The George MacDonald Treasury

Title: The George MacDonald Treasury

Author: George MacDonald 

(Scottish, 1824-1905)
Originally published: 1858-1895
Page count: 650

Dates read: 1/1/21-1/15/21; 2/21/21-3/14/21
2021 book goal progress: 1 and 7 out of 38 (counting as 2 due to length)

Back to the Classics category: 

 19th-century classic

Reading category: TBR Shelf, 

Chunkster Reading Challenge, The Book Hoarders' Book Club

Read my other book reviews for my 2021 goal HERE.

Contents:

This anthology collects 8 of George MacDonald's fantasy and fairy-tale short stories:

Section 1 (330 pages)

     -Phantastes (1858) - 110 pages

     -The Light Princess (1864) - 28 pages

     -The Giant's Heart (1864) - 14 pages

     -The Golden Key (1867) - 18 pages

     -At the Back of the North Wind (1871) - 160 pages

Section 2 (320 pages)

     -The Princess and the Goblin  (1872) - 84 pages

     -The Princess and Curdie (1883) - 84 pages

     -Lilith (1895) - 155 pages

Phantastes (1858) - 110 pages - read 1/1/21-1/3/21

Description:

The story centers on a young man who is pulled into a dreamlike world and there hunts for his ideal of female beauty, embodied by the 'Marble Lady.' He lives through many adventures and temptations while in Fairy Land, until he is finally ready to give up his ideals.

First sentence:
"I awoke one morning with the usual perplexity of mind which accompanies the return of consciousness."

Favorite quotes:
"I found cheerfulness to be like life itself - not to be created by any argument. Afterwards I learned, that the best way to manage some kinds of pain-filled thoughts is to dare them to do their worst; to let them lie and gnaw at your heart till they are tired, and you find you still have a residue of life they cannot kill."

"It is by loving, and not by being loved, that one can come nearest the soul of another; yea, that, where two love, it is the loving of each other, and not the being loved by each other, that originates and perfects and assures their blessedness."

Here is another quote. It is long, which is why I put it on a separate post. It made me think of 3 other significant works, which I think the quote might've inspired!

CAWPILE Rating: Overall - 5.9/10 - ⭐⭐⭐/5
What is a CAWPILE Rating?

Mini-Review:

This started as a cute fairy tale, but there was no clear plot. By the end, I was struggling to put together the pieces of this seemingly directionless and incohesive story. I'm sure there's some meaning or moral behind it all, but it went over my head. It almost reminded me of an attempt at a serious Don Quixote and it just fell short for me. (Thankfully this story is much, much shorter - about 800 pages shorter actually.)

The Light Princess (1864) - 28 pages - read 1/4/21-1/5/21

Description:

Drawing on inspiration from Sleeping Beauty, it tells the story of a princess afflicted by a constant weightlessness, unable to get her feet on the ground, both literally and metaphorically, until she finds a love that brings her down to earth.

First sentence:
"Once upon a time, so long ago that I have quite forgotten the date, there lived a king and queen who had no children."

Favorite quotes:
"The hatching of a real hearty laugh requires the incubation gravity."

CAWPILE Rating: Overall - 7.1/10 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Mini-Review:

I enjoyed this one. It was a cute, humorous, short fairy tale. I enjoyed the play with words - I even assumed The 'Light' Princess meant she glowed or something, but it actually referred to her weight - she has no gravity. I was a little bummed with the ending. I was hoping for a bittersweet ending, but it ended up being a stereotypical happily-ever-after where everything worked out fine.

The Giant's Heart (1864) - 14 pages - read 1/6/21

Description:

When the precocious Tricksey-Wee and Buffy-Bob find themselves in Giantland, the duo finds themselves on an adventure to wreak vengeance on a giant who eats children.

First sentence:
"There was once a giant who lived on the borders of Giantland where it touched on the country of common people."

CAWPILE Rating: Overall - 4.6/10 - ⭐⭐⭐/5

Mini-Review:

The was a pretty meh story. The secondary heroes were a bunch of giant spiders - yuck!

The Golden Key (1867) - 18 pages - read 1/7/21

Description:

A young boy sets out to find the end of a rainbow in an enchanted forest. As the forest is in Fairyland where everything has an opposite effect, the rainbow only glows brighter when the sun sets. He finds the magical golden key found at the end of a rainbow, then it dawns on him that he does not know where the lock is.

First sentence:
"There was a boy who used to sit in the twilight and listen to his great-aunt's stories."

CAWPILE Rating: Overall - 7.4/10 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Mini-Review:

I really liked this one. Instead of a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, there's a golden key - but where does it lead to? This story plays with age and time - and the ending is up for interpretation. It is bittersweet if you interpret it as I do, but it is heartwarming.

At the Back of the North Wind (1871) - 160 pages - read 1/8/21-1/15/21

Description:

The story is a fantasy centered on a boy named Diamond and his adventures with the North Wind. Diamond travels together with the mysterious Lady North Wind through the nights. He is a very sweet little boy who makes joy everywhere he goes.

First sentence:
"I have been asked to tell you about the back of the north wind."

Favorite quotes:
" 'Well, please, North Wind, you are so beautiful, I am quite ready to go with you.'

'You must not be ready to go with everything beautiful all at once, Diamond.'

'But what's beautiful can't be bad. You're not bad, North Wind?'

