A
Brief Biography of George MacDonald
by Richard Reis
An excerpt from George MacDonald's Fiction
“George
MacDonald…one of the three or four
greatest men of the nineteenth century.”
—G.K. Chesterton, 1905
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Although Greville MacDonald's exhaustive biography of
his father has relieved me of any obligation to chronicle
MacDonald's life at length, it does seem appropriate to
review the facts of his career briefly. The son's biography
is, naturally, the source of most of these facts; and
it is sufficiently authoritative not to require correction.
George MacDonald and His Wife is invaluable as
a source of information, as a repository of letters unpublished
elsewhere, and, to a lesser extent, for its earnest but
rather inexpert critical commentary. I must stress, however,
that the biography displays the faults of many such works
by the sons of notable fathers. Greville MacDonald insists
that his father was the best writer and the wisest man
who has ever lived and that he has been maligned and misunderstood
by the ignoramuses who fail to concede the point. It is
very likely, indeed, that there may have been some glossing
over of useful facts in the son's anxiety to portray the
father in the best possible light. This filial piety seems
to have inspired Robert Lee Wolff's speculative efforts
to throw some light upon the darker places in MacDonald's
psyche.
“MacDonald’s
writing has opened a whole new vision of
practical Christianity.”
—AW
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Details of MacDonald's early life are of greatest significance
for a critical understanding of his works. Many of his
novels, especially, are in part autobiographical; and,
as is often the case with autobiographical authors, the
novels focus on his upbringing and on his earliest encounters
with the world of practical affairs. Therefore, we need
to know that MacDonald was born in Huntly, Aberdeenshire,
in 1824, and that he grew up there and in the nearby Pirriesmill,
where his father established a somewhat larger farm not
long after George was born. His boyhood was set in a traditional
rural atmosphere, compounded of Calvinist hellfire, oatcakes,
horsemanship, agricultural virtues, and exploration of
neighborhood ruins and wildernesses. Reminiscences of
such adventures, portrayed with vigor and immediacy, occur
again and again in MacDonald's most convincing realistic
novels, constituting a large part of his charm as they
do of Dickens's. It should not be supposed, though, that
MacDonald's own family was conventionally Calvinistic:
his father was a nonsectarian Christian of the sort which
values the Bible more than what anybody says about it.
Nevertheless, the prevailing sternness of Presbyterian
Scotland was always there, an oppressive, ubiquitous force.
“In
reading the novels of George MacDonald,
it has both amazed and inspired me to see
the close parallels between the society
of his day and ours. His insights into the
problems of the Church, the clergy, morality,
and what it means to live a truly Christian
life in a decadent society apply to…the
United States as well as they did to England
in the 1800s.”
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Greville MacDonald maintains that George's father was
infinitely noble and that his relations with his son were
exemplary. C.S. Lewis adds that this rare rapport between
father and son must account for MacDonald's ideal of the
transcendent Fatherhood of God. George, if we are to believe
Greville, never asked his father for anything without
getting what he asked; for he never asked for anything
undeserved or unobtainable. Lewis correlates this enviable
if improbable circumstance with one of George's remarks
on prayer: "He who seeks the Father more than anything
He can give, is likely to have what he asks, for he is
not likely to ask amiss."
At sixteen MacDonald entered a public school in
Aberdeen, winning a bursary (scholarship) to the University
of Aberdeen a year later, in 1840. At the university he
embarked upon a scientific curriculum, but in 1842 he
ran out of money and had to leave school to accumulate
some savings. It is quite possible that the temporary
rustication was due, in part at least, to some degree
of overindulgence in alcohol and at the city's brothels,
although again Greville MacDonald naturally does not discuss
the question. But in Alec Forbes of Howglen (1865),
a largely autobiographical novel, MacDonald clearly implies
that his hero fell into a deplorable course of hinted-at-vice
while at the university.
“I
guess I thought I really had a grasp on
what Christianity is all about. George MacDonald
has totally changed my preconceived ideas,
and altered my thinking forever.”
—ES
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Whatever the reason for MacDonald's leaving his studies
in 1842, that summer one of the most important events
of his life certainly occurred. According to Greville
MacDonald, his father "spent some summer months in a certain
castle or mansion in the far North, the locality of which
I have failed to trace, in cataloguing a neglected library..
The library, wherever it was, and whatever its scope,
added much to the materials upon which his imagination
worked in future years." While it is often unwise to interpret
passages of ostensible fiction as autobiographical, Greville
MacDonald does not hesitate to cite from The Portent
(1864), one of his father's romances, a description of
his experience in this northern library; the passage,
which follows, is almost certainly autobiographical: "I
found a perfect set of our poets, perfect according to
the notion of the editor and the issue of the publisher,
although it omitted both Chaucer and George Herbert. .
