2015年12月11日 星期五

George MacDonald 1824-1905

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_MacDonald

George MacDonald (10 December 1824 – 18 September 1905) was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister. He was a pioneering figure in the field of fantasy literatureand the mentor of fellow writer Lewis Carroll. His writings have been cited as a major literary influence by many notable authors including W. H. AudenC. S. LewisJ. R. R. Tolkien,[1] Walter de la Mare,[2] E. Nesbit and Madeleine L'Engle.[1] C. S. Lewis wrote that he regarded MacDonald as his "master": "Picking up a copy of Phantastes one day at a train-station bookstall, I began to read. A few hours later," said Lewis, "I knew that I had crossed a great frontier." G. K. Chesterton cited The Princess and the Goblin as a book that had "made a difference to my whole existence".
Elizabeth Yates wrote of Sir Gibbie, "It moved me the way books did when, as a child, the great gates of literature began to open and first encounters with noble thoughts and utterances were unspeakably thrilling."[3]
Even Mark Twain, who initially disliked MacDonald, became friends with him, and there is some evidence that Twain was influenced by MacDonald.[4] Christian author Oswald Chambers (1874–1917) wrote in Christian Disciplines, vol. 1, (pub. 1934) that "it is a striking indication of the trend and shallowness of the modern reading public that George MacDonald's books have been so neglected".
In addition to his fairy tales, MacDonald wrote several works on Christian apologeticsincluding several that defended his view of Christian Universalism.


In his introduction to George MacDonald: An AnthologyC. S. Lewis speaks highly of MacDonald's theology:
"This collection, as I have said, was designed not to revive MacDonald's literary reputation but to spread his religious teaching. Hence most of my extracts are taken from the three volumes of Unspoken Sermons. My own debt to this book is almost as great as one man can owe to another: and nearly all serious inquirers to whom I have introduced it acknowledge that it has given them great help—sometimes indispensable help toward the very acceptance of the Christian faith.
... I know hardly any other writer who seems to be closer, or more continually close, to the Spirit of Christ Himself. Hence his Christ-like union of tenderness and severity. Nowhere else outside the New Testament have I found terror and comfort so intertwined. ... In making this collection I was discharging a debt of justice. I have never concealed the fact that I regarded him as my master; indeed I fancy I have never written a book in which I did not quote from him. But it has not seemed to me that those who have received my books kindly take even now sufficient notice of the affiliation. Honesty drives me to emphasize it."

Bibliography[edit]

Fantasy[edit]

Realistic fiction[edit]

  • David Elginbrod (1863; republished as The Tutor's First Love), originally published in three volumes
  • Alec Forbes of Howglen (1865; republished as The Maiden's Bequest)
  • Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood (1867)
  • Guild Court: A London Story (1868)
  • Robert Falconer (1868; republished as The Musician's Quest)
  • The Seaboard Parish (1869), a sequel to Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood
  • Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood (1871)
  • Wilfrid Cumbermede (1871–72)
  • The Vicar's Daughter (1871–72), a sequel to Annals of a Quiet Neighborhood and The Seaboard Parish
  • The History of Gutta Percha Willie, the Working Genius (1873), usually called simply Gutta Percha Willie
  • Malcolm (1875)
  • St. George and St. Michael (1876)
  • Thomas Wingfold, Curate (1876; republished as The Curate's Awakening)
  • The Marquis of Lossie (1877; republished as The Marquis' Secret), the second book of Malcolm
  • Paul Faber, Surgeon (1879; republished as The Lady's Confession), a sequel to Thomas Wingfold, Curate
  • Sir Gibbie (1879; republished as The Baronet's Song)
  • Mary Marston (1881; republished as A Daughter's Devotion)
  • Warlock o' Glenwarlock (1881; republished as Castle Warlock and The Laird's Inheritance)
  • Weighed and Wanting (1882; republished as A Gentlewoman's Choice)
  • Donal Grant (1883; republished as The Shepherd's Castle), a sequel to Sir Gibbie
  • What's Mine's Mine (1886; republished as The Highlander's Last Song)
  • Home Again: A Tale (1887; republished as The Poet's Homecoming)
  • The Elect Lady (1888; republished as The Landlady's Master)
  • A Rough Shaking (1891)
  • There and Back (1891; republished as The Baron's Apprenticeship), a sequel to Thomas Wingfold, Curate and Paul Faber, Surgeon
  • Heather and Snow (1893; republished as The Peasant Girl's Dream)
  • Salted with Fire (1896; republished as The Minister's Restoration)
  • Far Above Rubies (1898)

Poetry[edit]

  • Twelve of the Spiritual Songs of Novalis (1851), privately printed translation of the poetry of Novalis
  • Within and Without: A Dramatic Poem (1855)
  • Poems (1857)
  • "A Hidden Life" and Other Poems (1864)
  • "The Disciple" and Other Poems (1867)
  • Exotics: A Translation of the Spiritual Songs of Novalis, the Hymn-book of Luther, and Other Poems from the German and Italian(1876)
  • Dramatic and Miscellaneous Poems (1876)
  • A Book of Strife, in the Form of the Diary of an Old Soul (1880), privately printed
  • The Threefold Cord: Poems by Three Friends (1883), privately printed, with Greville Matheson and John Hill MacDonald
  • Poems (1887)
  • The Poetical Works of George MacDonald, 2 Volumes (1893)
  • Scotch Songs and Ballads (1893)
  • Rampolli: Growths from a Long-planted Root (1897)

Nonfiction[edit]

  • Unspoken Sermons (1867)
  • England's Antiphon (1868, 1874)
  • The Miracles of Our Lord (1870)
  • Cheerful Words from the Writing of George MacDonald (1880), compiled by E. E. Brown
  • Orts: Chiefly Papers on the Imagination, and on Shakespeare (1882)
  • "Preface" (1884) to Letters from Hell (1866) by Valdemar Adolph Thisted
  • The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: A Study With the Test of the Folio of 1623 (1885)
  • Unspoken Sermons, Second Series (1885)
  • Unspoken Sermons, Third Series (1889)
  • A Cabinet of Gems, Cut and Polished by Sir Philip Sidney; Now, for the More Radiance, Presented Without Their Setting by George MacDonald (1891)
  • The Hope of the Gospel (1892)
  • A Dish of Orts (1893)
  • Beautiful Thoughts from George MacDonald (1894), compiled by Elizabeth Dougall

Scottish fantasy author and poet George MacDonald was born in Huntly, Aberdeenshire, Scotland on this day in 1824.
“Well, perhaps; but I begin to think there are better things than being comfortable.”
― from "At the Back of the North Wind"
A Victorian fairy tale that has enchanted readers for more than a hundred years: the magical story of Diamond, the son of a poor coachman, who is swept away by the North Wind–a radiant, maternal spirit with long, flowing hair–and whose life is transformed by a brief glimpse of the beautiful country “at the back of the north wind.” It combines a Dickensian regard for the working class of mid-19th-century England with the invention of an ethereal landscape, and is published here alongside Arthur Hughes’s handsome illustrations from the original 1871 edition.

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