What do you think?
Rate this book
The Curate's Awakening #3
The Baron's Apprenticeship
Sequel to Curate's Awakening and Lady's Confession.
300 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1891
64 people are currently reading
475 people want to read
About the author
George MacDonald
1,711 books2,498 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
May 11, 2017
Written in the late nineteenth century, I stumbled across this gem called There and Back by George MacDonald while re-reading The Princess and the Goblin and At the Back of the North Wind for a new blog series I’m rolling out next week, “10 Allegories Worth Reading.”
Until this week, Charles Dickens was my absolute favorite author (followed very closely by J.R.R. Tolkien). I love the mournful atmosphere of a Dickens novel, born of social consciousness. I love his characters, and how he connects them all. I wouldn’t have thought it was possible to connect with another author’s work the way I have with Dickens’.
I should have known.
You see, there’s a level below social consciousness and connectedness in me that longs to be fed, and that’s spiritual consciousness and connectedness.
In There and Back, George MacDonald did for me what Dickens never could: he went to that deepest level and he lived there with the story and characters. The story takes place in nineteenth-century England, and follows the aristocratic Lestrange family and those who cross their paths, from other aristocrats to tradesmen to clergy. MacDonald explores the social, emotional, and spiritual standing and evolution of every character he introduces. It’s a complex look at how people’s philosophies shape how they relate to God and one another. No less important is the gritty look at why a good God allows bad things to happen – an age old question, I think.
“Father, it would take the life out of me to believe there was no God; but the God I hope in is a very different person from the God my mother’s clergy have taught her to believe in. Father, do you know Jesus Christ!”
“I know the person you mean, my boy.”
“I know what kind of person he is, and he said God was just like him, and in the God like him, if I can find him, I will believe with all my heart and soul—and so would you, father, if you knew him.”
Also unlike a Dickens novel, there are no absolute saints or caricatured sinners in There and Back. Everyone is flawed, but none are portrayed as ridiculous in their shortcomings; instead, they are met with grace and empathy from their author, even when they are dead wrong. Beyond that, there’s not a dull character in the cast. Of course, Richard and Barbara shine the brightest in their search for God, being the protagonist and his love interest, but I think Wingfold was my favorite. The sage parson met people where they were at and conversed on their level, a quality I long to better develop.
"He gave her strong hopeful things to read—and in the search after such was driven to remark how little of the hopeful there is in the English, or in any other language. The song of hope is indeed written in men’s hearts, but few sing it. Yet it is of all songs the sorest-needed of struggling men."
Here’s where Dickens and MacDonald are very similar: creating atmosphere. I was in the library as the nurse presented the baron with his infant son; I was with Richard and Wingfold on the road just before dawn; I was with Alice in chilly London; I felt the moments of majesty as presented over a literary work, or a concert, or a moonlit night. As in Bleak House, I was immersed in There and Back – not just in the world, but how the characters responded to it.
"When she saw her spread out her arms as if to embrace the wind that flowed to meet them, then too she wondered, but presently began to feel what a thing the wind was—how full of something strange and sweet. She began to learn that nothing is dead, that there cannot be a physical abstraction, that nothing exists for the sake of the laws of its phenomena. She did not put it so to herself, I need hardly say; but she was, in a word, learning to feel that the world was alive."
And the romantic element…Can MacDonald ever do romance! There’s this independence and mutuality and growth between Richard and Barbara that I can’t begin to explain. It just struck me as healthy and wholesome (which is not to say they didn’t have problems, it was more how they dealt with them), especially in a culture where dysfunctional is normal and even expected.
"He saw her far away like the moon she spoke of. She was growing to him a marvel and a mystery. Something strange seemed befalling him. Was she weaving a spell about his soul? Was she fettering him for her slave? Was she one of the wild, bewildering creatures of ancient lonely belief, that are the souls of the loveliest things, but can detach themselves from them, and wander out in garments more immediately their own? Was she salamander or sylph, naiad or undine, oread or dryad?—But then she had such a head, and they were all rather silly!"
And, to make my joy complete, there was this lovely metaphor presented in Richard’s trade – bookbinding and restoration. Oh my heart. It’s this whole idea of making something – not new, but the way it was intended to be. Again, I say, oh my heart.
"I shan’t be master of my trade till I know all that can be done now to stop such a book from crumbling into dust!"
This book reached me on all of my levels, and yes, I shed a few tears reading the last paragraph, not just because it was beautiful, but because I really didn’t want it to end.
“My tears were flowing now with the old earth-pain in them, with keenest disappointment and longing. To have been there and to have come back, was the misery. But it did not last long. The glad thought awoke that I had the dream—a precious thing never to be lost while memory lasted; a thing which nothing but its realization could ever equal in preciousness. I rose glad and strong, to serve with newer love, with quicker hand and readier foot, the hearts around me.”
