George MacDonald
George MacDonald (
December 10,
1824 –
September 18,
1905) was a
Scottish author, poet, and
Christian minister.
Though no longer a household name, his works (particularly his
fairy tales and
fantasy novels) have inspired deep admiration in such notables as
W. H. Auden,
J. R. R. Tolkien, and
Madeleine L'Engle.
C. S. Lewis wrote that he regarded MacDonald as his "master". Picking up a copy of
Phantastes one day in a train station, he began to read; "a few hours later," said Lewis, "I knew I had crossed a great frontier."
G. K. Chesterton cited
The Princess and the Goblin as a book that had "made a difference to my whole existence".Elizabeth Yates wrote of
Sir Gibbie that "[i]t moved me the way books did when as a child ... Now and then a book is read as a friend, and after it life is not the same ...
Sir Gibbie did this to me."Even
Mark Twain, who initially despised MacDonald, became friends with him upon their meeting for the first time, and there is some evidence that Twain was influenced by MacDonald (see links below for an article on the subject).
The man who was to inspire such feeling was born on
December 10,
1824 at
Huntly,
Aberdeenshire,
Scotland. His father, a farmer, was one of the
MacDonalds of
Glen Coe, and a direct descendant of one of the families that suffered in the
massacre of 1692. The
Doric dialect of the area frequently appears in the dialogue of some of his non-fantasy novels.
MacDonald grew up influenced by his
Congregational Church, with an atmosphere of
Calvinism. But MacDonald never felt comfortable with some aspects of Calvinist doctrine; indeed, legend has it that when the doctrine of
predestination was first explained to him, he burst into tears (although assured that he was one of the elect). Later novels, such as
Robert Falconer and
Lilith, show a distaste for the Calvinist idea that God's electing love is limited to some and denied to others. Especially in his Unspoken Sermons he shows a highly developed theology.
He took his degree at the
University of Aberdeen, and then emmigrated to
London, studying at
Highbury College for the Congregational ministry.
In
1850 he was appointed pastor of Trinity Congregational Church,
Arundel, but his sermons (preaching God's universal love and the possibility that none would, ultimately, fail to unite with God) met with little favour and his salary was cut in half. Later he was engaged in ministerial work in
Manchester. He left that because of poor health, and after a short sojourn in
Algiers he settled in London and taught for some time at the University of London. MacDonald was also for a time editor of
Good Words for the Young, and lectured successfully in the
United States during
1872-
1873.
His best-known works are
Phantastes,
The Princess and the Goblin,
At the Back of the North Wind, and
Lilith, all fantasy novels, and fairy tales such as — "
The Light Princess", "
The Golden Key", and "The Wise Woman". "I write, not for children," he wrote, "but for the child-like, whether they be of five, or fifty, or seventy-five." MacDonald also published some volumes of sermons, the pulpit not having proved an unreservedly successful venue.
MacDonald also served as a mentor to
Lewis Carroll (real name Charles Dodgson); it was MacDonald's advice, and the enthusiastic reception of
Alice by MacDonald's three young daughters that convinced Carroll to submit
Alice for publication. Carroll, one of the finest Victorian photographers, also created photographic portraits of the girls and their brother Greville.
MacDonald was also friends with
John Ruskin and served as a go-between in Ruskin's long courtship with
Rose la Touche.
MacDonald was acquainted with most of the literary luminaries of the day; a surviving group photograph shows him with
Tennyson,
Dickens,
Wilkie Collins,
Trollope,
Ruskin,
Lewes, and
Thackeray. While in America he was a friend of
Longfellow and
Walt Whitman.
In 1877 he was given a
civil list pension. He died on
September 18,
1905 in Ashstead (Surrey). He was cremated and buried in
Bordighera.
As hinted above, MacDonald's use of
fantasy as a literary medium for exploring the human condition greatly influenced a generation of such notable authors as
C. S. Lewis (who featured him as a character in
The Great Divorce),
J. R. R. Tolkien, and
Madeleine L'Engle. MacDonald's non-fantasy novels, such as
Alec Forbes, had their influence as well; they were among the first realistic Scottish novels, and as such MacDonald has been credited with founding the "
kailyard school" of Scottish writing.
His son
Greville MacDonald became a noted medical specialist, and also wrote numerous novels for children. Greville ensured that new editions of his father's works were published.