But I found in the library what I liked far better, many
romances of a very marvellous sort, and plentiful interruption
they gave to the formation of the catalogue. I likewise
came upon a whole nest of German classics .; happening
to be a tolerable reader of German, I found these volumes
a mine of wealth inexhaustible."
“I have learned so much about humility
and love, servanthood and devotion, through
MacDonald’s books.”
—KM
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The English poets, the literature of romance, the works
of the German Romantics - these are the most profound
and permanent influences upon MacDonald's own works. Together
they set in motion his change from an ordinary young Scotch
scientist to a religious mystic and votary of the imagination.
As Lewis suggests, the profound effect of this experience
can be traced throughout MacDonald's works: "The image
of a great house seen principally from the library and
always through the eyes of a stranger or a dependent (even
Mr. Vane in Lilith never seems at home in the library
which is called his) haunts his books to the end. It is
therefore reasonable to suppose that the 'great house
in the North' was the scene of some important crisis or
development in his life."
“These
books have caused me to think deeper thoughts
in relation to God, who He is and what He
does in the lives of people.”
—KL
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The same experience, whatever its nature, figures in the
lives of almost every protagonist in MacDonald's most
autobiographical novels; but no explicit account of what
happened that summer exists. Professor Wolff is sure that
MacDonald must have fallen in love with the daughter of
the house but that she eventually dropped him because
she thought his social status inferior. Such circumstances
do appear now and then in the novels; but Wolff, although
he makes a plausible case, builds upon conjecture. Wolff
adds that this experience caused MacDonald to develop
a permanent.hatred for rich noblemen, basing this conclusion
upon the fact that aristocratic villains are found in
most of MacDonald's stories. Wolff conveniently chooses
to ignore the equally indisputable fact that upper-class
villains are a staple of Victorian fiction, often no doubt
designed to appeal to a lower-class reader's jealousy
- a commercial consideration which MacDonald, who needed
the widest possible market, surely would not ignore. In
any case, MacDonald always depicts libraries as places
of high excitement, sources of thrilling secrets, the
settings for dramatic encounters between heroes and villains
or for love scenes.When MacDonald returned to the university
in 1843, he entered a period of inward ferment and outward
gloom, marked by religious doubts; and he also began writing
Romantic poetry after the manner of Byron. His studies
prospered and he received his master's degree in chemistry
and in natural philosophy (physics) in 1845. Several years
of indecision followed, during which MacDonald earned
a meager living as a private tutor in Fulham, a district
of southwest London. Several of his heroes, who also spend
some years as tutors, usually undergo at the time spiritual
crises. Precisely what inward struggles MacDonald went
through we do not know, but he decided sometime in 1847
or 1848 to become a minister. Probably a good deal of
his personal religion had been worked out by this date.
“CSL
said something of GM’s novels breathing
holiness…Throughout The Fisherman’s
Lady there were refreshing glimpses of GM’s
outlook, but those last few chapters as
Stewart counsels Lord Lossie breathed a
holiness that was palpable!”
—DP, 1983
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Also during this period he met Louisa Powell, to whom
he became engaged in 1848; but they could not afford to
marry. In the fall of 1848 MacDonald entered Highbury
College, London, a struggling Congregationalist divinity
school, to study for the ministry. Just after he graduated
in 1850, new problems arose before he could take over
his first parish in Arundel, Sussex. In December he was
stricken with the first of his serious tubercular attacks;
thereafter, his lungs troubled him. MacDonald's father
died of a tubercular bone infection; his two beloved brothers
succumbed while young; and the disease killed in childhood
four of MacDonald's eleven children. In later years, he
grimly referred to tuberculosis as "the family attendant."
“Genius
shines from nearly every page.”
—JP
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While he was convalescing, difficulty arose between him
and Louisa Powell. From Greville MacDonald's perhaps deliberately
obscure account, Louisa resented the fact that the mystic
considered earthly love as inferior and as perhaps contradictory
to his love of God. Whatever the exact nature of the crisis,
it led to his starting work on his first major literary
attempt, a long dramatic poem entitled Within and Without
(not published until 1855). The work, which presents an
account of a love misunderstanding presumably similar
to his own, displays most of the faults of his poetry
- a smooth facility of versification combined with a lack
of vigor of expression found in his best fiction. Reading
MacDonald's poetry is often a pleasantly musical experience
in which the reader has trouble remembering or caring
about what has been said.
“We find MacDonald to be such an inspiration,
such a master artist at character development—such
a delight to read.”
—L & TB
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By the time MacDonald assumed the ministry of the church
at Arundel in the spring of 1851, his trouble with Louisa
was resolved, and the marriage took place. At about the
same time care the first of his published works, a translation
of Twelve Spiritual Songs of Novalis, which was
privately printed in Edinburgh. It is important to note
that at this time MacDonald was only an occasional writer;
he considered his true calling the ministry. Soon enough,
however, he was forced to make literature his career,
somewhat against his will.