There’s a public domain version free on Amazon for Kindle. I warn you, though: it’s not an easy read. It’s slowly distilled and meant to be savored.
Until this week, Charles Dickens was my absolute favorite author (followed very closely by J.R.R. Tolkien). I love the mournful atmosphere of a Dickens novel, born of social consciousness. I love his characters, and how he connects them all. I wouldn’t have thought it was possible to connect with another author’s work the way I have with Dickens’.
I should have known.
You see, there’s a level below social consciousness and connectedness in me that longs to be fed, and that’s spiritual consciousness and connectedness.
In There and Back, George MacDonald did for me what Dickens never could: he went to that deepest level and he lived there with the story and characters. The story takes place in nineteenth-century England, and follows the aristocratic Lestrange family and those who cross their paths, from other aristocrats to tradesmen to clergy. MacDonald explores the social, emotional, and spiritual standing and evolution of every character he introduces. It’s a complex look at how people’s philosophies shape how they relate to God and one another. No less important is the gritty look at why a good God allows bad things to happen – an age old question, I think.
“Father, it would take the life out of me to believe there was no God; but the God I hope in is a very different person from the God my mother’s clergy have taught her to believe in. Father, do you know Jesus Christ!”
“I know the person you mean, my boy.”
“I know what kind of person he is, and he said God was just like him, and in the God like him, if I can find him, I will believe with all my heart and soul—and so would you, father, if you knew him.”
Also unlike a Dickens novel, there are no absolute saints or caricatured sinners in There and Back. Everyone is flawed, but none are portrayed as ridiculous in their shortcomings; instead, they are met with grace and empathy from their author, even when they are dead wrong. Beyond that, there’s not a dull character in the cast. Of course, Richard and Barbara shine the brightest in their search for God, being the protagonist and his love interest, but I think Wingfold was my favorite. The sage parson met people where they were at and conversed on their level, a quality I long to better develop.
"He gave her strong hopeful things to read—and in the search after such was driven to remark how little of the hopeful there is in the English, or in any other language. The song of hope is indeed written in men’s hearts, but few sing it. Yet it is of all songs the sorest-needed of struggling men."
Here’s where Dickens and MacDonald are very similar: creating atmosphere. I was in the library as the nurse presented the baron with his infant son; I was with Richard and Wingfold on the road just before dawn; I was with Alice in chilly London; I felt the moments of majesty as presented over a literary work, or a concert, or a moonlit night. As in Bleak House, I was immersed in There and Back – not just in the world, but how the characters responded to it.
"When she saw her spread out her arms as if to embrace the wind that flowed to meet them, then too she wondered, but presently began to feel what a thing the wind was—how full of something strange and sweet. She began to learn that nothing is dead, that there cannot be a physical abstraction, that nothing exists for the sake of the laws of its phenomena. She did not put it so to herself, I need hardly say; but she was, in a word, learning to feel that the world was alive."
And the romantic element…Can MacDonald ever do romance! There’s this independence and mutuality and growth between Richard and Barbara that I can’t begin to explain. It just struck me as healthy and wholesome (which is not to say they didn’t have problems, it was more how they dealt with them), especially in a culture where dysfunctional is normal and even expected.
"He saw her far away like the moon she spoke of. She was growing to him a marvel and a mystery. Something strange seemed befalling him. Was she weaving a spell about his soul? Was she fettering him for her slave? Was she one of the wild, bewildering creatures of ancient lonely belief, that are the souls of the loveliest things, but can detach themselves from them, and wander out in garments more immediately their own? Was she salamander or sylph, naiad or undine, oread or dryad?—But then she had such a head, and they were all rather silly!"
And, to make my joy complete, there was this lovely metaphor presented in Richard’s trade – bookbinding and restoration. Oh my heart. It’s this whole idea of making something – not new, but the way it was intended to be. Again, I say, oh my heart.
"I shan’t be master of my trade till I know all that can be done now to stop such a book from crumbling into dust!"
This book reached me on all of my levels, and yes, I shed a few tears reading the last paragraph, not just because it was beautiful, but because I really didn’t want it to end.
“My tears were flowing now with the old earth-pain in them, with keenest disappointment and longing. To have been there and to have come back, was the misery. But it did not last long. The glad thought awoke that I had the dream—a precious thing never to be lost while memory lasted; a thing which nothing but its realization could ever equal in preciousness. I rose glad and strong, to serve with newer love, with quicker hand and readier foot, the hearts around me.”
There’s a public domain version free on Amazon for Kindle. I warn you, though: it’s not an easy read. It’s slowly distilled and meant to be savored.
