A Poet and novelist, son of a farmer, was born at Huntly, Aberdeenshire, and educated at the University of Aberdeen, and at the Independent College, Highbury. He became minister of a congregation at Arundel, but after a few years retired, on account partly of theological considerations, partly of a threatened, breakdown of health. He then took to literature, and published his first book, Within and Without [1856], a dramatic poem, Poems followed in 1857, and Phantastes, a Faerie Romance, in 1858. He then turned to fiction, and produced numerous novels, of which David Elginbrod [1862], Alec Forbes [1865], Robert Falconer [1868], The Marquis of Lossie [1877], and Sir Gibbie [1879], are perhaps the best.
Contents
At the Back of the North Wind
Phantastes, a Faerie Romance for Men and Women
Lilith, a romance
The Princess and the Goblin
The Light Princess and Other Fairy Stories
A Book of Strife in the Form of The Diary of an Old Soul
Unspoken Sermons Series I., II., and II.
The Princess and the Curdie
What's Mine's Mine
Hope of the Gospel
Robert Falconer
Sir Gibbie
Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood
There & Back
The Marquis of Lossie
A Double Story
A Dish of Orts
Adela Cathcart, Volume I
Adela Cathcart, Volume 2
At the Back of the North Wind
The Portent and Other Stories
The Seaboard Parish, Complete
Far Above Rubies
David Elginbrod
Thomas Wingfold, Curate
Salted with Fire
The Flight of the Shadow
Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood
Miracles of Our Lord
The Vicar's Daughter
Heather and Snow
Stephen Archer and Other Tales
Malcolm
The Light Princess- A wicked aunt curses her baby niece so that gravity has no effect on her, and she floats through the air as if it were water.The only way to break the curse is to make the princess cry.
The Giant's Heart- Two children argue and run away to Giantland. There they find out that one of the Giants steals children from the land of men and eats them, but how can they kill the Giant when he has hidden his heart where no one can find it?
The Golden Key- A boy discovers a Golden Key, but cannot find the lock. He meets a girl, and together they search for the land from where the shadows fall, hoping that the key will allow them in.
At the Back of the North Wind-
A fantasy centered around a boy named Diamond and his adventures with the North Wind as they travel together through the night.
George MacDonald was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister.
Known particularly for his poignant fairy tales and fantasy novels, George MacDonald inspired many authors, such as W. H. Auden, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, E. Nesbit and Madeleine L'Engle. G. K. Chesterton cited The Princess and the Goblin as a book that had "made a difference to my whole existence."
Even Mark Twain, who initially disliked MacDonald, became friends with him, and there is some evidence that Twain was influenced by MacDonald.
MacDonald grew up influenced by his Congregational Church, with an atmosphere of Calvinism. But MacDonald never felt comfortable with some aspects of Calvinist doctrine; indeed, legend has it that when the doctrine of predestination was first explained to him, he burst into tears (although assured that he was one of the elect). Later novels, such as Robert Falconer and Lilith, show a distaste for the idea that God's electing love is limited to some and denied to others.
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