MacDonald rejected the doctrine of penal
Substitutionary atonement as put forward by
John Calvin which argues that Christ has taken the place of sinners and is punished by God in their place, believing that in turn it raised serious questions about the character and nature of God. Instead, he taught that Christ had come to save people from their sins, and not from a Divine penalty for their sins. The problem was not the need to appease a wrathful God but the disease of cosmic evil itself. George MacDonald frequently described the
Atonement in terms similar to the
Christus Victor theory, stating, for example, that the Lord "foil[ed] and slay[ed] evil by letting all the waves and billows of its horrid sea break upon him, go over him, and die without reboundâ€"spend their rage, fall defeated, and cease."
MacDonald was convinced that God does not punish except to amend, and that the sole end of His greatest anger is the amelioration of the guilty. As the doctor uses fire and steel in certain deep-seated diseases, so God may use hell-fire if necessary to heal the hardened sinner. MacDonald declared, "I believe that no hell will be lacking which would help the just mercy of God to redeem his children." MacDonald posed the rhetorical question, "When we say that God is Love, do we teach men that their fear of Him is groundless?" He replied, "No. As much as they fear will come upon them, possibly far more. . . . The wrath will consume what they
call themselves; so that the selves God made shall appear."
However, true repentance, in the sense of freely chosen moral growth, is essential to this process, and, in MacDonald's optimistic view, inevitable for all beings. He recognized the theoretical possibility that, bathed in the
eschatological divine light, some might perceive right and wrong for what they are but still refuse to be transfigured by operation of God's fires of love, but he did not think this likely.
In this theology of divine punishment, MacDonald stands in agreement with the Greek
Church Fathers St.
Clement of Alexandria,
Origen, and St.
Gregory of Nyssa, although it is unknown whether MacDonald had a working familiarity with
Patristics or
Eastern Orthodox Christianity. At least an indirect influence is likely, because
F. D. Maurice who influenced MacDonald knew the Greek Fathers, especially Clement, very well.
In
C. S. Lewis's introduction to Lewis's book,
George MacDonald: An Anthology, Lewis speaks highly of MacDonald's theology:
"This collection, as I have said, was designed not to revive MacDonald's literary reputation but to spread his religious teaching. Hence most of my extracts are taken from the three volumes of Unspoken Sermons. My own debt to this book is almost as great as one man can owe to another: and nearly all serious inquirers to whom I have introduced it acknowledge that it has given them great help-sometimes indispensable help toward the very acceptance of the Christian faith.. . .I know hardly any other writer who seems to be closer, or more continually close, to the Spirit of Christ Himself. Hence his Christ-like union of tenderness and severity. Nowhere else outside the New Testament have I found terror and comfort so intertwined.. . .In making this collection I was discharging a debt of justice. I have never concealed the fact that I regarded him as my master; indeed I fancy I have never written a book in which I did not quote from him. But it has not seemed to me that those who have received my books kindly take even now sufficient notice of the affiliation. Honesty drives me to emphasize it."
Rock group
The Waterboys titled their album
Room to Roam after a passage in MacDonald's
Phantastes. They also based the song
A Church Not Made With Hands on one of the Narnia stories, confirming the enduring link in modern pop culture between Macdonald and Lewis.
*
Within and Without (1856)
*
Poems (1857)
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Phantastes (1858)
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David Elginbrod (1862)
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Alec Forbes of Howglen (1865)
*
Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood (1866)
*
The Golden Key (1867)
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Robert Falconer (1868)
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The Seaboard Parish (1868)
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At the Back of the North Wind (1871)
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The Princess and the Goblin (1872)
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The Vicar's Daughter (1872)
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The History of Gutta-Percha Willie, the Working Genius (1873)
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Malcolm (1875)
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The Wise Woman, or The Obstinate Princess: A Double Story (1875)
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The Marquis of Lossie (1877)
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Sir Gibbie (1879)
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Donal Grant (1883)
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The Princess and Curdie (1883, sequel to '
The Princess and the Goblin ')
*
Lilith (1895)
*E-texts
**
Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women on the University of Virginia Library's web site**
Free ebook of George MacDonald at
Project Gutenberg**
Johannesen Printing & Publishing**
Christian Classics Ethereal Library**
Faerie Tales and Romantic Literature**
George-Macdonald.com*
Works by George MacDonald & Michael Phillips*
George MacDonald on The Victorian Web
*
Mark Twain and George MacDonald: The Salty and the Sweet*
George MacDonald Society*
Life and Works of George MacDonald*
The Golden Key website*
Myspace page*
Free audio recording of "The Golden Key" at
Librivox