May 11, 2017
My favorite line:
"Opinion is all that can result from argument, and opinion concerning God -even right opinion- is of little value when it comes to knowing God."
"Opinion is all that can result from argument, and opinion concerning God -even right opinion- is of little value when it comes to knowing God."
December 30, 2025
More inclusive Christianity from the best Christian writer of the 19th century.
Richard Tuke is the secret son of a baronet, stolen from his unconcerned father by an aunt and raised to become a bookbinder by trade. Influenced by his adopted father, he grows up to be a commendable young man, though an atheist.
Barbara Wylder is the vivacious daughter of a dissipated nobleman who has inherited a title. She isn't familiar with the Bible yet has innate faith, what Macdonald calls the 'imagination of a God.'
Richard comes to work in the library of his biological family, though their relations to each other are unknown on both sides. He also strikes up a friendship with Barbara, and alongside the local parson she tries to help him recognise the existence of God.
There and Back is a big book for such a small plot, but Macdonald's interest is more about his characters relationship towards each other, and of course they're relationship towards God.
This conversation between the two leads will give you a good idea about the subtlety and depth of the author's insight:
“Tell me honestly then,” said Barbara, “—for I do believe you are an honest man—tell me, are you sure there is no God? Have you gone all through the universe looking for him, and failed to find him? Is there no possible chance that there may be a God!”
“I do not believe there is.”
“But are you sure there is not? Do you know it, so that you have a right to say it?”
Richard hesitated.
“I cannot say,” he answered, “that I know it as I know a proposition in Euclid, or as I know that I must not do what is wrong.”
“Then what right have you to go and make people miserable by saying there is no God—as if you, being an honest man, knew it, and would not say it if you did not know it? You take away the only comfort left the unhappy! Of course you have a right to say you don't believe it—but only that! And I would think twice before I said even that, where all the certainty was that it would make people miserable!”
Parson Wingfold aside, probably the most Christian character in the book is Richard's grandfather, a blacksmith who doesn't even attend church. This is one of the reasons I enjoy reading Macdonald's novels so much; he could see beyond the appearance of things into the true nature of good character.
However, as good a character as a person could have, and Richard Tuke is an excellent man in everyway, as fair-minded as MacDonald was as a writer, there can only be one lesson for both the protagonist and the reader:
'He had yet to learn that a man and a Christian are precisely and entirely the same thing; that a being who is not a Christian is not a man.'
Through Richard Tuke, MacDonald poses that thorny questions about how we can believe in a God we can't see, and how can a benevolent God allow so much misery in the world?
I'm not entirely sure the questions were answered, or that they can be answered beyond simply having faith.
Richard Tuke is the secret son of a baronet, stolen from his unconcerned father by an aunt and raised to become a bookbinder by trade. Influenced by his adopted father, he grows up to be a commendable young man, though an atheist.
Barbara Wylder is the vivacious daughter of a dissipated nobleman who has inherited a title. She isn't familiar with the Bible yet has innate faith, what Macdonald calls the 'imagination of a God.'
Richard comes to work in the library of his biological family, though their relations to each other are unknown on both sides. He also strikes up a friendship with Barbara, and alongside the local parson she tries to help him recognise the existence of God.
There and Back is a big book for such a small plot, but Macdonald's interest is more about his characters relationship towards each other, and of course they're relationship towards God.
This conversation between the two leads will give you a good idea about the subtlety and depth of the author's insight:
“Tell me honestly then,” said Barbara, “—for I do believe you are an honest man—tell me, are you sure there is no God? Have you gone all through the universe looking for him, and failed to find him? Is there no possible chance that there may be a God!”
“I do not believe there is.”
“But are you sure there is not? Do you know it, so that you have a right to say it?”
Richard hesitated.
“I cannot say,” he answered, “that I know it as I know a proposition in Euclid, or as I know that I must not do what is wrong.”
“Then what right have you to go and make people miserable by saying there is no God—as if you, being an honest man, knew it, and would not say it if you did not know it? You take away the only comfort left the unhappy! Of course you have a right to say you don't believe it—but only that! And I would think twice before I said even that, where all the certainty was that it would make people miserable!”
Parson Wingfold aside, probably the most Christian character in the book is Richard's grandfather, a blacksmith who doesn't even attend church. This is one of the reasons I enjoy reading Macdonald's novels so much; he could see beyond the appearance of things into the true nature of good character.
However, as good a character as a person could have, and Richard Tuke is an excellent man in everyway, as fair-minded as MacDonald was as a writer, there can only be one lesson for both the protagonist and the reader:
'He had yet to learn that a man and a Christian are precisely and entirely the same thing; that a being who is not a Christian is not a man.'