“I
have never found myself as enthralled with
an author as I am with George MacDonald.”
—KC
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In May, 1853, came the deciding crisis of George MacDonald's
life. He was forced to resign his pulpit under pressure
from his congregation, the elders of which resented his
unorthodoxy. Presumably, they were shocked at his preaching
that the heathen would be saved. Though suddenly unemployable
in his profession, MacDonald felt that his vocation was
genuinely a summons from God and, like Jonah's, inescapable.
But he now had no money, and he had a wife and an infant
daughter to support. This blow and his economic need,
and his determined reaction to each, decided MacDonald's
fate. He resolved to earn a living as a writer if he could
and to incorporate into his works the urgent religious
message which he felt called upon to disseminate, pulpit
or no pulpit. For most of the rest of his life he had
to live by writing, supplementing his slender income with
whatever odd jobs and subsidies he could find. In addition
to his literary work, he lectured, wrote hack reviews,
edited a children's magazine while it lasted, and later
was the impresario of dramatic performances acted by himself
and his family.
“I
am most grateful to the deacons of the chapel
in Arundel. Had their misguided actions
not forced MacDonald to resign, he may not
have turned to writing, and my life, among
many, would have been denied a priceless
enrichment.”
—GW
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MacDonald's literary career began painfully and slowly.
Not until 1855 could he find a publisher for Within
and Without, and the growing family's poverty meanwhile
was extreme. But the poem's appearance promptly started
him on the way to the reputation and popularity which
he consolidated during the succeeding decade. Charles
Kingsley wrote to him; Lady Byron, the poet's widow, became
his friend and patron. She was a moral and religious uplifter
and philanthropist; her gifts and bequests to the MacDonald
family actually kept them from starvation until the father's
writing began to produce an income of sorts.
Phantastes, his first prose book and the
first of the symbolic works, appeared in 1858. It was
generally ignored or abused, although several fairy stories
of about the same time were better received. The first
of MacDonald's conventional novels, David Elginbrod,
was published in 1863 and immediately became celebrated
for the epitaph of the hero's ancestor:
The
richness and color of these stories woven
throughout with their precious gems of spiritual
insight have been a real source of encouragement,
joy, and instruction…”
—RB, 1985
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Here
lie I, Martin Elginbrodde:
Hae mercy o' my soul, Lord God;
As I wad do, were I Lord God,
And ye were Martin Elginbrodde.
The
rest of MacDonald's life is not so important to his fiction
as his early years, for his religious and artistic consciousness
never changed appreciably through the remaining decades
of his life. Already in Phantastes and David
Elginbrod he was a mystic of a sort, had worked out
the tenets of his personal religion, and had displayed
a mastery of symbolic technique scarcely equaled in his
era. In realistic fiction he never needed to improve upon
David Elginbrod, nor did he especially try. It
was popular, it paid, it got its message across; its author
was satisfied - no doubt too easily.
“The
way George MacDonald portrays God’s
love and the Christian life throughout his
novels has made me aware of God’s
love in an entirely different way.”
—NO
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During the 1860s, David Elginbrod was followed
by a rush of realistic novels in the same mode, usually
but not always written partly in lowland Scots dialect.
MacDonald's reputation, friendships, and family multiplied
steadily. By 1872 he was sufficiently famous to capitalize
upon his renown with a lecture tour in the United States.
In thus following the example of Dickens, he netted over
a thousand pounds. Meanwhile, MacDonald was befriended
by John Ruskin and was intimately involved in Ruskin's
strange love affair with Rose La Touche. For a time Rose
lived with the MacDonald family, which was charged by
her parents with the girl's protection. According to Greville
MacDonald, his father even went so far as to interrogate
the more famous man, including a frank question as to
Ruskin's potency.
“MacDonald has such an ability of
speaking to the heart of human nature and
from the heart of God, so that the very
words speak life to the heart and soul of
the reader.”
—MM
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In 1873 MacDonald was granted a civil list pension of
one hundred pounds a year by Queen Victoria, and he acquired
a residence in Bordighera in the Italian Riviera, where
he wintered thereafter for the sake of his lungs. His
novels, which continued to come out almost annually through
the 1880's, were increasingly popular. From time to time,
whenever he got far enough ahead of his bills to afford
a sure failure, he indulged his less popular taste for
fantasy, and he went on writing fairy tales for children
which are still classics.
“I have never before read fiction
that has so challenged me to look at my
own Christian walk.”
—PH
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MacDonald became a close friend of "Lewis Carroll,"
who had his doubts about the value of Alice in Wonderland
and tested it on the MacDonald children, accepting their
favorable verdict before trying to publish it. Upon Tennyson's
death in 1892, MacDonald was apparently considered for
the laureateship on the basis of the considerable body
of poetry which he had by then produced; but the idea
never received very serious support, and the vacant post
went to Alfred Austin - hardly a better poet than MacDonald.