'No; I'm not bad. But sometimes beautiful things grow bad by doing bad, and it takes some time for their badness to spoil their beauty. So little boys may be mistaken if they go after things because they are beautiful.' "

"Poverty will not make a man worthless - he may be worth a great deal more when he is poor than he was rich; but dishonesty goes very far indeed to make a man of no value - a thing o be thrown out in the dust-hole of creation, like a bit of a broken basin, or a dirty rag."

"To try to make others comfortable is the only way to get right comfortable ourselves, and that comes partly of not being able to think so much of ourselves when we are helping other people. For our Selves will always do pretty well if we don't pay them too much attention. Our Selves are like some little children who will be happy enough so long as they are left to their own games, but when we begin to interfere with them, and make them presents of too nice playthings, or too many sweet things, they begin at once to fret and spoil."

CAWPILE Rating: Overall - 6.1/10 - ⭐⭐⭐/5

Mini-Review:

This was a little better than OK. I liked most of the characters except for the North Wind herself. I wish she was more of an implied, figurative being than a literal character as she is written. I also found the narrator to be annoying and unnecessary. It's also a bit sexist, but one must remember that art is a product of its time. Nonetheless, it's a cute and bittersweet story. Fun side note: It references the short story he published next, which I will review below.

The Princess and the Goblin  (1872) - 84 pages - read 2/22/21-2/27/21

Description:

Princess Irene discovers a secret winding stairway in the castle. It leads to a bewildering labyrinth of unknown passages with closed doors - and a further stairway. What lies at the top? Meanwhile, a miner's son, Curdie, overhears a fiendish plot by the goblins that live below the mountain. Can the ring the princess is given protect her against the lurking menace of the goblins from under the mountain?

First sentence:
"There was once a little princess whose father was king over a great country full of mountains and valleys."

Favorite quotes:
"This day's adventure, however, did not turn out like yesterday's, although it began like it; and indeed today is very seldom like yesterday, if people would note the differences - even when it rains."

CAWPILE Rating: Overall - 7.3/10 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Mini-Review:

This is a magical story with a fairy godmother - though she's never actually called that. I like that Irene and Curdie both have their own strengths and weaknesses and they, in turn, save each other.

The Princess and Curdie (1883) - 84 pages - read 2/28/21-3/5/21

Description:

The adventure continues with Princess Irene and Curdie a year or two older. They must overthrow a set of corrupt chamberlains who are poisoning Irene's father, the king. Irene's (fairy) grandmother also reappears and gives Curdie a strange gift.

First paragraph:
"Curdie was the sone of Peter the miner. He lived with his father and mother in a cottage on a mountain, and he worked with his father inside the mountain. A mountain is a strange and awful thing. In old times, without knowing so much of their strangeness as we do, people were yet more afraid of mountains. But then somehow they had not come to see how beautiful they are as well as awful, and they hated them - and what people hate they must fear. Now that we have learned to look at them with admiration, perhaps we do not feel quite awe enough of them. To me they are beautiful terrors."

Favorite quotes:
" 'Come, young Curdie, what are you thinking of?'

'How do you know I'm thinking of anything?' asked Curdie.

'Because you're not saying anything.'

'Does it follow then that, as you're saying so much, you're not thinking at all?' "

CAWPILE Rating: Overall - 8.1/10 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Mini-Review:

I like this sequel even more than the first! This focused more on Curdie than Irene, which was the only bummer. It would have been nice for their stories to be more equal as in the first. Nonetheless, this is a wonderful story of magic and adventure!

Lilith (1895) - 155 pages - read 3/6/21-3/14/21

Description:

It is the story of Mr. Vane, an orphan and heir to a large house -- a house in which he has a vision that leads him through a large old mirror into another world. In chronicling the five trips Mr. Vane makes to this other world, he hauntingly explores the ultimate mystery of evil.

Lilith is considered among the darkest of MacDonald's works, and among the most profound. It is a story concerning the nature of life, death, and salvation. In the story, MacDonald mentions a cosmic sleep that heals tortured souls, preceding the salvation of all. MacDonald was a Christian universalist, believing that all will eventually be saved. However, in this story, divine punishment is not taken lightly, and salvation is hard-won.

First sentence:
"I had just finished my studies at Oxford, and was taking a brief holiday from work before assuming indefinitely the management of the estate."

Favorite quotes:
"When one says to the great Thinker: 'Here is one of thy thoughts: I am thinking it now!' that is a prayer. It is a word to the big heart from one of its own little hearts."

"The business of the universe is to make such a fool of you that you will know yourself for one, and so begin to be wise!"

"Doubt may be poor encouragement to do anything, but it is a bad reason for doing nothing."

CAWPILE Rating: Overall - 7.4/10 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Mini-Review:

This is a strange and absurdist allegory. Some of it I was able to interpret, but I feel like a lot of it went over my head. It got better after chapter 12 and parts of the story started to come together. It was on its way to wrap up the tale nicely, but the very end of the second-to-last chapter and the last chapter left the reader with an open ending - which was a little frustrating. I do think this is a good story, but, if you're considering reading it yourself, you need to be prepared for trying to work your mind around the meaning of everything.

Now I'm off to read another book... but since a review should be more about the author of the book than about the writer of the blog, I will let George MacDonald have the last words:

"With a fictional book, I took the place of the character who was most like myself, and his story was mine; until grown weary with the life of years condensed into an hour, or arrived at my deathbed, or the end of the volume, I would awake, with a sudden bewilderment, to the consciousness of my present life, recognizing the wall and roof around me, and finding I joyed or sorrowed only in a book."

-Phantastes