Shelf Control is a weekly feature hosted by Literary Potpourri to discuss unread books sitting in our to-be-read piles.
Mom discovered George MacDonald (1824-1905) when I was in high school, through reading C.S. Lewis, who was greatly influenced by MacDonald's writing and Christianity. At that time, the 1980s, MacDonald's romantic fiction was being republished in an abridged form for the modern reader by Michael Phillips.* I devoured all that she could get her hands on, and they sparked my love of Victorian melodrama, though I didn't know that at the time.
While MacDonald is quite talented at that genre, his true genius lies in fantasy. Lilith (my review) and Phantastes (my review) are phenomenal, and his fairy tales are justly praised. These works influenced Tolkien and Madeline L'Engle as well as Lewis. Chesterton and Mark Twain were fans, as well. Furthermore, MacDonald's example, encouragement, and mentorship caused Lewis Carroll to publish Alice's Adventures.
I have read a good deal of MacDonald's novels and sermons, own many of his books in print (some of which are the stunning volumes from Johannesen Printing and Publishing, see below) and all of his works in e-book format. Despite that, I've never read his popular fantasy duology for children: The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie! There they sit, on my shelf, waiting to be read.
Have you read any of MacDonald's books, fantasy or otherwise? And how about these two in particular -- am I missing a real treat?
*The reasons for the abridgement were that MacDonald, a Scotsman, often had his characters speak in Scots dialect which can be difficult to figure out, as well as the fact that, in typical Victorian manner, these novels were quite lengthy, which could be off-putting for late twentieth-century readers.
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| One of Johannesen's gorgeous editions. |