The frequency of MacDonald's publications understandably
began to decline by 1890, when he was sixty-six years
old. His last work, the story "Far Above Rubies," appeared
in 1898. In 1897 MacDonald's chronic eczema became severe
and damaged his health generally; in 1900 he apparently
suffered a stroke and lost the power of speech. After
a long illness George MacDonald died in 1905, leaving
behind him a record of grim struggles, of the nobility
with which he bore them, and of the reverence in which
he was held by everyone who knew him.
Why
new edited editions of George MacDonald's books?
by Michael Phillips
Reprinted
from the Introduction to the 1982 edition of The Fisherman's
Lady
“When another generation or two shall
have passed…a fuller appreciation
than he has yet had is awaiting him.”
—Louise Willcox, 1906
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An interesting frontspiece appears in a 1935 edition of
the book The Victorians and Their Reading by Amy
Cruse dealing with nineteenth-century authors: a composite
photograph of a group of eminent Victorian writers - J.A.
Froude, Wilkie Collins, Anthony Trollope, Charles Dickens,
and George MacDonald. The modern student of the period
might easily do a doubletake at first glance, asking,
"Who is George MacDonald, and what is he doing
there?"
“I find MacDonald’s characters
some of the most well developed in anything
I have read.”
—ES
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But as MacDonald's biographer Richard Reis has pointed
out, "Such a question would not have occurred to most
of MacDonald's contemporaries. Instead they might have
expressed surprise to learn that he would be largely forgotten
by the middle of the twentieth century. For throughout
the final third of the nineteenth century, George MacDonald's
works were bestsellers and his status as a [writer and
Christian] sage was secure. His novels sold, both in Great
Britain and in the United States, by the hundreds of thousands
of copies; his lectures were popular and widely attended;
his poetry earned him at least passing consideration for
the laureateship; and his reputation as a Christian teacher
was vast. This . popularity alone makes MacDonald a figure
of some significance in literary history." [George
MacDonald's Fiction by Richard Reis]
“I am so privileged to have this excellent
literature in my personal library to share
with family and friends.”
—MM
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And though in certain ways he had to cater to the public,
MacDonald was not the ordinary "popular" writer who is
successful in the marketplace but is not taken seriously
by qualified critics. "In his own time MacDonald was esteemed
by an impressive roster of English and American literary
and religious leaders. He was among the closest friends
of John Ruskin [Lewis, Lady Byron] and Charles Dodgson;
and he moved as a peer in the company of Alfred Tennyson,
Charles Kingsley, F.D. Maurice, R.W. Gilder, Harriet Beecher
Stowe, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Mark Twain, and Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow. All of them respected, praised, and encouraged
him, yet his reputation has nearly vanished while theirs
survive.
"[It is not] that MacDonald has been entirely
ignored in the twentieth century. Indeed, although he
is little known among the general reading public, MacDonald
has received considerable scholarly and critical attention
during the past twenty years. G.K. Chesterton was among
the earliest twentieth-century critics who found MacDonald's
'message' of importance in a post-Victorian [world]. Chesterton
once referred to MacDonald as 'one of the three or four
greatest men of the nineteenth century.'"
“My own debt to this book is almost
as great as one man can owe to another…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.”
—C.S. Lewis, 1946
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Perhaps the most important of MacDonald's modern admirers
was C.S. Lewis, who repeatedly acknowledged MacDonald
as one of the most important inspirers of his own fantasies
and Christian theological writings. In his own autobiography,
Surprised by Joy, Lewis describes how reading MacDonald's
Phantastes began a process of conversion from skepticism
to Christianity. In The Great Divorce, Lewis makes
MacDonald his guide and mentor. Another Lewis volume,
George MacDonald: An Anthology, is a formal acknowledgment
of the debt Lewis felt toward MacDonald and consists of
selections from his works. In its preface Lewis says of
MacDonald, "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." And throughout Lewis's various
published letters are sprinkled brief informal glimpses
of the importance MacDonald's writings played in Lewis's
personal reading program and spiritual growth. "I have
read a new MacDonald since I last wrote, which I think
the very best of the novels.," he wrote to Arthur Greeves
in 1931. In response to a letter in 1939, he asked, "Do
you know George MacDonald's fantasies for grown-ups.?"
In 1951, in reply to a question posed him, he began by
saying, "As MacDonald says.." And to his friend Sister
Penelope in that same year he spoke of "My love for G.
MacDonald.." Indeed, though it was in 1915 when he first
discovered MacDonald ("I have had a great literary experience
this week . the book is Geo. MacDonald's Phantastes.."
he wrote excitedly to Arthur Greeves in October of that
year), he was still reading him with relish and enthusiasm
more than forty-five years later.