Through Richard Tuke, MacDonald poses that thorny questions about how we can believe in a God we can't see, and how can a benevolent God allow so much misery in the world?
I'm not entirely sure the questions were answered, or that they can be answered beyond simply having faith.
May 11, 2017
A little alchemy:
"The men stood lost in the swift changes of his attendant colours--from red to gold, from the human to the divine--as he ran to the horizon from beneath, and came up with a rush, eternally silent.
A little Gene Veith (_God at Work_):
"He believed in Jesus Christ as the everyday life of the world, whose presence is just as needful in bank, or shop, or house of lords, as at what so many of the clergy call the altar."
and
"what is the love of child, or mother, or dog, but the love of God, shining through another being"
A little C.S. Lewis (_Shadowland_) or Plato's cave allegory:
"how different the moonlit shadow-land of those people from the sunny realm of the radiant Christ! Jesus rose again because he was true, and death had no part in him. This world's day is but the moonlight of his world. The shadow-man, who knows neither whence he came nor whither he is going, calls the upper world the house of the dead, being himself a ghost that wanders in its caves, and knows neither the blowing of its wind, the dashing of its waters, the shining of its sun, nor the glad laughter of its inhabitants."
A little Tolkien with the title:
_There & Back_
A little J.K. Rowling (sorry, I can't read this and not think of dementors):
(Note: This is the main character's lowest point. He's depressed. He's walking through a fog, damp, chill of the grave, no interest in life.)
"No cloak of insanest belief, of dullest mistake, would henceforth hide any more the dreary nakedness of the skeleton, life! The world lay in clearest, barest, coldest light, its hopeless deceit and its misery all revealed!" and "Oh this devilish thing, existence!--a mask with no face behind it? a look with no soul that looked!"
(Now I need a little chocolate.)
And one more miscellaneous note (I love highlighting on my kindle!). . .
"Then he thought how wise must be a God who, to work out his intent, would take all the conduct, good and bad, all the endeavours of all his children, in all their contrarieties, and out of them bring the right thing."
I wished the end would have been a bit different. Although I'm not sure how exactly.
This is my fourth or fifth MacDonald book. It was definitely worth reading.
Can't resist one more quote:
"you need books to make a world inside you--to take you away, as by the spell of a magician or on the wings of an eagle, from the walls and the nothingness, into a world where one either finds everything or wants nothing. She had yet to learn that books themselves are but weak ministers, that the spirit dwelling in them must lead back to him who gave it or die; that they are but windows, which, if they look not out on the eternal spaces, will themselves be blotted out by the darkness."
"The men stood lost in the swift changes of his attendant colours--from red to gold, from the human to the divine--as he ran to the horizon from beneath, and came up with a rush, eternally silent.
A little Gene Veith (_God at Work_):
"He believed in Jesus Christ as the everyday life of the world, whose presence is just as needful in bank, or shop, or house of lords, as at what so many of the clergy call the altar."
and
"what is the love of child, or mother, or dog, but the love of God, shining through another being"
A little C.S. Lewis (_Shadowland_) or Plato's cave allegory:
"how different the moonlit shadow-land of those people from the sunny realm of the radiant Christ! Jesus rose again because he was true, and death had no part in him. This world's day is but the moonlight of his world. The shadow-man, who knows neither whence he came nor whither he is going, calls the upper world the house of the dead, being himself a ghost that wanders in its caves, and knows neither the blowing of its wind, the dashing of its waters, the shining of its sun, nor the glad laughter of its inhabitants."
A little Tolkien with the title:
_There & Back_
A little J.K. Rowling (sorry, I can't read this and not think of dementors):
(Note: This is the main character's lowest point. He's depressed. He's walking through a fog, damp, chill of the grave, no interest in life.)
"No cloak of insanest belief, of dullest mistake, would henceforth hide any more the dreary nakedness of the skeleton, life! The world lay in clearest, barest, coldest light, its hopeless deceit and its misery all revealed!" and "Oh this devilish thing, existence!--a mask with no face behind it? a look with no soul that looked!"
(Now I need a little chocolate.)
And one more miscellaneous note (I love highlighting on my kindle!). . .
"Then he thought how wise must be a God who, to work out his intent, would take all the conduct, good and bad, all the endeavours of all his children, in all their contrarieties, and out of them bring the right thing."
I wished the end would have been a bit different. Although I'm not sure how exactly.
This is my fourth or fifth MacDonald book. It was definitely worth reading.
Can't resist one more quote:
"you need books to make a world inside you--to take you away, as by the spell of a magician or on the wings of an eagle, from the walls and the nothingness, into a world where one either finds everything or wants nothing. She had yet to learn that books themselves are but weak ministers, that the spirit dwelling in them must lead back to him who gave it or die; that they are but windows, which, if they look not out on the eternal spaces, will themselves be blotted out by the darkness."
