Gospel in George MacDonald

If you don’t have the time to read all the novels of George MacDonald, the great Scottish storyteller who inspired C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, Mark Twain, W. H. Auden, and J. R. R. Tolkien, this anthology is a great place to start.These selections from MacDonald’s novels, fairy tales, and sermons reveal the profound and hopeful Christian vision that infuses his fantasy worlds and other fiction.Newcomers will find in these pages a rich, accessible sampling. George MacDonald enthusiasts will be pleased to find some of the writer’s most compelling stories and wisdom in one volume. Drawn from books including Sir Gibbie, The Princess and the Goblin, Lilith, and At the Back of the North Wind, the selections are followed by reflections from G. K. Chesterton and C. S. Lewis and accompanied by classic illustrations of Maurice Sendak (print edition only).

When he comes to be more carefully studied as a mystic, as I think he will be when people discover the possibility of collecting jewels scattered in a rather irregular setting, it will be found, I fancy, that he stands for a rather important turning point in the history of Christendom. --G. K. Chesterton, I’m delighted that Plough has produced this amazingly imaginative volume! Congratulations to Marianne Wright on her first-rate editorial vision and implementation. --Dr. Ian Randall, Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide, In his power to project his inner life into images, events, beings, landscapes which are valid for all, he is one of the most remarkable writers of the nineteenth century. --W. H. Auden, I know hardly any other writer who seems to be closer, or more continually close, to the Spirit of Christ Himself. . . . Nowhere else outside the New Testament have I found terror and comfort so intertwined. I have never concealed the fact that I regarded him as my master. --C. S. Lewis, Could be the greatest work of theology you read this year….The gospel for MacDonald was not a book, but rather a person, the person of Jesus Christ Himself, the image of the Father. --Tessa Carman, Mere Orthodoxy

George MacDonald (1824-1905) was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. After making a name for himself as a preacher, he left the ministry in 1850 to pursue a literary career, writing over fifty books to support his family of eleven children. To this day, MacDonald’s novels, fantasies, and children's stories are cherished for their literary quality and spiritual insight; C. S. Lewis has said that MacDonald’s influence can be found in every book he wrote.