“When he comes to be more carefully
studied…as I think he will be…it
will be found, I fancy, that he stands for
a rather important turning-point in the
history of Christendom…”
—G.K. Chesterton, 1924
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"Though it has now been nearly twenty years since his
death, the writings of C.S. Lewis are presently more widely
read than ever. Indeed, Lewis is without a doubt the most
diversified, widely read Christian writer of this century,
perhaps of all time, with the exception of the New Testament
authors. Yet though MacDonald's deep influence in the
roots, literary tradition and spiritual background of
C.S. Lewis is primary and unquestionable, were he alive
today Lewis might well remark, as he did in 1946, that
those who have received his books do not take sufficient
notice of the MacDonald affiliation. It is therefore impossible
for the modern follower of the writings and ideas of C.S.
Lewis to obtain anything but a fragmentary picture of
his thought without at the same time delving into the
works of George MacDonald.
“The more I have read, the more I
feel George MacDonald slipping into my heart…he
was gifted with such insight as most Christians
never fully realize.”
—JT
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It is not only with Lewis that he is associated. MacDonald's
name appears with uncanny frequency in published discussions
from the writings of the various other "Oxford Mythmakers"
such as J.R.R. Tolkien, Own Barfield, Dorothy Sayers,
Charles Williams, and others. There is evidence, for instance,
that he was a favorite also with Tolkien and also was
influential in his writing. He is increasingly coming
to occupy a key position in the growing body of literature
surrounding these and other imaginative Christian writers.
His works, in all their editions, are included in the
Marion E. Wade collection at the Wheaton College Library
which is dedicated to the interest and preservation of
such writings.
“His gift of creating an atmosphere
blending holiness with an aura of mystery
initiated the renaissance of the writing
of fantasy with a Christian flavor…”
—Rolland Hein, 1993
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George MacDonald's life (1824-1905) spanned the greater
part of the nineteenth century. He was a devout Scotsman
from a race of bards, pipers, intense loyalties, clan
feuds, and steeped in history. His Celtic roots yielded
writings full of romance, vision, nature, heather moors,
peat fires, high mountains, storm-tossed seas and rugged
coastlines. He was drawn to the ministry and studied toward
that end. But after a brief stay in the pulpit, his warm,
human, imaginative and progressive ideas were increasingly
found to be unorthodox according to the rigid and backward
standards of the religious establishment of his day, and
he was forced to leave it. He thus turned to writing;
and in the following forty-two years of his active writing
career, the enormity of his output was staggering. He
produced some fifty-two separate volumes of immense variety
which may be roughly categorized as: three prose fantasies,
eight fairy tales and allegories for children, five collections
of sermons, three books of literary and critical essays,
three collections of short stories, several collections
of poetry (which, along with the short stories, in succeeding
years came out in many different editions by scores of
publishers), and some twenty-five to thirty novels (depending
on the definition and method of classification). And among
the most amazing aspects of his prodigious career is the
fact that many of these (indeed, most of the novels) were
over 400 pages in length and some ranged over 700. In
addition to writing, MacDonald also lectured widely. He
made a tour of the United States in 1873 during which
his lectures were highly acclaimed and eagerly attended.
“The last two George MacDonald treasures
I have read have brought me immeasurable
delight. I have been astounded, humbled,
inspired, and excited by his depth of insight.
I love my God more for having read these
books.
—KM
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Though MacDonald may be judged a "success" as a writer
and public figure by just about any standards, poverty
was nevertheless never far from him. And he suffered as
well from poor health, first with tuberculosis, then asthma
and eczema. Unlike best-selling authors today who receive
large royalties for their work, such was not true for
George MacDonald. Though his works were serialized in
scores of magazines and though his books were sold in
Britain and the United States in phenomenal quantities,
he received very little for his efforts. Royalties were
small and many of his works were illegally pirated and
sold without his ever receiving a cent from the proceeds.
Because his life was one of constant financial
peril and physical adversity, MacDonald's writing was
for him a practical way to earn a living. He had a large
family to care for and had to provide for them however
he could - by writing, lecturing, tutoring, occasional
preaching, and odd jobs that presented themselves. Though
it can no doubt truthfully be said that MacDonald's first
loves lay in the areas of preaching, poetry, and fantasy,
he recognized that on the whole the audience representing
the potential "market" was made up mainly of middle-class
Victorian men and women who fed on dramatic fiction. Out
of necessity, therefore, he became a novelist, convinced
that he could convey his deep spiritual convictions to
a larger audience of readers through fiction. He turned
to the novel in the early 1860s, and it became his primary
form of published work. And because of the immense popularity
of his novels, it was for them he was primarily known.
“MacDonald is such an incredible writer…his
characters are vital and alive, asking questions
that we still ask today about our faith
and walk with God.”
