The Collected Works of George MacDonald: The Complete Works PergamonMedia

by George MacDonald

This comprehensive eBook presents the complete works or all the significant works - the Œuvre - of this famous and brilliant writer in one ebook - 28900 pages easy-to-read and easy-to-navigate:
- The Princess and the Goblin
- Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women
- Lilith: A Romance
- The Princess and the Goblin
- At the Back of the North Wind
- The Light Princess
- A Book of Strife in the Form of The Diary of an Old Soul
- The Princess and Curdie
- Unspoken Sermons, Series I., II., and III.
- The Light Princess and Other Fairy Stories
- The Hope of the Gospel
- A Double Story
- The Portent and Other Stories
- The Princess and Curdie
- At the Back of the North Wind and Elizabeth Lewis
- A Dish of Orts: Chiefly Papers on the Imagination, and on Shakespeare
- The Flight of the Shadow
- Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood
- Stephen Archer, and Other Tales
- Miracles of Our Lord
- Gibbie
- Malcolm
- What's Mine's Mine — Complete
- Far Above Rubies
- David Elginbrod
- The Marquis of Lossie
- Adela Cathcart, Volume
- Robert Falconer
- Heather and Snow
- The Vicar's Daughter
- Cross Purposes and The Shadows
- Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood
- Thomas Wingfold, Curate
- Mary Marston
- Wilfrid Cumbermede
- Alec Forbes of Howglen
- The Seaboard Parish, Complete
- Adela Cathcart
- St. George and St. Michael
- There & Back
- Home Again
- Donal Grant
- England's Antiphon
- Paul Faber, Surgeon
- Warlock o' Glenwarlock: A Homely Romance
- A Hidden Life and Other Poems
- Salted with Fire
- Weighed and Wanting
- The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
- The Elect Lady
- Gutta-Percha Willie
- A Rough Shaking
- At the Back of the North Wind
- Rampolli
- The poetical works of
- The Princess and the Goblin
- St. George and St. Michael
- The poetical works of in two volumes — Volume
- What's Mine's Mine — Volume
- Thomas Wingfold, Curate V
- The Seaboard Parish
- My Contemporaries In FictionDavid Christie Murray
- The Light Princess
- Thomas Wingfold
- etc.

Genres: Fiction, Fantasy, Classics, Literature, Christian, Spirituality, Classic Literature

Kindle Edition

First published August 21, 2009

About the author

George 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.

Reviews

[Seon Ji (Dawn) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it.

Highly recommended

Free on the Gutenberg project website.

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A True Spiritual Gold Mine (despite typos in the Kindle Edition, at an Unbeatable Price)

Sermons, fantasies for adults, mysteries, fairly tales for children, slow pastoral novels, poetry, and more — George MacDonald spans an incredible breadth of genres, and an even more incredible depth of spiritual insight. I decided several years ago to read everything by MacDonald, and this Kindle collection is a veritable treasure. For 99 cents, I can put up with the occasional typos and rare omissions.

C.S. Lewis wrote that George MacDonald was his master (we would say "teacher and mentor" in 21st century US parlance). As I'm working my way through all of MacDonald's writings, I keep finding out how true that statement is. Buried in a novel, fairy tale, or sermon, I'll find an idea that clearly is the basis for the world of Narnia, or the wardrobe, or the Shadowlands, or Peralandra, or the Liar-Lunatic-Lord argument, and on and on. As Lewis said, MacDonald is not a great writer in putting words together and crafting sentences. I have to read slowly and untangle his thoughts. Many times even a simple sentence is so profound I have to reread it three times and ponder it for an hour (or days) before I begin to understand it. And it's virtually always worth the effort. George MacDonald is a genius of theological reflection and of imaginative creativity. His stories inspired Mark Twain, G.K. Chesterton, Lewis Carroll, J.R.R. Tolkien, Madeleine L'Engle, Dorothy L. Sayers, and many others, and he is called the grandfather of modern fantasy.

Lewis said that he found "hardly any other writer who seems to be closer, or more continuously close, to the Spirit of Christ Himself." In my wide reading, both for my job (ministry coordinator for discipleship and theological formation) and studies (masters and PhD in theology), that is my experience as well. George MacDonald is probably my favorite theologian, although he never wrote a systematic theology. His sermons are dense with insights into Scripture and theology, but his poetry and novels are as well.

[David Coward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such treasures to be mined here

The book itself has a few typos, and the layout is somewhat confusing (the stories appear ordered somewhat randomly), and it lacks some of the expected features of a modern ebook, but the price was right for such a huge selection of MacDonald's writings. I can see why C S Lewis was so stunned by his writings. The story Rosamund alone is filled with such insight and clarity, that it alone is worth the price of the whole book. (I've seen this ebook available for $1.) Just be aware the book is not professionally compiled and edited, so don't expect it to be. But rather jump in and be carried off and taught by these stories.

[Maryellen Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Too much for one reading, but riches to be revisited over the years.

I read some of these tales growing up, but there is so much more to be found with each reading. The magical tales of Curdie and his princess, and the great odyssey through Fairy Land were known to me from long ago - but so much richer now with my over 70 years of experiences to resonate thru them. I'm glad to rediscover this treasure.

[Larry Marshall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good stories for books written in the 1800's.

[James C Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read the book with my eight and nine-year-old sons and enjoyed it immensely!

[Samantha Kobelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not expect to enjoy this as much as I did. 10/10 would recommend. A short and sweet fantasy. And you can definitely see MacDonald working the Bible into it!

[T Boyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Safe writing to go for joy.

