This was one of C.S. Lewis’ favorite books, and it is obvious that Lewis borrowed quite a bit from MacDonald’s ideas. I found several passages that were very similar to passages in Lewis’ books. There is also a lengthy introduction to the book by Lewis that is well worth reading.
This 1850′s fantasy novel involves a man whose grandmothers were descended from the fairies. Because of this, he is granted access to a fairy land where he encounters several strange and wonderful creatures–some benevolent and some malevolent. Both he and the reader learn lessons in his journey through this land and back again to his home world.
“Yet I know that good is coming to me–that good is always coming; though few have at all times the simplicity and the courage to believe it. What we call evil, is the only and best shape, which, for the person and his condition at the time, could be assumed by the best good.”
Although I prefer Lewis’ books to MacDonald’s, I did enjoy this older fantasy tale. Earlier this year I read The Princess and the Goblin by MacDonald and enjoyed it very much. I plan to read the sequel The Princess and Curdie and also another adult tale, Lilith, in 2008.
This is a delightful story about eight year old Princess Irene, her great-great-great-great grandmother, and a miner boy named Curdie. Together they fight to foil the goblins’ sinister schemes. Little Irene is a true princess and acts like a little lady, while Curdy is a very brave and heroic boy.
Highly recommended for all ages. I will try to read the sequel, The Princess and Curdie, sometime this year as well. I am also set to read Phantastes by MacDonald for the Fantasy Challenge. I can’t wait to get to this more “adult” fantasy tale. I really enjoyed MacDonald’s writing, and I am not at all surprised that he was an inspiration to both Lewis and Tolkien.
sage – April 21, 2007
I’ve read a few of McDonald’s fantasies, but not this one. Thanks for the review
heidijane – April 22, 2007
Thanks for the review. Sounds like a book I may need to add to my (ever-growing) wishlist…
This book took me a loooong time to read, but I’m really glad I read it. It is so well-written and a really good mystery. I did guess some of the plot elements, but I still was very engrossed and wanted to keep reading to make sure my guesses were correct.
The “woman in white” is Anne Catherick, who has escaped from an asylum and knows, or think she knows, a Secret about a nobleman. This nobleman wants to marry Laura Fairlie, but she is in love with her art instructor, Walter Hartwright. Marian Holcomb is Laura’s half-sister and is always looking out for Laura’s interests. The two are inseparable. Will Laura marry the nobleman–Percival Glyde–the man her father wanted her to marry? Or will she marry Walter Hartwright, the love of her life? Who is really after her money? Is Count Fosco just a charming foreigner or a “foreign spy”? Whose interests is he looking after? These questions and more will be answered when you embark on this wonderfully written gothic tale–a classic mystery that should be read by all.
It is said that Robert Louis Stevenson revised A Child’s Garden of Verses and wrote Kidnapped and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in a time span of under two years–if only all of us could be so productive! This is a very short book and can easily be read in a few hours, so I encourage you to read it if you have not. I was very surprised I waited this long myself.
It tells the story of how Dr. Jekyll conducted an experiment to separate the evil and the good in his personality. Mr. Hyde was the result of his evil side coming out. Dr. Jekyll’s appearance was so altered that he was unrecognizable–both in appearance and actions. What was very interesting to me was that the experiment was done not just for “scientific research”, but because Dr. Jekyll admitted to actually enjoying his more sinful side. He wanted to separate the two personalities, in other words, so he could participate in the evil activities while still considering his “real self” to be essentially good. Of course he eventually loses control of the experiment with disastrous results. This simple tale teaches us the true nature of good and evil and our propensity to desire sin. It should be read by all!
Favorite passages:
First, because I have been made to learn that the doom and burthen of our life is bound for ever on man’s shoulders; and when the attempt is made to cast it off, it but returns upon us with more unfamiliar and more awful pressure.
I could have screamed aloud; I sought with tears and prayers to smother down the crowd of hideous images and sounds with which my memory swarmed against me; and still, between the petitions, the ugly face of my iniquity stared into my soul.
I was once more tempted to trifle with my conscience; and it was as an ordinary secret sinner, that I at last fell before the assaults of temptation. There comes an end to all things; the most capacious measure is filled at last; and this brief condescension to evil finally destroyed the balance of my soul.
I became, in my own person, a creature eaten up and emptied by fever, languidly weak both in body and mind, and solely occupied by one thought: the horror of my other self.
Silas Marner is a weaver who has cut himself off from the world because of a severe wrong done to him. He becomes a hermit and a miser who only cares about his gold. When his gold is stolen from him, he is devastated. However, losing the money actually wakes him up a bit because he has to converse with his neighbors about his loss, whereas before he would only talk “business”.
Soon a little girl comes into his life that opens up his heart and soul. Their love for each other as two “castaways” is truly heartwarming. Highly recommended classic.
Favorite passages:
Minds that have been unhinged from their old faith and love, have perhaps sought this Lethean influence of exile, in which the past becomes dreamy because its symbols have all vanished, and the present too is dreamy because it is linked with no memories.
The yoke a man creates for himself by wrong-doing will breed hate in the kindliest nature; and the good-humoured, affectionate-hearted Godfrey Cass was fast becoming a bitter man, visited by cruel wishes, that seemed to enter, and depart, and enter again, like demons who had found in him a ready-garnished home.
Favourable Chance, I fancy, is the god of all men who follow their own devices instead of obeying a law they believe in…Let him forsake a decent craft that he may pursue the gentilities of a profession to which nature never called him, and his religion will infallibly be the worship of blessed Chance, which he will believe in as the mighty creator of success. The evil principle deprecated in that religion is the orderly sequence by which the seed brings forth a crop after its kind.
Formerly, his heart had been as a locked casket with its treasure inside; but now the casket was empty, and the lock was broken.
The fountains of human love and of faith in a divine love had not yet been unlocked, and his soul was still the shrunken rivulet, with only this difference, that its little groove of sand was blocked up, and it wandered confusedly against dark obstruction.
As the child’s mind was growing into knowledge, his mind was growing into memory: as her life unfolded, his soul, long stupefied in a cold narrow prison, was unfolding too, and trembling gradually into full consciousness.
In old days there were angels who came and took men by the hand and led them away from the city of destruction. We see no white-winged angels now. But yet men are led away from threatening destruction: a hand is put into theirs, which leads them forth gently towards a calm and bright land, so that they look no more backward; and the hand may be a little child’s.
Well, it’s late and I just finished reading this play by Aristophanes. It’s about two guys who go to the birds to set up a utopian city in the clouds so they can “oust” the gods from Olympus. Supposedly the birds were created before the Titans and were more worthy of being worshipped than the Olympians.
I guess this is supposed to be a parody of utopianism. It is funny in places, though some of it was bawdy. I’m glad I read this play because it’s a classic, but I probably wouldn’t recommend it to others. I do think it’s cool that a play can survive over 2000 years after it was written, though.
"Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal." (John 6:27, ESV)
Phantastes