—KM
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There is a peculiar quality in a MacDonald novel that
has great power to move its reader. For MacDonald was
no ordinary man. He had a powerful vision of the meaning
of life; his spirit was in close union with the Spirit
of God; and he had unusual insight into the application
of spiritual principles in daily life situations. And
it is this wisdom and spiritual perspective which set
his stories apart from those of his contemporaries, most
of whom wrote simply for the market. For though MacDonald
had to sell books to an audience desiring action, plot,
suspense, intrigue, drama and romance, he nevertheless
was even more concerned with the novel as a means to an
end. There was a message of God's love burning inside
him which he had to express.
“To re-read MacDonald always seems
like coming home.”
—JB
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It is this very desire to spread the reality of
God at work in men's lives which undoubtedly contributes
to the fact that MacDonald is not known today as is his
contemporary Dickens, though during their lifetime such
would not have been the case. Today's "average" reader
is vastly different in world outlook than his or her counterpart
a century ago and is not nearly so concerned with spiritual
matters. This is a new era of literary taste; happy endings
are no longer in vogue as they were then. Yet these shifts
in the public appetite must not keep us from George MacDonald's
work. His writings deserve careful consideration in our
own day as well. For not only is his influence on his
own contemporaries unquestioned, so is his impact on many
well-known authors of recent times.
“The Lord has used MacDonald’s
books in my life to put His desires in my
heart.”
—RR
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It is interesting to note, however, that until very recently
there has not been a single one of MacDonald's conventional
novels in print. And even with today's renewed interest
in his works, only a few are now available in expensive
limited edition reprints ranging from $50 and up. Yet
the novel was his primary form of written expression.
To understand MacDonald at all, one needs to experience
his novels.
“I am challenged intellectually and
spiritually by MacDonald’s novels.”
—LT
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When the reader does, however, two problems are
immediately encountered in MacDonald's writing style.
First of all, MacDonald frequently used lowland Scots
dialect for the dialogue between his characters, which
few now understand at a glance. And, secondly, MacDonald's
tendency toward preaching and rambling often erupts without
warning, and he lapses into off-the-subject discourses
which slow up the story line considerably.
or the loyal MacDonald follower, such idiosyncrasies
lend a certain charm and flavor. But when the average
person is reading a novel, he wants to move through the
drama without having to stop and wade through a sermonette
or to unravel and decode a passage in Scotch dialect.
When these difficulties are overcome, a MacDonald novel
is truly elevated to the first rank. For there is much
excellence in his stories - shrewd characterization, lively
drama, suspense, authentic dialogue, intricate plots,
captivating realism.
“The Lord has used MacDonald’s
books in my life to put His desires in my
heart.”
—RR
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Besides the stories themselves, MacDonald's novels are
enhanced by spiritual truths woven in and throughout the
characters whose lives open before us. MacDonald was so
thoroughly a Christian that God's wisdom simply came forth
from his pen almost in spite of the story line. It is
as though he were continually weaving two parallel stories
- that of a "plot," and that of the partially submerged
spiritual journeys being traveled in a parallel plane
by those characters involved in the story. And MacDonald
moved freely from one level to another. To the knowledgeable
reader who recognizes the dual purpose of his writing
and who is aware of MacDonald's spiritual vantage point,
the travels back and forth from level to level make the
plot all the more meaningful and the spiritual truths
that much more alive. C.S. Lewis commented on the principles
one can uncover in a MacDonald novel by saying they "would
be intolerable if a man were reading for the story [alone]
but . are in fact welcome because the author . is a supreme
preacher. Some of his best things are hidden in his dullest
books."
“Dr. MacDonald’s work has brought
light to a whole new generation which I’m
sure would have delighted him…I have…rarely
found the utter simplicity and honest Gospel
that is portrayed in such a powerful way
in these writings.”
—RI
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The novels of George MacDonald are therefore intriguing
to the modern Christian reader. Nearly every one contains
in the narrative a strong vision of a loving God gradually
revealing himself in the lives of men and women through
nature and daily circumstances. As the various facets
of the plot unfold, MacDonald carries on a commentary
of spiritual observation (level two) through the characters,
their growth and interaction, and the action of the drama
itself (level one). The characters responding to their
circumstances provide a rich source of insight into why
people think and behave as they do. The plot is the skeleton
around which the characters and truths come to life.
Rolland Hein writes: "In developing his vision
of life creatively through the imagined real worlds of
the various novels, MacDonald moves to authenticate his
theological convictions, thereby avoiding a danger confronting
the pure theologian. It is easy for students of theology
to become people given too much to abstractions, content
to handle life at a comfortable distance and to minimize
the concrete quality of human experience. But in the novel,
broad pronouncements concerning the human situation and
human conduct will not suffice. MacDonald, not unlike
his great contemporary Dostoevsky, knew that the novel
provides a means of testing the validity of theological
principles, a means the like of which the seeker after
Truth can hardly afford to ignore. For a serious novel
presents life as it is lived by men in their daily courses."
