Phantastes

C.S. Lewis said that he considered George MacDonald his mentor. Not so much for his writing skill as for his genius in the story itself. I need to read this again because it has been many years.

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, boggling! This fantastic tale has a whiff of the old world about it: a Grimm world. It has so much to offer, I know I didn't pick up everything. I'm putting the book aside and coming back and reading it again later!

Fantasy genre's grand-daddy takes his narrator Anodos (lit. "path-less," suggesting a lost pilgrim) on a Pilgrim's Progress-style journey through Fairyland, replete with friendly and hostile tree-spirits, themes borrowed from Pygmalion and (Arthurian) Percival stories, and lots of poetic connections between nobility, love, and death. The gain and...more

Fantasy genre's grand-daddy takes his narrator Anodos (lit. "path-less," suggesting a lost pilgrim) on a Pilgrim's Progress-style journey through Fairyland, replete with friendly and hostile tree-spirits, themes borrowed from Pygmalion and (Arthurian) Percival stories, and lots of poetic connections between nobility, love, and death. The gain and loss of the narrator's own deadly, disenchanting Shadow provides most of the book's spiritual impact.   hide

Very long read. It's in the style of the period with no real paragraph breaks, so be prepared to sit and read for awhile. If you want an easy stopping point to pick it up again...good luck finding one.