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The Hero Returns (Paperback) #9
St. George and St. Michael
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First published January 1, 1876
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About the author
George MacDonald
1,681 books2,488 followersGeorge MacDonald was a Scottish author, poet and Christian Congregational minister. He became a pioneering figure in the field of modern fantasy literature and the mentor of fellow-writer Lewis Carroll. In addition to his fairy tales, MacDonald wrote several works of Christian theology, including several collections of sermons.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
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May 25, 2025I identify so hard with George MacDonald writing one random historical novel because he got hyper-fixated on Raglan Castle. The novel never quite coheres, and the pacing is all over the place, and a lot of the time it feels like 19th century fanfic for its historical sources, but it features these delightful things:
* a love triangle between a roundhead, a cavalier, and the horse they both love
* an uptight-loves-uptight romance, including a scene where the puritan man cries actual tears because he might have to search his royalist childhood sweetheart for secret papers and he is just so APPALLED at the thought, bless his heart
* an inventor who has a clockwork flying bat, a mechanical chair, and secret mechanical passageways
* a breaking-the-fourth-wall rant about how steam power and machines have destroyed everything good in the world since the 17th century
Other thoughts: what on earth is it about Charles I that he seems like the same person in every historical novel I've read that features him in a cameo appearance? I don't feel like this happens with other historical figures.
Last time I read this, I was not yet a writer of fiction and I found it a horrible slog. Today, as a novelist, I found a lot to enjoy.
In fact, I've actually just written a novella (tentatively titled THE CLOCKWORK CAPTIVE, releasing later this year) that explicitly pays tribute to this little-known work by MacDonald, one of the most formative authors of my childhood.
2015 review:
It took me YEARS to get through this. I would see it on the shelf and think, this has got to be great. But it isn't. In a way, it's kind of comforting to think that an artist as significant, wise, influential, and wildly imaginative as Macdonald could write something this bad.
* a love triangle between a roundhead, a cavalier, and the horse they both love
* an uptight-loves-uptight romance, including a scene where the puritan man cries actual tears because he might have to search his royalist childhood sweetheart for secret papers and he is just so APPALLED at the thought, bless his heart
* an inventor who has a clockwork flying bat, a mechanical chair, and secret mechanical passageways
* a breaking-the-fourth-wall rant about how steam power and machines have destroyed everything good in the world since the 17th century
Other thoughts: what on earth is it about Charles I that he seems like the same person in every historical novel I've read that features him in a cameo appearance? I don't feel like this happens with other historical figures.
Last time I read this, I was not yet a writer of fiction and I found it a horrible slog. Today, as a novelist, I found a lot to enjoy.
In fact, I've actually just written a novella (tentatively titled THE CLOCKWORK CAPTIVE, releasing later this year) that explicitly pays tribute to this little-known work by MacDonald, one of the most formative authors of my childhood.
2015 review:
It took me YEARS to get through this. I would see it on the shelf and think, this has got to be great. But it isn't. In a way, it's kind of comforting to think that an artist as significant, wise, influential, and wildly imaginative as Macdonald could write something this bad.
February 25, 2022
Although many categorize this as a historical romance, it is not very romance driven.
The book takes place in the mid-late 1600's and even for MacDonald's time, that would be considered "historical."
It was unnecessarily long and the author went into many details that did not spark my interest seeming to only be page filling filler. It was difficult to get through for me. I didn't feel the conflict or care much about the characters. I did like hero Richard, but the story seems to revolve mainly around heroine Dorothy who I disliked through most of it.
Dorothy and Richard have known each other since childhood, and became lovers until their political beliefs put a rift between them.
They are separated for most of the book but finally come back together in the end.
It was ok. Just ok. I'm not sure I would recommend this one. It is especially not for those who dislike "Shakespearian-like" dialogue. Lots of "Thee, Thou, Hast"..etc. I didn't mind it but I felt it ultimately stiff and too proper which also dampened the emotions of the characters IMO.
All good and safe. No real violence, no cheating no cursing.
The book takes place in the mid-late 1600's and even for MacDonald's time, that would be considered "historical."
It was unnecessarily long and the author went into many details that did not spark my interest seeming to only be page filling filler. It was difficult to get through for me. I didn't feel the conflict or care much about the characters. I did like hero Richard, but the story seems to revolve mainly around heroine Dorothy who I disliked through most of it.
Dorothy and Richard have known each other since childhood, and became lovers until their political beliefs put a rift between them.
They are separated for most of the book but finally come back together in the end.
It was ok. Just ok. I'm not sure I would recommend this one. It is especially not for those who dislike "Shakespearian-like" dialogue. Lots of "Thee, Thou, Hast"..etc. I didn't mind it but I felt it ultimately stiff and too proper which also dampened the emotions of the characters IMO.
All good and safe. No real violence, no cheating no cursing.