January 26, 2024
A lovely wholesome story. I will be reading more of MacDonald in the future.
May 11, 2017
MacDonald writes the most thought-provoking fiction (or non-fiction now that I think of it) that I have ever read. I love reading his books.
This one has quite a lot of suspense. The wording can be difficult, so if you are not fond of dictionaries, I would recommend the updated version (retitled The Baron's Apprenticeship). But the depth of thought is amazing in the old version--I don't know if the updated version is the same, but I have heard that it retains the same thought while making it easier to read.
Also, if you are an evangelical Christian, you may notice that MacDonald has some tendencies that some would call unorthodox; however, for constnatly pointing the reader to obedience, doing the will of God, and the goodness of God, I could not name a better writer of fiction or non-fiction.
This one has quite a lot of suspense. The wording can be difficult, so if you are not fond of dictionaries, I would recommend the updated version (retitled The Baron's Apprenticeship). But the depth of thought is amazing in the old version--I don't know if the updated version is the same, but I have heard that it retains the same thought while making it easier to read.
Also, if you are an evangelical Christian, you may notice that MacDonald has some tendencies that some would call unorthodox; however, for constnatly pointing the reader to obedience, doing the will of God, and the goodness of God, I could not name a better writer of fiction or non-fiction.
August 27, 2012
I am a book conservator--or what is still known in England and Europe in general as a book restorer. My goal is often to retain as much original material as possible while stabilizing an old volume and making it safe to handle and read. Imagine my surprise when MacDonald describes his character, Richard Lestrange, doing the same thing! A 19th-century book restorer! That brought some extra enjoyment to this tale of a man who regains his lost birthright in two senses: the worldly and the spiritual.
May 11, 2017
Heavy going - lengthy theorizing combined with the fiction.
Not a favourite for a George MacDonald. A lot of revealing information on attitudes toward classes and the differences in what was and wasn't acceptable in their lifestyles. I enjoyed learning of insights of book conserving of the era.
Not a favourite for a George MacDonald. A lot of revealing information on attitudes toward classes and the differences in what was and wasn't acceptable in their lifestyles. I enjoyed learning of insights of book conserving of the era.
April 28, 2025
I’ve read this book so many times and I love it so much. I recommend it to anyone who will listen. I cannot adequately explain what a treasure this book is.
Read
March 5, 2019This is a stand-in for the fact that I read 300 pages of my Bible from Jan 1st to March 1st, 2019. It will count as 1 book towards my goodreads book challenge. I read Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus. Numbers up to chapter 25 verse 8. And Psalms 1:1 through 119:30. The book of Matthew, and Mark up to chapter 14 verse 61.
April 3, 2021
Free on kindle. This is the same book as "The Baron's Apprentice" which is also free.
This is part three in the "Thomas Wingfold Curate" series. This can be a stand alone.
Love comes in many forms, but all forms of love are God. Nature, beasts, the sun, moon, wind, space, water, fire.... everything is alive with HIm.
Such is only a minute part of the themes expressed in this book, told through the story of Richard Tuke.
It is in this book we have been allowed as a reader, to see into George MacDonald's awakening experience as he ends it with his own true story vision that lead to it. Just beautiful!
The fiction part is a rags to riches theme. Richard Tuke, born to a Baron, was swept away by his aunt as an infant, as his mother died giving birth to him. His father, the Baron, had no love for him, seeing the infant as ugly and a monster.
Raised by his aunt and uncle, unaware they were not his natural parents, Richard lead a relatively content life. He grew up a tradesman, a bookbinder, and also learned blacksmithing from his grandfather. It is when he comes to be commissioned by his half brother, to restore the Baron's books in his extensive library, that he meets Barbara, and falls in love with her.
Barbara is of nobility but she doesn't see others as above or beneath her. She is a free spirit loving all of nature and God's creatures. She too falls in love with Richard.
All works out in the end after many trials and tribulations. It is the journey of the characters that swept me off my feet.
MacDonald's prose and poetry is awe-inspiring. His slow development of plot and character personalities is such that, of a person who truly knows and observes human nature intimately.
Again, this was written in the late 1800's early 1900's by a Christian minister, so expect it to be heavy on faith, God, Jesus etc.. But to his credit, he also sees and shows the difference in those who preach a very different God than the one he knows, which is a loving God who is all around and within us, never leaving our side.
Content concerns:
This is part three in the "Thomas Wingfold Curate" series. This can be a stand alone.
Love comes in many forms, but all forms of love are God. Nature, beasts, the sun, moon, wind, space, water, fire.... everything is alive with HIm.
Such is only a minute part of the themes expressed in this book, told through the story of Richard Tuke.
