“We are all very anxious to be understood, and it is very hard not to be. But there is one thing much more necessary. To understand other people.”
-George MacDonald
When people ask me, “What’s your favourite book?” It’s impossible for me to pick. There are so many amazing books. How could I ever choose one? However, when someone asks me “Who’s your favourite author?” It’s a no-brainer. The answer is always George MacDonald. Called by some “the innovator of modern fantasy” George MacDonald was a brilliant and prolific Christian writer during the mid/late 1800s. Many of his books and short stories are out of print now, but are easily accessible through kindle and re-prints. Unfortunately many of these re-prints have horrible illustrations, typos, and misspellings. Most people haven’t even heard of MacDonald now-a-days; and that’s something I want to change.
MacDonald was a Scotchman who moved to England as a young man. He was a pastor, husband, and father to eleven children. Besides writing theology, George MacDonald also wrote fairy stories, fantasy, and fiction.
His work is deeply allegorical, but I have never found anything that he wrote to be preachy or overbearing. Instead his books (especially his short stories) are light and humorous, yet at the same time they manage to keep a deep serious side pointing readers to the truth. George MacDonald was not only one of the greatest inspirations to C. S. Lewis, but also G. K. Chesterton, J. R. R. Tolkien, and many others as well. MacDonald’s most famous works include Phantasties: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women, The Princess and the Goblin, The Princess and Curdie, The Light Princess, The Wise Woman (also known as The Lost Princess), At the Back of the North Wind, and Cross Purposes. One of my favourite novels of his is Sir Gibbie (also known as The Day Boy and the Night Girl) a story of a mute orphan who through hardship comes to find people who love him.
George MacDonald’s works have had a profound impact on my life, in particularly my writing life. If you have never heard of him before or have and haven’t read anything by him, I encourage you to do so. If you’re a Tolkien and Lewis fan, then you’ll find many similarities in MacDonald’s writing style and themes.
“What George MacDonald does best is fantasy — fantasy that hovers between the allegorical and the mythopoeic. And this, in my opinion, he does better than any man.”
-C. S. Lewis
“George MacDonald…one of the three or four greatest men of the nineteenth century.”
-G. K. Chesterton
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