Phantastes

Rating:
Summary: Ian Myles Slater on: Long Before Tolkien
Review: "Phantastes," published in 1858, was the first of two remarkable fantasy novels for adults by George MacDonald (1824-1905); the other is "Lilith," which appeared near the end of his life, in 1897. These are sometimes referred to as "Visionary Novels," which does suggest their use of imagery, and dream-like narrative, but could also suggest, incorrectly, a "prophetic" or apocalyptic element. The recent (2000) Eerdmans trade paperback re-release of their 1981 edition is the occasion of this review, although I mention some other editions in passing. Like a companion edition of "Lilith," it has an introduction by C.S. Lewis, abridged from his Preface to "George MacDonald: An Anthology" (1947), and previously used in an omnibus edition of the novels (see below).

Despite what some may find an over-abundance of mid-Victorian floral fairies, and some mediocre sentimental/erotic poems, "Phantastes" is a mostly very successful effort to transfer into a "common-sense" tradition of "rationalized' supernatural stories some aspects, both bizarre and idealized, of German Romanticism. (For those who know that literature, try to imagine a combination of the robust stories of E.T.A. Hoffmann with the "magic idealism" of Novalis; although there is in fact no close parallel or "source.") There is a plot, which eventually becomes evident (although for some critics, even this is controversial); but the puzzles posed by a constant variety of events, and MacDonald's flashes of invention, may be what hold the reader's attention for a good part of the novel. (These inventions include a brief, and for the most part remarkably plausible, pastiche of Malory's "Morte D'Arthur," one of the interrupted texts and stories which dot the narrative, and suggest a variety of possible interpretations.)

This was a first novel, in a mode to which MacDonald would not return at such length, and for adult readers, for another forty years, for reasons that were probably at least as much practical as artistic; there just wasn't much of a demand for experimental fiction, and he needed to support his family.

The two fantasy novels, a variety of equally extraordinary long (e.g., "The Light Princess," "The Golden Key," "The Wise Woman") and short fairy tales, and his fairy tale novels for children, "At the Back of the North Wind" (1871) and the two "Curdie" books, "The Princess and the Goblin" (1872) and "The Princess and Curdie" (1882), are probably the author's lasting legacy. I say *probably* on the remote chance of a great revival of interest in his more numerous, and conventionally "realistic," novels of Scottish life, which were more successful with contemporaries, and do have their admirers.

There are people who find spiritual sustenance in the writings of George MacDonald -- I'm not one of them, and would not attempt any comments here on MacDonald's spiritual or moral positions, in or out of his novels. These views were not inconsequential, and he would not have avoided them; MacDonald spent much of his life struggling to make a living after being forced out of his only secure position as a dissenting Minister. However, to be more than blandly superficial would require the aid of a biographer well-enough versed in nineteenth-century Scots Calvinism to recognize MacDonald's agreements with it, as well as "heretical" departures, in his fiction as well as his life. (I specify the Scots element in part because it was the constant background of his life and work, and in part because he was accused of tendencies toward "German Religion" instead of the home-grown variety.)

Let's just say, instead, that his books do raise theological and moral issues, the latter more indirectly in the two adult novels than in the books for children. Some call them moral allegories, which seems too me to stretch the (often very loose) definition of allegory. Anyone looking for a close resemblance to "The Pilgrim's Progress," or the Chronicles of Narnia, will probably be disappointed.

The fantasies can all be read for their value as entertaining literature, and emphasizing MacDonald as a Christian thinker and moralist may drive away as many readers as it attracts, which rather defeats any purpose except "preaching to the choir." This is the main drawback I can see to the (often attractive) packaging and repackaging in recent years of MacDonald's fairy tales by Eerdmans, among other religious publishers. (Eerdmans released a set of mass-market paperbacks in the 1980s, redistributing material in its two-volume 1973 trade paperback, "The Gifts of the Child Christ: Fairy Stories for the Childlike." For those more comfortable with secular publishers, and their distributors, there is now a fat one-volume Penguin Classics collection of "The Complete Fairy Tales" from Penguin Books; and their Puffin imprint continues to reprint the "Curdie" books.)

The present Eerdmans edition of "Phantastes," originally issued in a mass-market paperback in 1981, is here nicely printed in very legible type, in a larger (trade paperback) format; Jim Lamb's cover art has survived the change to a larger size. It is the most attractive form I have seen -- easier on the eyes than the old Eerdmans omnibus edition with "Lilith," on which I had relied for years (1964, reprinted 1975; also a trade paperback, it was apparently reprinted from the Victor Gollancz edition of 1962).