It is in this book we have been allowed as a reader, to see into George MacDonald's awakening experience as he ends it with his own true story vision that lead to it. Just beautiful!
The fiction part is a rags to riches theme. Richard Tuke, born to a Baron, was swept away by his aunt as an infant, as his mother died giving birth to him. His father, the Baron, had no love for him, seeing the infant as ugly and a monster.
Raised by his aunt and uncle, unaware they were not his natural parents, Richard lead a relatively content life. He grew up a tradesman, a bookbinder, and also learned blacksmithing from his grandfather. It is when he comes to be commissioned by his half brother, to restore the Baron's books in his extensive library, that he meets Barbara, and falls in love with her.
Barbara is of nobility but she doesn't see others as above or beneath her. She is a free spirit loving all of nature and God's creatures. She too falls in love with Richard.
All works out in the end after many trials and tribulations. It is the journey of the characters that swept me off my feet.
MacDonald's prose and poetry is awe-inspiring. His slow development of plot and character personalities is such that, of a person who truly knows and observes human nature intimately.
Again, this was written in the late 1800's early 1900's by a Christian minister, so expect it to be heavy on faith, God, Jesus etc.. But to his credit, he also sees and shows the difference in those who preach a very different God than the one he knows, which is a loving God who is all around and within us, never leaving our side.
Content concerns:
July 15, 2024
This was my favorite book in the Thomas Wingfold Trilogy.
May 19, 2017
Most of the dialogue ends in exclamation points! I guess that everyone felt very strongly about their words. I very much enjoyed Richards mental struggle with the concept of God, and Thomas Wingfold was a strong character. Here's hoping that his book (Thomas Wingfold, Curate), is even better.
Thomas Wingfold: "The man who makes a thing exist that did not exist, or who sets anything right that had gone wrong, must be more worthy than he who only consumes what exists, or helps things to remain wrong!"
Thomas Wingfold: "The man who makes a thing exist that did not exist, or who sets anything right that had gone wrong, must be more worthy than he who only consumes what exists, or helps things to remain wrong!"
May 11, 2017
This was a great book that every Christian young person should read in the early teen years as he or she prepares for adulthood. MacDonald uses a wide variety of complex characters to represent many different struggles people have in life as God lovingly pursues each one with His grace and mercy. The main character sets an excellent example of manhood for young people to emulate in his self-sacrificial love for his fellow human-beings and moral fortitude.
November 1, 2015
I will look for another George McDonald
A big plus for me was this MacDonald book does not contain Gaelic. I read sir gibbie ,a lovely story but there were passages that I did not understand at all. I discovered Gaelic English dictionary indexed. After I read the final words of the story. MacDonald tells a story to facilitate his sermon so read him if you want to take a look at the creator the characters journey is a journey of faith.
A big plus for me was this MacDonald book does not contain Gaelic. I read sir gibbie ,a lovely story but there were passages that I did not understand at all. I discovered Gaelic English dictionary indexed. After I read the final words of the story. MacDonald tells a story to facilitate his sermon so read him if you want to take a look at the creator the characters journey is a journey of faith.
May 11, 2017
This is a beautiful story of a "good" man discovering that his honesty, which has been keeping him from his idea of a wrathful God, cannot help but be drawn to the one true God. Romance? Check. Intrigue? Of course! A book that's such a pleasure to read, it feels like wrapping yourself up in a cozy blanket by a fire? You bet!
May 11, 2017
This is almost the perfect story. The difficult thing about it is working your way through all the 19th century words that nobody except an English professor would use.
(spoiler alert) I was quite glad to see Richard and Barbara get married at the end which had to upset the good ol' English 'caste' system.
(spoiler alert) I was quite glad to see Richard and Barbara get married at the end which had to upset the good ol' English 'caste' system.
May 11, 2017
Another great book by the author, this one was a bit confusing in the beginning but was revealed all later, one of the lessons it taught was that circumstances of birth did not dictate one’s lot in life or their value to the
Father.
Father.
May 11, 2017
I love the George MacDonald books that have been edited by Michael Phillips and this is one of my favorites. This book could be considered "preachy" by some but I find it covers great discussion topics while telling a great story at the same time.
May 11, 2017
Richard’s journey from skeptical, socialist atheist to believer in Jesus; rejection of false notions of God=rejecting a God who cannot be that way and be believed in; journey from tradesman bookbinder to baronet; Wingfold rocks, as usual
June 25, 2016
Wonderful
I enjoyed the plot, but more than that the deep truths found in this book. What is a true gentleman? What is a true lady? Why is there pain and sorrow in this world? This is a book that makes you think about more than just the plot.
I enjoyed the plot, but more than that the deep truths found in this book. What is a true gentleman? What is a true lady? Why is there pain and sorrow in this world? This is a book that makes you think about more than just the plot.
