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The Complete Fairy Tales
The Complete Fairy Tales
The Complete Fairy Tales
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The Complete Fairy Tales

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The works of George MacDonald, the Scottish author, poet, and minister, have influenced the likes of W. H. Auden, J. R. R. Tolkien, Madeleine L’Engle, C. S. Lewis, and Mark Twain. MacDonald wrote some of the first popular fantasy novels and is best known for his enduring stories, such as “Phantastes”, “The Princess and the Goblin”, “Lilith”, and “At the Back of the North Wind”. Macdonald said of his work that he wrote “not for children, but for the child-like, whether they be of five, or fifty, or seventy-five.” “The Complete Fairy Tales” brings together all of MacDonald’s shorter fairy stories, as well as an essay on fantasy writing titled “The Fantastic Imagination”. This collection includes some of his most memorable and enduring tales, such as “The Light Princess” and “The Wise Woman”. The stories contain many of the elements often associated with fairy tales: children undertaking dangerous and deadly adventures, fairies both wicked and kind, and strange, dream-like lands. MacDonald’s stories are unexpected and experimental, however, and contradict the tradition of children’s tales. Readers young and old alike will be captivated and entertained by these unique fairy tales that manage to be both dark and hopeful, enchanting, and full of practical wisdom. This edition includes a biographical afterword.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateMay 31, 2020
ISBN9781420969078
The Complete Fairy Tales
Author

George MacDonald

George MacDonald (1824 – 1905) was a Scottish-born novelist and poet. He grew up in a religious home influenced by various sects of Christianity. He attended University of Aberdeen, where he graduated with a degree in chemistry and physics. After experiencing a crisis of faith, he began theological training and became minister of Trinity Congregational Church. Later, he gained success as a writer penning fantasy tales such as Lilith, The Light Princess and At the Back of the North Wind. MacDonald became a well-known lecturer and mentor to various creatives including Lewis Carroll who famously wrote, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland fame.

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Rating: 4.312499874999999 out of 5 stars
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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Macdonald's fairy tales have subtlety. His are proper fairy tales, yet the moral is not overstated, so obvious as those of Jesus or Aesop. Knowing of Macdonald as a moralist first, from C.S. Lewis's writings, I looked for the moral of each story. It sometimes seems obvious; the Princess of The Two Princesses is a little dense not to learn sooner than she does. But that is an almost superficial level of morality in the story. That is, there is a deeper level in the story, written in such a way that it surprises the reader. At least, my reactions surprised me. For example, in The Light Princess the hero sacrifices himself for love of the princess. This is nothing new. Yet it becomes a moving story with the princess's metamorphosis, as she realizes his sacrifice. Macdonald gives the reader just enough psychology of the characters to make them more human than most fairy tales provide.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Possibly the language and era in which the tales in this book was written effected my enjoyment of this book. There were some tales in it that I did like, for example, The History of Photogen and Nycteris was quite good actually. Overall however, I found most of the tales to be preachy and in effect little more than sermons dressed up as fairy tales. This makes sense since the author, George MacDonald, was a Christian minister, but understanding in this case did not increase my enjoyment. On a positive note, the tales are very well written. The introduction also contains some very good insights by the author about writing and fairy tales in general that I found interesting. I do not dispute that this is an important and influential work, I just did not find the majority of the book to be entertaining.For those that enjoy reading the classics, don't let my review put you off. I am judging this book entirely by my enjoyment of it, not by its literary merit. I would say that it would be worth your time to give it a shot. You may find it much more rewarding than I did.

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The Complete Fairy Tales - George MacDonald

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