For long-time fantasy readers, such as myself, it is clearly preferable on textual grounds to the Ballantine Books Adult Fantasy edition (1970), which Lin Carter abridged by cutting MacDonald's verse. That decision subverted the considerable service to fantasy readers of bringing the book to their attention (along with, in the same series, "Lilith" in 1969, and, in 1972, some of the fairy tales, in the well-chosen collection, "Evenor"). The verse is not great poetry, but it is not very bad, either, and it is significant to the characterization, and to a lesser degree the plot.

Note for the curious: The founding of the George MacDonald Society in 1981 seems to have marked a general resurgence of interest in his life and works. Its journal is "North Wind" (it should soon reach volume 24), and it now has a useful website. Another on-line resource is the well-maintained "The Golden Key" (George MacDonald WWW Page). Some of the coverage at these and other sites is fairly esoteric-looking, but interests served range from advice on children's reading to advanced critical theory, by way of, among other topics, Victorian literary history, theology, and textual studies.

Rating:
Summary: A difficult, but worthwhile read
Review: After reading "Surprised by Joy" by C.S. Lewis and learning of his life changing experience with this book I decided to give it a try. I read the introduction, by Lewis, in which he states plainly that MacDonald's talent lies not in his writing style, but in his story telling ability. As I read through this novel, it became clear to me how true this statement is. I found the main difficulty in reading this book penetrating through the seemlingly average writing to the excellent imagery and story. MacDonald is a romantic author and those who like this style of writing will enjoy this book while Grisham and Clancy fans may find it slow and boring. If you thrive in a book filled with imagery and emotion, but not much action, this book would be an excellent choice.

Rating:
Summary: A difficult, but worthwhile read
Review: After reading "Surprised by Joy" by C.S. Lewis and learning of his life changing experience with this book I decided to give it a try. I read the introduction, by Lewis, in which he states plainly that MacDonald's talent lies not in his writing style, but in his story telling ability. As I read through this novel, it became clear to me how true this statement is. I found the main difficulty in reading this book penetrating through the seemlingly average writing to the excellent imagery and story. MacDonald is a romantic author and those who like this style of writing will enjoy this book while Grisham and Clancy fans may find it slow and boring. If you thrive in a book filled with imagery and emotion, but not much action, this book would be an excellent choice.

Rating:
Summary: Probably the most influencial book I've read
Review: Having grown up reading all the Tarzan books, the Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Dune and any other fantastical book I could get my hands on, when I read this book in college over ten years ago, it was like when I had discovered Bob Dylan in music or Gerhard Richter in Art for me. It was the perfect book that bridged the gap between what was always thrown to me as serious literature and the adventure and mysterious spirituality of the faerie lands I always imagined. This is the most beautiful book I've read among thousands and even though it's now been a few years since I last read it, it is still one I treasure and think back to as I read the modern fantasy masters like Neil Gaiman.

Rating:
Summary: Lewis says it all
Review: Here was Lewis' own experience: "It must be more than thirty years ago that I bought the Everyman edition of Phantastes. A few hours later I knew that I had crossed a great frontier. I had already been waist deep in Romanticism; and likely enough, at any moment, to flounder into its darker and more evil forms, slithering down the steep descent that leads from the love of strangeness to that of eccentricity and thence to that of perversity. Now Phantastes was romantic enough in all conscience; but there was a difference. Nothing was at that time further from my thoughts than Christianity and I therefore had no notion what this difference really was. I was only aware that if this new world was strange, it was also homely and humble; that if this was a dream, it was a dream in which one at least felt strangely vigilant; that the whole book had about it a sort of cool, morning innocence, and also, quite unmistakably, a certain quality of Death, good Death. What it actually did to me was to convert, even to baptise my imagination. ... The quality which 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. I should have been shocked in my 'teens if anyone had told me that what I learned to love in Phantastes was goodness. But now that I know, I see there was no deception. The deception is all the other way round -- in that prosaic moralism which confines goodness to the region of Law and Duty, which never lets us feel in our face the sweet air blowing from 'the land of righteousness', never reveals that elusive Form which if once seen must inevitably be desired with all but sensuous desire -- the thing (in Sappho's phrase) 'more gold than gold'." An eloquent "review" from perhaps MacDonald's greatest admirer.

Rating:
Summary: MacDonald's most captivating Fairy Tale
Review: How do I go about writing a review of this book? It's sort of an arrogant undertaking, really. It suggests, somehow, that my opinion of this book is of some consequence, and that in turn puts me in a critical position above MacDonald - vying to be one of Kierkegaard's 'panel of authorities' that every generation sets up to judge the pervious generations, who can no longer speak for themselves.

So instead of climbing on my pedestal and judging where I am not fit to judge, I will try instead to tell you about what it IS - not how it rates in some abstract book rating.

MacDonald was one of the only true prophetic minds of the modern era. He had a closeness to the spiritual world that I do not believe can be now matched. All that is not really my opinion, because it is a blinding truth - as any who read his many books would be forced to admit. When the sun shines, only a fool denies it. Reading MacDonald is like looking at that sun.

I don't think that the recommendations of his many famous admirers (C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, Lewis Carrol among them) really are relevant - MacDonald's work can easily speak for itself. When Bach's raving about Vivaldi resurrected that composer's works, it soon became apparent that they could exist in their own right - outside of the shadow of their monolithic admirer. The same is true for MacDonald.

It's not really a question of whether or not this is a good book, so much as it is whether or not you are in the right place to read it. If you're going to try to read this book, you would be wise to approach it with patience, an open mind, and a respect both for religious experience and spiritual truth. You'd be better served by this book if you are more a lover of Shakespeare and Spenser than Freud and Einstein, and have more concern for the eternal things than those of modern science (this is being said by someone in the cognitive sciences, mind you). If you expect to be able to warp MacDonald's message and vision to your own ends, you will be sorely disappointed, as it will not work (without outright lying) - and will lead to frustration. If you are looking for pat moralisms, as is often found in modern 'religious' rhetoric, which are suitable only to nourish the most impoverished, or if you're the seeking poorly-reasoned mysticism of the modern Lord of the Rings fanboys, you're looking in the wrong book. If you're looking for a light-hearted fairy tale, suitable for children at bedtime - you're in the wrong book (Although MacDonald has several others that would fit this need), as this one involves many complex and frightening passages.

Therein lie some of the reasons for MacDonald's limited popularity - he is not 'accessible' in the current sense. He cannot be remade by every generation into a patsy to mouth modern ideology. Modern sensibilities would label him a 'dinosaur' - a cro-magnon crazy old man with a wild white beard - a re-incarnation of those old testament prophets that modern church-people studiously skip over in their Bible studies. Consider - his own church tried to starve him to death. He talked to God - and the message he brings back is both shockingly beautiful, and so bright as to be uncomfortable. It was the consuming fire of inexhorable love in the book of Hebrews that most embodied God to MacDonald, and that consuming fire has found its way into his books' pages. In his higher works of fantasy (like this book) and his sermons, MacDonald will stomp on your pet political ideologies, he will make you ashamed of your selfish religious dogmas, and he will take from you the ill-begotten authority that pervades the modern religious 'intelligentsia'. Either you will learn to deal with these things, or you'll find another book to read, most likely.

If you are looking for an honest fairy tale, full of truth, depth, and spiritual insight - a myth in the best sense - you'll find few books more to your liking. The entire story is submerged in a world of intense personal introspection, in which the things of the spiritual world are brought forth into the physical one. MacDonald believed that all pieces of the 'physical' world around us are forms that we can give meaning to - 'crystal vases to hold our emotions'. This book is one of his prime exercizes in this powerful form of Truth-telling. (Lillith being the other most notable)

Lewis was right - it will baptize your imagination. I can understand Lewis' reasons for featuring MacDonald so prominently in his works, since there is no other author I have ever read whom I would be so glad to have meet me in the afterlife.

Rating:
Summary: MacDonald's most captivating Fairy Tale
Review: How do I go about writing a review of this book? It's sort of an arrogant undertaking, really. It suggests, somehow, that my opinion of this book is of some consequence, and that in turn puts me in a critical position above MacDonald - vying to be one of Kierkegaard's 'panel of authorities' that every generation sets up to judge the pervious generations, who can no longer speak for themselves.

So instead of climbing on my pedestal and judging where I am not fit to judge, I will try instead to tell you about what it IS - not how it rates in some abstract book rating.

MacDonald was one of the only true prophetic minds of the modern era. He had a closeness to the spiritual world that I do not believe can be now matched. All that is not really my opinion, because it is a blinding truth - as any who read his many books would be forced to admit. When the sun shines, only a fool denies it. Reading MacDonald is like looking at that sun.

I don't think that the recommendations of his many famous admirers (C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, Lewis Carrol among them) really are relevant - MacDonald's work can easily speak for itself. When Bach's raving about Vivaldi resurrected that composer's works, it soon became apparent that they could exist in their own right - outside of the shadow of their monolithic admirer. The same is true for MacDonald.