Read
October 12, 2007MacDonald, George PB
May 11, 2017
The Baron's Apprenticeship
George Mcdonald
Historical Fiction/Classic
295 pages
Copyright 1986
isbn: 0-87123-655-9
George Mcdonald
Historical Fiction/Classic
295 pages
Copyright 1986
isbn: 0-87123-655-9
Read
May 11, 2017YA Mac
May 11, 2017
This and all other G.Mac books are great stories of the gospel lived out in peoples' lives. My favorite author.
May 11, 2017
It was tough to know how to rate this book. The theological discussions are very interesting but the plot is so weak.
May 24, 2017
Lovely story of love and integrity. I love MacDonald's characters. They are such admirable people.
June 5, 2017
This trilogy touches ones soul with reading that inspires and convicts. The writing touches the mind and the heart.
February 27, 2024
It is Mere Christianity in the form of a novel. The story of Richard Tuke, who took a long time to come to know his earthly father, a capricious baronet. Unbeknownst to him, he is the heir to the title of Wilton Lestrange. Stolen away at birth, all but forgotten by the father who had been widowed but then remarried the quintessential aristocratic snob, Lady Ann. Richard was hired by his unwitting younger half brother, Arthur, to renew the books of the great library at the estate of Mortgrange.
Richard came to know his heavenly father at about the same time, though through much searching and thinking. He struggled to develop his concept of a God he could or should believe in…having been raised a clever atheist by his uncle, and (rightly) despising of religion because of the shallow unfeeling religion of his aunt. The lovable and wonderfully evangelistic narrator admires everything that is good or tending to be malleable towards goodness and truth in anyone. Therefore his treatment of the uncle and aunt (not to mention the much more colorful characters of say Lady Ann and Mrs. Wylder) are so tender and honoring, always holding out that there could be a redemption. When reading MacDonald, as soon as he introduces the antagonist, I’ve learned to think “now here is someone who very well may be rescued from their own selfish misery by the end of this story.” As if the enemy was not the antagonist himself, but rather was the lie the person operates under.
Barbara (ie the barbarian) Wylder (ie wilder than average). The perfect name for the human soul that roams the beauty of the world, in love with everything and everyone, ultimately (and not after too long) finding God by believing Jesus when he says I know God and God is just like me. She finds her barbaric wildness and empathetic heart to be matched and fulfilled in His all encompassing love and devotion towards his creation. Barbara’s love for everything and everyone is surpassed by God’s wild desire for relationship with the cleansed and devoted hearts of all men and women. She tears across the countryside on her horse, she learns and learns and yearns for more understanding. Richard of course puts her on a pedestal, and treasures every moment of communion with her, stolen while he works at his trade, renewing the library at his father’s home.
Thomas Wingfold, the curate who would rather not be a curate other than because it gives him continuous access to people, whom he loves and whom he wants to persuade and suggest to and even entice into the idea that God is worth searching for, asking for, and also being skeptical of if presented as a god that is not He who is the true creator and lover and redeemer of all of creation. He himself having come to believe only after hard struggle and search, now operating in the sort of gangly and ridiculous framework of the institutional church, but able to spread his spirit freely, he is surprisingly hardly bothered by the fact. He knows that God cares not for the outward show. Yet rather than tear it down or belittle it, His spirit and that of men like Wingfold is so powerful and poetic as to dance in and around it, winning souls through, in spite of, and completely without the man made religious stage.
I believe I highlighted about 25% of the book, which doesn’t mean that the other three quarters weren’t fit to be highlighted.
Richard came to know his heavenly father at about the same time, though through much searching and thinking. He struggled to develop his concept of a God he could or should believe in…having been raised a clever atheist by his uncle, and (rightly) despising of religion because of the shallow unfeeling religion of his aunt. The lovable and wonderfully evangelistic narrator admires everything that is good or tending to be malleable towards goodness and truth in anyone. Therefore his treatment of the uncle and aunt (not to mention the much more colorful characters of say Lady Ann and Mrs. Wylder) are so tender and honoring, always holding out that there could be a redemption. When reading MacDonald, as soon as he introduces the antagonist, I’ve learned to think “now here is someone who very well may be rescued from their own selfish misery by the end of this story.” As if the enemy was not the antagonist himself, but rather was the lie the person operates under.
Barbara (ie the barbarian) Wylder (ie wilder than average). The perfect name for the human soul that roams the beauty of the world, in love with everything and everyone, ultimately (and not after too long) finding God by believing Jesus when he says I know God and God is just like me. She finds her barbaric wildness and empathetic heart to be matched and fulfilled in His all encompassing love and devotion towards his creation. Barbara’s love for everything and everyone is surpassed by God’s wild desire for relationship with the cleansed and devoted hearts of all men and women. She tears across the countryside on her horse, she learns and learns and yearns for more understanding. Richard of course puts her on a pedestal, and treasures every moment of communion with her, stolen while he works at his trade, renewing the library at his father’s home.