So much writing is depressing. Never Gorge MacDonald - we used to read this to our boys when they were young. Now at old age, I have gone back to them.

[David Joannes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read all of George Macdonald's books. This is an incredible set!

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has Phantases, the portent, the golden key, works of fancy and imagination, the history of photogen and nycteris, the princess and Curdie, and Donald Grant. I read most of these.

Phantases: a little strange and hard to follow, but good if you like fairy tales
The Portent: I don't remember what happens in this one
The Golden Key: I LOVED this story. It is beautiful
Works of fancy and imagination: some of this is pretty creepy
the history of photogen and nycertis: This is an OK fairy tale. Nothing particularly notable one way or the other
The Princess and Curdie: not as good as the Princess and the Goblin, but still a fun read
Donald Grant: has some strange theology in it and is a little creepy in places

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classic

George MacDonald’s storytelling ability is unmatched by any author. His writing draws you in like a poem or a lullaby bringing a smile to your face before you know it!

[Ange · Rating 5 out of 5]

Starting off with ALEX FORBES OF HOWGLEN. Hard to understand the Scottish dialect.

Annuals of a Quiet Neighborhood. Starting off really well. Young pastor getting to know his people. Kinda gothic. "most hurtful of all beings under the sun, an unwomanly woman."



David Elginbrod. Excellent. Geo. does go on about Calvinist. David is a Christ-like character. Saint with a capitol S. Fun with elements of the gothic.

Donal Grant--somewhat Gothic. Lots of theology in Scottish. Drawn out good story.

Double Story--Fairy Tale. Very moral tale. Written for older folks. MacDonald said something like God picks his elect because he knows they are really good.

The Elect Lady--Again a story of several "good" people.

Far Above Rubies--Nice story about a young wife.

THE FLIGHT OF THE SHADOW--kinda gothic. About a young lady & her beloved uncle living on the edge of a heath.

Another Elect Lady--Molly & Walter.

LILITH--very very long. Good story I guess.

Malcolm--& it's continuation

Gutta Percha Willie: the Working Genius. The beginning is fun with a nice little boy (Willie) that could see how dumb some fairy tales are.

Mary Marston--nice long story of a shop keeper and the prejudices of society and the bad local churches....8/31/14

Paul Faber, Surgeon--(pretty sure this will be a re-read.) Decided not to read it again.

Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood (1871)--enjoyed a lot.

A Rough Shaking--About a perfect boy and how through many trials finds his proper place in the world. think I read this before.

SALTED WITH FIRE--a nice Scottish story of a pastor growing up

THE SEABOARD PARISH--A story about his family sending a season at the seaside. Skipped through all the sermons and theological discussions. He had interesting things to say about raising a family.

SIR GIBBIE - nice little story

ST. GEO. & ST. MICHAEL - Takes place during the civil war during Cromwell's time. Nice story about true love.

THERE & BACK--About a young man Richard that didn't know who is father was or recognized his heavenly father.
Doesn't bother to read the Scriptures.

Thomas Wingfold, Curate--Character from There & Back. With his courtship of Helen. Skipped sermons...

The Vicar's Daughter -- third part of trilogy with daughter supposedly writing it.

WARLOCK O' GLENWARLOCK --No surprises. His typical love story with lots of theology.

WEIGHED AND WANTING --

[Martin Moleski · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been picking away at this huge Kindle collection, on and off, for a few months.

I like the fact that it is cheap ($2) and preserves the original Scotch dialect. I haven't tried any of the contemporary "translated" editions, but I feel so proud of myself for getting enough sense out of the "the broad Saxon" not to lose the thread of the story entirely.
'Lat the laddie gang his ain gait, 'uman,' interposed David. 'The thing born in 'im 's better for him nor the thing born in anither. A man maun gang as God made him.' Sounds about right!

There are many disadvantages to the electronic omnibus. It is hard to tell where I am in the book. I cannot rank individual components individually here on Goodreads. The Kindle note format is unusable on the Kindle and only just barely tolerable on the Kindle PC reader.

I've lost track of how much I've read. A few quick notes to help keep me oriented:

* The Golden Key. Left me cold. I may have to try it again later.

* Heather and Snow: a long courtship, finally ending in marriage when the boy becomes a man. A real chick flick--lots to cry about!

* The History of Gutta-Percha Willie: another homespun saint, but less theological and moralistic than the Malcolm saga.

* Home Again: poet finds peace back on the farm.

* Hope of the Gospel: I ran my eyes over it, but I prefer MacDonald's theology and preaching better in his works of fiction than in such solid, serious essays.

* Lillith: Bizzare, surrealistic, unorthodox, nightmarish, but as close as a Scottish dissenter might come to the idea of Purgatory.

* Malcolm: A great Victorian novel with wonderful Dickensian characters, but using Scottish archetypes instead of English. The dialect is hard going.

* The Marquis of Lossie: the rest of Malcolm's story. A portrait of the making of a saint and a new Heaven on earth. Much less dialect!

I really got caught up in Malcolm and the Marquis of Lossie, reading into the wee small hours of the morning. This is where the electronic format is so frustrating. I could only guess how much of each book was left from feeling the plot lines approaching the climax. Turning paper pages provides a lot more feedback!

[Candace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE George MacDonald. I have enjoyed everything I've read that he's authored. His thoughts about the meaning and actions of Christianity ring so true to me. He is food for my soul.

[Michelle]

Aubri Pope favorite writer. Start w fairy tales

[Renee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written.

Wonderful stories that reveal the simple truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through lives lived to the glory of God.