“It was like a breath of fresh air
to read a good book along the Narnian line
that had such strong, honest, Good-seeking
characters.”
—RJ
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And it is just at this point that MacDonald's novels excel.
His characters are alive; you feel with them; you accompany
them as they are opened to the principles of God and His
love. Before long you are one of the characters yourself
on Level Two as you sit back to reflect on some nugget
of wisdom you have just unearthed from a conversation
between two characters. But then suddenly you will find
yourself jolted back to Level One, roused in anger at
the villain, breathing with heart-pounding gasps as the
heroine rushes to escape through the newly discovered
secret passageway of the old castle!
“I know hardly any other writer who
seems to be closer, or more continually
close, to the Spirit of Christ Himself.”
—C.S. Lewis, 1946
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To get at the true George MacDonald, you must get into
his world. And his world is revealed through his fiction.
Nearly every novel contains much autobiography sprinkled
through it. Not only is he a superb storyteller and weaver
of fantasies, but at the same time he is the central
character - and if not himself surely someone he has known.
“Among MacDonald’s gifts is
the ability to make goodness attractive
and Christian living seem the only sensible
course for one’s life. His vision
is infectious.”
—Rolland Hein, 1994
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Throughout all his stories, one can see that he ever loved
the Scotland from which he had come. As Lewis said, "All
that is best in his novels carries us back to that 'kaleyard'
world of granite and heather, of bleaching greens beside
burns that look as if they flowed not with water but with
stout, to the thudding of wooden machinery, the oatcakes,
the fresh milk, the pride, the poverty, and the passionate
love of hard-won learning." When feeling with MacDonald
the wind blowing from a high northern mountain or from
a storm-tossed northern sea, you are sometimes overcome
with the sense that the wind is from someplace higher
still. There is a special world captured by MacDonald
in his novels, a world perhaps not fully present in any
particular one but toward which each makes its own contribution.
And it is a world worth seeking out.
The difficulty, however, as mentioned before,
is that MacDonald's novels are often out-of-print and,
when available, are long and many times unintelligible
to the fast-paced reader. My proposal with this reprinted
edition of one of my favorites is to once again open this
world of George MacDonald to modern-day readers. What
I have done is to cut the original by about half by removing
digressions from the story and by condensing some of the
"wordy" portions. In addition I have "translated" the
Scots' dialect, an example of which follows, into English:
“I do not know when I have enjoyed
such good reading and received a fresh inspirational
look at practical Christianity.”
—MT
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"Ye hae had mair to du wi' me nor ye ken, an' aiblins
ye'll hae mair nor yet ye can weel help. Sae caw canny,
my man."
"Ye may hae the layin' o' me oot," said Malcolm,
"but it sanna be wi my wull; an gien I hae ony life left
I' me, Is' gie ye a fleg."
"Ye may get a war yersel': I hae frichtit the deid
afore noo. Sae gang yer wa's to Mistress Coorthoup, wi'
a flech i' yer lug."
(Some
dialect of certain characters has been retained for authentic
"flavor.")
“MacDonald…speaks to a later
time than his own.”
—Richard Reis, 1972
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The original was published as Malcolm in 1875.
Something of the immense popularity of the book can be
appreciated from the fact that after its serialization
in magazines, it was published in more than a dozen different
editions in the few years following its release.
“I am a graduate student working on
my Ph.D. in Psychology, and have of late
been astounded at the depth of insight into
human nature that George MacDonald had.”
—Anonymous
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The story is set in northern Scotland on the coast of
the shire of Banff, an area with which George MacDonald's
ancestors had long been associated and of which MacDonald
was very familiar; he was raised in Huntly, some twenty
miles to the south of this particular stretch of coastline.
For this and other reasons (which will become clear as
the story progresses), the story can be seen as a window
into the background, heritage and character of George
MacDonald's Scottish past. But whatever autobiography,
allegory or symbolism we discover in the reading, we do
well at the same time to read for pure enjoyment's sake.
After reading one of MacDonald's stories, his wife once
asked him for "the story's meaning." He replied, possibly
to us as well as to her, "You may make of it what you
like. If you see anything in it, take it and I am glad
you have it; but I wrote it for the tale."
Why
Read George MacDonald?
by Mike Dalton
A Personal Testimony
“I
am reading George MacDonald’s There
and Back…I love that writer.”
—Oswald Chambers, 1906
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My introduction to George MacDonald came when Michael
Phillips, the one who helped spark a revival in reading
MacDonald's works, gave me The Musician's Quest.
What a gift!
Prior to that time, I don't know that I had ever
read any so-called Christian fiction. My reading was
largely confined to reading the Bible and other devotional
or doctrinal writings. I probably thought that there
was little value in reading fiction, and I knew nothing
about George MacDonald, but I was determined to give this
book a try.
