis (l'autore delle Cronache di Narnia) lo riteneva addirittura un suo "maestro", e scrisse che un giorno, leggendo Phantastes, pens di "aver attraversato una grande frontiera". Il Paese delle Fate, di cui narra in questo romanzo, uno dei suoi pi famosi, pubblicato nel 1858, pi un luogo dello spirito che un mondo organizzato in una realt parallela, come nei successivi romanzi del genere fantasy. Il protagonista, in seguito ad un desiderio, espresso inavvertitamente, di visitare il Paese delle Fate, si trova costretto ad un vero viaggio iniziatico nel suo inconscio personale e collettivo, dove, insieme a dolori passati non elaborati, proiezioni di donne ideali, e incubi presenti e passati espressi in vecchie leggende, rivivr storie gi lette o sognate, e trover anche le risorse per superare i dolori e le paure e divenire un uomo reale, non pi l'eroe idealizzato dalla sua fantasia di ragazzo. Questa versione integrale, completa di tutte le poesie, canzoni che sono l'arma pi potente per sciogliere ogni incantesimo, ed accompagnata dalle illustrazioni originali di Arhtur Hughes, presenti nella prima edizione.

In the dusk of the old-fashioned best room of a farm-house, in the faint glow of the buried sun through the sods of his July grave, sat two elderly persons, dimly visible, breathing the odor which roses unseen sent through the twilight and open window. One of the two was scarcely conscious of the odor, for she did not believe in roses; she believed mainly in mahogany, linen, and hams; to the other it brought too much sadness to be welcomed, for it seemed, like the sunlight, to issue from the grave of his vanished youth. He was not by nature a sad man; he was only one that had found the past more delightful than the present, and had not left his first loves.

Rare edition with unique illustrations and elegant classic cream paper. Princess Irene lives in a castle in a wild and lonely mountainous region. One day she discovers a steep and winding stairway leading to a bewildering labyrinth of unused passages with closed doors - and a further stairway. What lies at the top? Can the ring the princess is given protect her against the lurking menace of the boglins from under the mountain? Princess Irene's discovery of a secret stair leads to a wonderful revelation. At the same time, Curdie overhears a fiendish plot by the goblins. Princess Irene & Curdie must make sense of their separate knowledge & foil the goblins' schemes. Includes vintage illustration

Blessed with quiet but keen dark eyes and a complexion given a white-rose tinge by the fresh Scottish air, Maggie MacLean has grown to learn and love the trade of her father, the village's soutar, or shoemaker. A friend of her childhood has returned, she learns -- James Blatherwick, home from Edinburgh, where he was a divinity student. Yet the proud young man speaking so ably from the pulpit has a secret -- one he almost conceals from himself. Then an even stranger arrival startles her, when she stumbles upon the crying bairn -- a baby, abandoned upon the moor.

THE PRINCESS AND THE GOBLIN - A BOOK THAT INSPIRED TOLKIEN. With original illustrations. THE PROFESSOR'S BOOKSHELF #5: Professor J. R. R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, was a great admirer of George MacDonald's fairy-stories. When his children were young, he used to read The Princess and the Goblin to them in the evenings, before they went to bed.'Tolkien knew well MacDonald's children's books "The Princess and the Goblin" and "The Princess and Curdie," both of which influenced Tolkien's depiction of goblins in The Hobbit, ' writes Douglas A. Anderson in 'Tales Before Tolkien: The Roots of Modern Fantasy'. Dart-Thornton's introduction notes similarities between this story and Tolkien's works, for example: 'The wise, magical, prescient grandmother of the Princess Irene, seems to be a literary ancestor of Galadriel; centuries old and yet looking young, a queen, a healer, a beautiful, golden-haired woman associated with water. 'Princess Irene has a magic ring which is associated with invisibility, being linked to a semi-visible thread. This ring aids her in an escape from the Goblin Underground, much as The One Ring aids Bilbo.'This new edition contains ten illustrations by Jessie Willcox-Smith from the 1920 edition, which was published when Tolkien was aged 28, his eldest child John was three years old and his second child Michael had just been born. The delicately beautiful drawings of Willcox-Smith have been loved by generations of children to this very day. Also included is an illustration by Arthur Hughes from the 1911 edition.

This novel, written in first person, is Wilfrid reminiscing as an old man. The style is typical of MacDonald. Sentences are long with lots of clauses and phrases. It will not tire lovers of 18th and 19th Century English literature, but it may be off-putting to those with modern preferences. Virtues are always on display, including acts of honor, faithfulness, and devotion. Wickedness in various guises, especially pride and greed, are features of certain characters. Wilfred is mostly admirable throughout his life, but is by no means without faults. At one point as a young college student at Oxford he confesses overweening pride and the deception that comes from it. His descriptions of the friends and enemies around him are engaging in true MacDonald fashion. His romantic attractions to several women at different times adds interest and an element of intrigue. His pure, deep brotherly love of a fellow male student is moving and stands in stark contrast to the jaded contemporary view that any such friendship must have homosexuality as it's likely outcome. By the end of the book, as an older man, Wilfrid has grown into a measure of Christ's grace. He confesses death to self-will. When given an opportunity to perhaps marry a woman he formerly loved, before she married someone else and was subsequently widowed, he defers to the will of God. He prays, "School thou my heart so to love thy will that in calmness I leave to think what may or may not be it's choice, and rest in its holy self." May that be our prayer.

Lilith by George MacDonald. Lilith is a fantasy novel written by Scottish writer George MacDonald and first published in 1895. Mr. Vane, the protagonist of Lilith, owns a library that seems to be haunted by the former librarian, who looks much like a raven from the brief glimpses he catches of the wraith. After finally encountering the supposed ghost, the mysterious Mr. Raven, Vane learns that Raven had known his father; indeed, Vane's father had visited the strange parallel universe from which Raven comes and goes and now resides therein. Vane follows Raven into the world through a mirror (this symbolistic realm is described as "the region of the seven dimensions", a term taken from Jacob Boehme). Inside the world, Vane learns of a house of beds where the dreamers sleep until the end of the world in death: a good death, in which life is found. Vane's grandfather refused to sleep there and is, instead, forced to do battle with skeletons in a haunted wood. After a treacherous journey through a valley (where the moon is the only thing to keep him safe), Mr. Vane meets the Little Ones, children who never grow up, remaining pure children or becoming selfish and getting bigger and dumber, turning into "bags" or bad giants.

Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women by George MacDonald and edited by Greville MacDonald. The tale starts the day after Anodos' twenty-first birthday. He discovers an ancient fairy lady (whom he learns could be his grandmother) in the desk which he opens with a key that he inherited as a birthright from his late father. After the fairy shows him Fairy Land in a vision, Anodos awakes the next day to find that his room, crafted after natural elements, is taking literal form and transforming into a wood. He discovers that he has been transported to Fairy Land. Anodos then encounters a woman and her daughter in a cottage who warn him about the Ash Tree and the Alder Tree, who seek to destroy him. He is told that the spirits of these trees can leave their tree-hosts and wander throughout Fairy Land. He then explores the world of the fairies, which live in flowers, causing them to glow. The flowers, he is told, die if the fairies leave. He then has a nightmarish encounter with the spirit of the Ash Tree, escapes, and finds rest in the warmth and love of the Beech Tree's spirit.