January 9, 2015
This is a great historical romance set during the English Civil War. I love MacDonald's ability to write heroes and heroines worthy of the name. I definitely recommend this for anyone who enjoys romance in the true sense of the word and not in the way that is sold by bodice-rippers and the like.
December 29, 2022
In Kindle ed. of The Complete Works.
As always this is not a review but a debrief, to fix in words if not memory the significance of this work and author for me.
I think all of MacDonald's works are about the formation of the soul, about what it means to be human. So I don't mind a long story with lots of detail, because formation is a long journey. I'm not sure how much real change can be effected otherwise. I read a book as a guest wanting to learn from the host, not as a tourist wanting to get my money's worth. So for example from Hugo and Dumas, with their chapters on French history, I get that action is grounded in what has gone before. "An effort to read the hearts of our forefathers will help us to know the heart of our neighbour"says MacDonald (chapter LIX).
I would learn to be as balanced as MacDonald in intake, process, and output. His observation and reading and his creative action are all demonstrated in St. George and St. Michael. Was it Dickens who said that his work was half imagination, half plain reality, but that people usually got wrong which was which? So much of MacDonald's writing is fantastic that I thought that's what the descriptions of the inventions of one character were, until I learned that MacDonald based him on a book about the historical Marquis of Worcester. The "bones of fact" about the quarrel underlying the English Civil War (1642-51), the context of this story, came from books by Thomas Bayly, who also appears as a character in the story.
Landscape can be a character. Tolkien is famous for it, but many English murder mysteries seem to be as much about where they are set as anything else. The English have a sense of place. MacDonald has a senses of places. He has great depictions of physical landscape and spiritual landscape layered on top of each other. There are those called "thin places", where the veil between the seen and the unseen worlds is almost non-existent. Using this language, MacDonald is a writer of thin stories. All of his stories no matter the genre have this character of being about both worlds. Because that is what it means to be human.
The young protagonists are on opposite sides of this quarrel between puritans and cavaliers. I should re-read C.S. Lewis' The Pilgrim's Regress -- the one thing that stuck with me was his contrast of cold, northern and hot, southern spiritualities, how we are each born stronger in one, and the danger of not getting closer to the other. England needs St. George AND St. Michael.
I would learn to be as magnanimous as the heroes of this book. But magnanimity takes courage. And courage takes loyalty. I wanted to end with a quote from the book, which I had bookmarked but now cannot locate. MacDonald is a poet. It does not do justice to paraphrase what I believe this book to be mostly about: that it is better to do something because we are convicted it is right, even if it is on the wrong side, than to compromise our conscience (maybe today we would say the end does not justify the means); that whole heartedly obeying the demands of the truth, no matter how dimly or incorrectly heard, is the only way to get closer to the truth. And in that process the youngsters grew closer to each other though still of separate parties. To paraphrase Lewis: Aim for heaven and you get earth thrown in, aim for earth and you get neither.
As always this is not a review but a debrief, to fix in words if not memory the significance of this work and author for me.
I think all of MacDonald's works are about the formation of the soul, about what it means to be human. So I don't mind a long story with lots of detail, because formation is a long journey. I'm not sure how much real change can be effected otherwise. I read a book as a guest wanting to learn from the host, not as a tourist wanting to get my money's worth. So for example from Hugo and Dumas, with their chapters on French history, I get that action is grounded in what has gone before. "An effort to read the hearts of our forefathers will help us to know the heart of our neighbour"says MacDonald (chapter LIX).
I would learn to be as balanced as MacDonald in intake, process, and output. His observation and reading and his creative action are all demonstrated in St. George and St. Michael. Was it Dickens who said that his work was half imagination, half plain reality, but that people usually got wrong which was which? So much of MacDonald's writing is fantastic that I thought that's what the descriptions of the inventions of one character were, until I learned that MacDonald based him on a book about the historical Marquis of Worcester. The "bones of fact" about the quarrel underlying the English Civil War (1642-51), the context of this story, came from books by Thomas Bayly, who also appears as a character in the story.
Landscape can be a character. Tolkien is famous for it, but many English murder mysteries seem to be as much about where they are set as anything else. The English have a sense of place. MacDonald has a senses of places. He has great depictions of physical landscape and spiritual landscape layered on top of each other. There are those called "thin places", where the veil between the seen and the unseen worlds is almost non-existent. Using this language, MacDonald is a writer of thin stories. All of his stories no matter the genre have this character of being about both worlds. Because that is what it means to be human.
The young protagonists are on opposite sides of this quarrel between puritans and cavaliers. I should re-read C.S. Lewis' The Pilgrim's Regress -- the one thing that stuck with me was his contrast of cold, northern and hot, southern spiritualities, how we are each born stronger in one, and the danger of not getting closer to the other. England needs St. George AND St. Michael.