“MacDonald’s true to life characters
give me a better perspective on living out
Christ’s commands in obedience to
our Heavenly Father.”
—VS
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It would be an understatement to say that at some point
I became captivated by it. It felt a little like John
Wesley's famous Aldersgate experience. My heart was strangely
warmed as MacDonald helped me to see in a way that perhaps
I rarely had, God's loving nature. It was all the more
beautiful in the way that he did it; contrasting the strict
Calvinism of his day with what almost seemed to good to
be true - a God who was gracious and compassionate, more
loving than I knew. I felt like I had been given a glimpse
into the heart of God.
“When
I was younger I read his fairy tales for
the fun of it, but now I read his stories
for the eye-opening truth in them.”
—CG
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MacDonald's unique insights into God's nature is an important
reason to read him, but there is another. Many years
ago, when what is now known as Contemporary Christian
Music was just beginning, John Fischer recorded a song
called "Naphtali". It had a beautiful chorus: Naphtali
is a doe set free, he gives beautiful words. I think
the same could be said about George MacDonald; He gives
beautiful words. I find beauty in his writings, and
to me that's important, because beauty has its source
in God, and anything that is beautiful enough to draw
our attention back to Him is worth our time. His descriptions
of nature, people and events are vivid and insightful.
I find myself inspired when I read them. We need that
today in a world that is becoming more sordid by the day.
I need to read things that I not only enjoy but that lift
my spirit above the mundane. MacDonald can do that for
me.
“More
than a hundred years after his initial popularity,
a whole new generation of readers are now
discovering in George MacDonald what readers
of the last century did by the millions.”
—Michael Phillips 1985
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It's true that reading MacDonald may be more demanding,
but he can also be more rewarding. You could liken reading
him to mining for precious ore. You may have to dig through
a lot of words, but the insights into human nature, the
world we live, and our relationship to the God we desire
to know are deep and out of the ordinary. No doubt this
is why he was read by so many people in his day and ever
after. His writings have influenced such well know Christians
as C.S. Lewis and Oswald Chambers just to name a couple.
If we could measure a man by how often others
quote or refer to him, then MacDonald stands as a giant
among us. Even today you find contemporary writers quoting
him, and when they do, I always find it insightful. I've
started to copy and collect for Michael and Judy Phillips
the MacDonald quotations that I come across. It's been
fun. You might want to do the same. Let it be our way
of encouraging them in their work of bringing MacDonald
to new readers and our way of saying thanks for bringing
him to our attention.
What about MacDonald's critics, and there are
those who question or take issue with some of his thought.
I think it's a mistake to reject all that someone might
have to offer solely on the basis of disagreeing with
him or her in some area. If we were to carefully scrutinize
the writing of both classic and contemporary writers,
we might find areas of disagreement with many of them,
and yet, probably in most cases, we would not write them
off and think that we have nothing to learn from them.
This is not to minimize serious differences and even doctrinal
error. It's just a reminder that we don't need to throw
the baby out with the bath water.
“If
anyone ever asks me who my favorite author
is, I would say, ‘George MacDonald
and Michael Phillips, his friend!’”
—LT
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One reason MacDonald was considered controversial in his
day was because he was not afraid to probe, explore and
ask tough questions. Though we may not agree with all
of his thought, it's obvious to me from reading his writings
that this was a man who knew God, and if we are open to
it, we can learn from him. If along the way we find something
that we question or are not sure about it, we can be big
enough to disregard those things, and consider them as
an area of thought that we don't agree with or understand.
In general, as Christians I think we suffer from not be
willing to learn from those that we differ with. We can
benefit from exploring the teachings and insights from
fellow believers while holding, as the Scriptures teach,
firmly to sound words.
I find that truth, beauty and inspiration are
important to me in my Christian life, and I find a wealth
of it in the writings of George MacDonald. I would add
that he is also a great storyteller. With the popularity
of Christian fiction being at an all-time high, I would
think that those who give MacDonald a try will not be
disappointed. Thanks to The Musician's Quest and
other MacDonald stories that I have read, I'll never have
to wonder again if God can use fiction to teach and inspire
me.
Back
to Top
George MacDonald (1824-1905), Scottish Victorian novelist,
began his adult life as a clergyman and always considered
himself a poet first of all. His unorthodox views resulted
in a very short career in the pulpit, after which he turned
to writing in earnest. He initially attracted notice for
poetry and his adult fantasy, Phantastes, but once
he turned to the writing of realistic novels in the early
1860s, his name became widely known throughout Great Britain
and the U.S. Over the next thirty years he wrote some
fifty books, including, in addition to the novels, more
poetry, short stories, fantasy, sermons, essays, and a
full-length study of Hamlet. His influential body
of work placed him alongside the great Victorian men of
letters and his following was vast.