It's not really a question of whether or not this is a good book, so much as it is whether or not you are in the right place to read it. If you're going to try to read this book, you would be wise to approach it with patience, an open mind, and a respect both for religious experience and spiritual truth. You'd be better served by this book if you are more a lover of Shakespeare and Spenser than Freud and Einstein, and have more concern for the eternal things than those of modern science (this is being said by someone in the cognitive sciences, mind you). If you expect to be able to warp MacDonald's message and vision to your own ends, you will be sorely disappointed, as it will not work (without outright lying) - and will lead to frustration. If you are looking for pat moralisms, as is often found in modern 'religious' rhetoric, which are suitable only to nourish the most impoverished, or if you're the seeking poorly-reasoned mysticism of the modern Lord of the Rings fanboys, you're looking in the wrong book. If you're looking for a light-hearted fairy tale, suitable for children at bedtime - you're in the wrong book (Although MacDonald has several others that would fit this need), as this one involves many complex and frightening passages.

Therein lie some of the reasons for MacDonald's limited popularity - he is not 'accessible' in the current sense. He cannot be remade by every generation into a patsy to mouth modern ideology. Modern sensibilities would label him a 'dinosaur' - a cro-magnon crazy old man with a wild white beard - a re-incarnation of those old testament prophets that modern church-people studiously skip over in their Bible studies. Consider - his own church tried to starve him to death. He talked to God - and the message he brings back is both shockingly beautiful, and so bright as to be uncomfortable. It was the consuming fire of inexhorable love in the book of Hebrews that most embodied God to MacDonald, and that consuming fire has found its way into his books' pages. In his higher works of fantasy (like this book) and his sermons, MacDonald will stomp on your pet political ideologies, he will make you ashamed of your selfish religious dogmas, and he will take from you the ill-begotten authority that pervades the modern religious 'intelligentsia'. Either you will learn to deal with these things, or you'll find another book to read, most likely.

If you are looking for an honest fairy tale, full of truth, depth, and spiritual insight - a myth in the best sense - you'll find few books more to your liking. The entire story is submerged in a world of intense personal introspection, in which the things of the spiritual world are brought forth into the physical one. MacDonald believed that all pieces of the 'physical' world around us are forms that we can give meaning to - 'crystal vases to hold our emotions'. This book is one of his prime exercizes in this powerful form of Truth-telling. (Lillith being the other most notable)

Lewis was right - it will baptize your imagination. I can understand Lewis' reasons for featuring MacDonald so prominently in his works, since there is no other author I have ever read whom I would be so glad to have meet me in the afterlife.

Rating:
Summary: A step into Fairyland
Review: I first had to read Phantastes for a college English class, but i've since reread it dozens of times for my own enjoyment. MacDonald virtually transports the reader into the mind and heart of Anados (the main character) as he journeys through Fairyland. Here, Fairyland is a deeply dreamlike, sometimes nightmarish place where everything and everyone has a signifigance far beyond the surface. For me, the best part of this story is the fact that one can read it as a simple adventure or as a spiritual journey. The allegorical aspects of Phantastes are everpresent, though not blatant. MacDonald's flowery, Victorian prose allows the reader to draw only as much from Phantastes as he would like to get. However, if you read this, it will probably suck you right into the heart of the story. If you are looking for a dark, rich fantasy, this is the original...

Rating:
Summary: A captivating adventure; an epic into the soul of man...
Review: I opened "Phantastes" to read becuase my favorite author and my "mentor", C.S. Lewis, had his mind "baptized" by the reading of it, and MacDonald was greatly admired by Lewis.
Oh, my mind was indeed changed after that.
I am an incurable romantic, delving in any poetry or novel that reminds me of heaven or salvation.
This book was not only a beautiful fairy tale, but it demonstrated the salvation of the main character. A man selfish and only doing what his whimsies carried him to do: in the end, all is lost, and he is completely dead to himself--yet unsuprisingly, he is far more alive than ever before, for he learns selflessness.
I did not rate it as best, because nothing can surpass the Chronicles of Narnia, At the Back of the North Wind, Till We Have Faces, and A Tale of Two Cities--yet if I could, I would actually give it 4.70 stars or so.
Excellent, exquisite... read it!!! I was lost within the pages I don't know how long, yet I was indeed happy while wandering through.

Rating:
Summary: Entering a dream..
Review: I picked up this book by chance as I was perusing the isles of one of my more familiar haunts: the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section of a local bookstore. Determined to satisfy my taste for the bizarre and magical, I took a fancy to the cover and description of this book and picked it up. Never have I made a better choice in reading.. This book goes beyond the realms of Oscar Wilde's beautiful fairy stories to a place of dreams. Vivid imagery and a writing style that is beyond beautiful make this book well worth reading for anyone who has ever loved to dream, or loved to love. It is all at once a romance and a journey, with the narrator Anodos (who, by the end of the book, has become one with the reader in heart and mind) is the lover, the victim, the hero, and the fool on his quest. Deeply emotional and strikingly imaginative, "Phantastes" is a profoundly inspirational work.