I would learn to be as magnanimous as the heroes of this book. But magnanimity takes courage. And courage takes loyalty. I wanted to end with a quote from the book, which I had bookmarked but now cannot locate. MacDonald is a poet. It does not do justice to paraphrase what I believe this book to be mostly about: that it is better to do something because we are convicted it is right, even if it is on the wrong side, than to compromise our conscience (maybe today we would say the end does not justify the means); that whole heartedly obeying the demands of the truth, no matter how dimly or incorrectly heard, is the only way to get closer to the truth. And in that process the youngsters grew closer to each other though still of separate parties. To paraphrase Lewis: Aim for heaven and you get earth thrown in, aim for earth and you get neither.
May 24, 2018
Totally lacking the heart of George MacDonald. No lovely, preachy dialogues, no real spiritual struggle and victory. Historical fiction, too, is not like George MacDonald. I think that was what set this book on the wrong foot for me. However, I will confess that my English Civil War memories are a bit cobwebby, which may have set me off on the wrong foot.
Took a long time to develop any character sufficiently to know who he was following and why we should care about them. Once he did, though, MacDonald created a female lead who was fairly engaging. She did it fit the mold of a typical lady in waiting, which put her in a variety of situations.
The tension between church and state that evidently lay at the root of the story was underdeveloped—or under appreciated by myself, through lack of knowledge of the historical setting.
If you have read MacDonald but thought him too preachy, give this a try. His writing is certainly clear, quality, etc. If you are interested in the English Civil War, definitely give this a read. Or if you are a diehard MacDonald fan, read it, knowing that it might be more of one you plow through than relish.
Took a long time to develop any character sufficiently to know who he was following and why we should care about them. Once he did, though, MacDonald created a female lead who was fairly engaging. She did it fit the mold of a typical lady in waiting, which put her in a variety of situations.
The tension between church and state that evidently lay at the root of the story was underdeveloped—or under appreciated by myself, through lack of knowledge of the historical setting.
If you have read MacDonald but thought him too preachy, give this a try. His writing is certainly clear, quality, etc. If you are interested in the English Civil War, definitely give this a read. Or if you are a diehard MacDonald fan, read it, knowing that it might be more of one you plow through than relish.
October 8, 2020
I love this story so much. MacDonald is a Master Storyteller and I enjoy pretty much everything he has written. As a kid, some of my favorite stories were his ‘The Princess and the Goblin’ and ‘At the Back Of the North Wind.’ I didn’t find this treasure until I was an adult. Now, it certainly isn’t perfect. He does not give the historical period the circumspect it deserves for a fair understanding but that’s a critique of an adult perspective on a book intended for children. Kids don’t need the same level of detail. He focused on the morals, the interpersonal conflicts, the love of neighbor/love of enemy complex, and really just shows what it is to be human through the story of Dorothy and Richard. I totally recommend it. I’ll be reading it again soo myself.
August 18, 2018
A "romance" set during the English civil war. I use romance in quotes because it is not of the bodice ripper or similar type of story. Rather, it is a measured look at the relations between the protagonists Richard and Dorothy, as well as everyone else. Richard and Dorothy grew up together. However, they found themselves separated because of being on opposite sides of the war. Only then as they meet as "enemies" do they realize how much they actually meant to one another.
While it is a rather long and sometimes plodding story, MacDonald's prose is beautiful in form and description. Well worth a read.
While it is a rather long and sometimes plodding story, MacDonald's prose is beautiful in form and description. Well worth a read.
September 12, 2020
I remember reading the novel many years ago, the first thing I ever read by George MacDonald, it really helped me get through a season of being in young love with a beautiful young woman whose religion was much more, um ... strict, than mine. I thought we were “just like” Dorothy and Richard - so romantic and star-crossed - why should theology have to keep us apart, I argued. Ah, “the shipwreck of my ill-adventured youth!” After I read the novel, I was told he also wrote fairy stories - wow! I thought. Here’s a guy I *really* need to read more of! So I did.
May 16, 2021
Timeless
Stories such as this are good for the heart and soul. Though they are from time long past the pursuit of truth and honor in life is the eternal story of mankind that is only fulfilled by the love of our savior Jesus Christ.
Stories such as this are good for the heart and soul. Though they are from time long past the pursuit of truth and honor in life is the eternal story of mankind that is only fulfilled by the love of our savior Jesus Christ.
August 4, 2012
This historical novel set during the English Civil War tracks the divergent and reconverging paths of a puritan boy and a royalist girl, each following his conscience, and each growing in knowledge and readiness to love the other. It's a fantastic story for our these partisan times. I hope we are all following our consciences as truly as these characters, even when we believe quite different things. The novel is a beautiful reminder of the words, "Judge not."
Read
April 10, 2012Not really read all the way through. Book became tiresome (too high-flown language), not enough plot.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews