Phantastes

George MacDonald was a Scottish preacher who turned to fantasy fiction, and became a sort of Victorian superstar: “Queen Victoria gave copies of Robert Falconer to her grandchildren. Everybody read his books—Lewis Carroll, John Ruskin, H.G. Wells, Charles Dickens, Edna Lyall, Mark Twain . . . as well as the queen herself.”

I don't think I can explain the attraction to modern reader, you'll get it or you won't: I first met his novel-length “romances” (Phantastes and Lilith) when I was eight, suffering after a horrible trip to the dentist, and found the stories very weird and comforting. Whereas most… show more.

When I was in my early 20s, this beautiful but strange book fully captured my imagination. Anodos, a young idealist, wanders through Fairy Land and is dismayed to find that his interactions leave the mystical world worse off than he found it. Written in 1858, Phantastes is considered the first-ever fantasy novel for adults. The narrative is a series of vivid scenes—an awakened statue, a city of winged women, a sentient shadow—loosely strung together, like jewels on a necklace. Each episode touches on larger mysteries and gives the meandering story a haunting quality. “It arouses in us sensations we… show more.