George MacDonald

"I was dead, and right content," the narrator says in the penultimate chapter of Phantastes. C.S. Lewis said that upon reading this astonishing 19th-century fairy tale he "had crossed a great frontier," and numerous others both before and since have felt similarly. In MacDonald's fairy tales, both those for children and (like this one) those for adults, the "fairy land" clearly represents the spiritual world, or our own world revealed in all of its depth and meaning. At times almost forthrightly allegorical, at other times richly dreamlike (and indeed having a close connection to the symbolic world of dreams), this story of a young man who finds himself on a long journey through a land of fantasy is more truly the story of the spiritual quest that is at the core of his life's work, a quest that must end with the ultimate surrender of the self. The glory of MacDonald's work is that this surrender is both hard won (or lost!) and yet rippling with joy when at last experienced. As the narrator says of a heavenly woman in this tale, "She knew something too good to be told." One senses the same of the author himself. Newly designed and typeset in a modern 6-by-9-inch format by Waking Lion Press.

Phantastes

Diamond, a young boy living in nineteenth-century London, has many adventures as he travels with the beautiful Lady North Wind and comes to know the many facets of her protective and violent temper.

At the Back of the North Wind

Curdie, the miner's son, meets Princess Irene's magical great-great-grandmother, who tells him that Irene and her father face grave danger in Gwyntystorm.

The Princess and Curdie

The Light Princess (Classic Fairy Tale Collection)

The Princess and Curdie (Puffin Classics)

The adventurous wanderings of a boy and girl to find the keyhole which fits the rainbow's golden key.

The Golden Key

George MacDonald occupied a major position in the intellectual life of his Victorian contemporaries. This volume brings together all eleven of his shorter fairy stories as well as his essay "The Fantastic Imagination". The subjects are those of traditional fantasy: good and wicked fairies, children embarking on elaborate quests, and journeys into unsettling dreamworlds. Within this familiar imaginative landscape, his children's stories were profoundly experimental, questioning the association of childhood with purity and innocence, and the need to separate fairy tale wonder from adult scepticism and disbelief.

The Complete Fairy Tales

This is one volume in the four-volume collection of the complete fantasy stories of George MacDonald, the great nineteenth-century innovator of modern fantasy, whose works influenced C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams.

The Wise Woman and Other Stories

Introductions by notable contemporary authors and illustrators, an appealing trim size and iconic cover art breathe new life into these beloved classics.

The Princess and the Goblin

A sulky princess and the parents who have spoiled her have some surprises in store when a wise woman with a touch of magic kidnaps the princess.

A Double Story

The Lost Princess

The Sequel to this is: The Lady's Confession.

The Curate's Awakening

Sir Gibbie

The Day Boy And The Night Girl

Fantastes

In the late 19th century, a fisherman's family goes about its daily life.

The Fisherman's Lady

Michael R. Phillips

This entertaining and inspiring story by the great nineteenth-century novelist, George MacDonald, is a sequel to his Curate's Awakening and Lady's Confession.

The Baron's Apprenticeship

THE LIGHT PRINCESS When the Light Princess was born, somebody screwed up an invitation to her christening and left out her evil aunt. Who was a witch! That evil aunt vented her spleen by casting a spell on the Princess that left her immune to gravity. Which was a strange (and often inconvenient!) way for things to be -- more than once the wind caught hold of her while she slept, and you can go the most amazing places on the wind if you have no weight. Then, when the princess got to be a young woman, she met a young prince and fell in love -- and the results of that love are the very essence of this tale . . . Also included in this volume are "The Giant's Heart," "The Golden Key," "Cross Purposes," and "The Shadows." "I have never concealed the fact that I regarded him as my master . . . The quality that had enchanted me in his imaginative works turned out to be the quality of the real universe, the divine, magical, terrifying and ecstatic reality in which we all live." --C. S. Lewis "One of the most remarkable writers of the nineteenth century" --W. H. Auden

The Light Princess and Other Fairy Stories

Sir Gibbie (Illustrated)

This is the Original and unabridged text of Lilith. Lilith is considered among the darkest of George MacDonald's works, and among the most profound. It is a story concerning the nature of life, death, and salvation. In the story, MacDonald mentions a cosmic sleep that heals tortured souls, preceding the salvation of all. MacDonald was a Christian universalist, believing that all will eventually be saved. However, in this story, divine punishment is not taken lightly, and salvation is hard-won. Mr. Vane 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.

George MacDonald

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