Adela Cathcart

Rating:
Summary: A Victorian Canterbury Tales
Review: Stories can heal. This important yet unbalanced work by MacDonald acts as treatise on the medicinal power of a well told narrative. Framing some of MacDonald's best known short stories is one girl's struggle for meaning and the awakening of her imagination by a group of storytellers.

"Adela Cathcart" showcases the three George MacDonald personas that dominate his cannon. The three main storytellers in this work, Mr. Smith, the curate and the doctor represent the whimsical fairy-tale writer MacDonald, the mystical preacher MacDonald, and the gothic MacDonald. Mr. Smith has told more than "The Light Princess," and "The Giant's Heart." He has also told "The Princess and the Goblin," and "The Wise Woman." He is the spirit of play, of whimsy, the love of nonsense that united him with his friend Lewis Carroll. Likewise, the curate has told more than his tales in the "Adella." He has written parts of the novels, like "Donal Grant," some poetry, and the "Unspoken Sermons." His preaching can either be presented through the vision, the abstract and mysterious, or through the direct absolute moral. The latter can disrupt a narrative, the former brings added depth and significance to the events. The final persona is the doctor who represents the dark gothic side to MacDonald's work. This side of MacDonald has been seen not only in the "Cruel Painter," but in "The Portent" and parts of "Lilith," the story of Cosmo in "Phantastes," and some of the novels.

MacDonald is at his best when all three parts are combined as they are in "On the Back of the North Wind," "Phantastes," the "Golden Key," and even "Lilith." While "Adela" has many wonderful stories, the problem with them is that MacDonald's personas are divorced from each other and can only influence the other through critical or praiseworthy comments after the story is finished. The doctor and the curate cannot collaborate as they do in MacDonald's novels. Neither can Mr. Smith collaborate with the curate as they do in the longer fairy tales. This is bipolar MacDonald: fascinating, full of wonder, but flawed and lacking balance.

A note on the text: Johannesen prints the best copies of MacDonald's work at a reasonable price. All three volumes are included in this copy.