Thomas Wingfold, the curate who would rather not be a curate other than because it gives him continuous access to people, whom he loves and whom he wants to persuade and suggest to and even entice into the idea that God is worth searching for, asking for, and also being skeptical of if presented as a god that is not He who is the true creator and lover and redeemer of all of creation. He himself having come to believe only after hard struggle and search, now operating in the sort of gangly and ridiculous framework of the institutional church, but able to spread his spirit freely, he is surprisingly hardly bothered by the fact. He knows that God cares not for the outward show. Yet rather than tear it down or belittle it, His spirit and that of men like Wingfold is so powerful and poetic as to dance in and around it, winning souls through, in spite of, and completely without the man made religious stage.
I believe I highlighted about 25% of the book, which doesn’t mean that the other three quarters weren’t fit to be highlighted.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 5, 2025
There is so much good in this little story. Parson Wingfield once again guides the people under his care into deeper understanding of what it means to have good character and to believe in Christ.
“It is not whether a man be rich or poor that matters, but of what kind of stuff he is made (p. 77).
“Belief and proof have little or nothing to do with each other. I believe in God, but I could never begin to prove his existence to one who wanted to argue the point . . . my wife is a good and lovely woman. Signs of it are everywhere; the proofs of it nowhere” (p.114).
“Wingfield scarcely thought about the church, and never mistook it for the kingdom of God. He was a servant of the church universal, of all that believed or would ever believe in the Lord Christ, therefore of all men, of the whole universe — and first, of every man, woman, and child in his parish. But though he was the servant of the boundless church, no church was his master. He had no master but the Lord of life. . . . He knew that the Master works from within outward, and believed no danger possible to the church, except from within” (116).
“It was not his desire to see him ‘converted’ . . . Certain attempts at what is called conversion are but manifestations of greed over others; swellings of the ambition to propagate one’s own creed and proselytize victoriously . . . But genuine love is far beyond such groveling delights. . . . She needed but to be told a good thing — not told that a thing was good — and at once she received it — that is obeyed it, the only way of receiving a truth” (p. 133).
“Talk to Richard, not of opinion, but of the God you love . . . Let him feel God through your enthusiasm for him. You can’t prove to him there is a God. A god who could be proved would not be worth proving. Make his thoughts dwell on a God worth having . . .” (p. 113).
“Men accept a thousand things without proof every day . . . But if a man cannot be sure of a thing, does that automatically mean it is false?” (135).
“There is nothing like work — and books —for enjoying life” (141).
“God is the God of patience, and waits and waits for the child who keeps him waiting and will not open the door” (p. 147).
(I was challenged with keeping straight the characters and their relationships with each other, but it became clearer near the end.)
“It is not whether a man be rich or poor that matters, but of what kind of stuff he is made (p. 77).
“Belief and proof have little or nothing to do with each other. I believe in God, but I could never begin to prove his existence to one who wanted to argue the point . . . my wife is a good and lovely woman. Signs of it are everywhere; the proofs of it nowhere” (p.114).
“Wingfield scarcely thought about the church, and never mistook it for the kingdom of God. He was a servant of the church universal, of all that believed or would ever believe in the Lord Christ, therefore of all men, of the whole universe — and first, of every man, woman, and child in his parish. But though he was the servant of the boundless church, no church was his master. He had no master but the Lord of life. . . . He knew that the Master works from within outward, and believed no danger possible to the church, except from within” (116).
“It was not his desire to see him ‘converted’ . . . Certain attempts at what is called conversion are but manifestations of greed over others; swellings of the ambition to propagate one’s own creed and proselytize victoriously . . . But genuine love is far beyond such groveling delights. . . . She needed but to be told a good thing — not told that a thing was good — and at once she received it — that is obeyed it, the only way of receiving a truth” (p. 133).
“Talk to Richard, not of opinion, but of the God you love . . . Let him feel God through your enthusiasm for him. You can’t prove to him there is a God. A god who could be proved would not be worth proving. Make his thoughts dwell on a God worth having . . .” (p. 113).
“Men accept a thousand things without proof every day . . . But if a man cannot be sure of a thing, does that automatically mean it is false?” (135).
“There is nothing like work — and books —for enjoying life” (141).
“God is the God of patience, and waits and waits for the child who keeps him waiting and will not open the door” (p. 147).
(I was challenged with keeping straight the characters and their relationships with each other, but it became clearer near the end.)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews