GEORGE MACDONALD, the great nineteenth-century innovator of modern fantasy, came to influence not only C.S. Lewis, who once called MacDonald his master, but also J.R.R. Tolkien, who has paid his own tribute to the "power and beauty" of MacDonald's accomplishment. This newly illustrated set of four paperbacks holds the complete fantasy stories (except for several longer stories readily available elsewhere) of George MacDonald. "What he does best is fantasy—fantasy that hovers between the allegorical and the mythopoeic. And this, in my opinion, he does better than any man." -C.S. Lewis "Surely, George MacDonald is the grandfather of us all—all of us who struggle to come to terms with truth through fantasy.... I am delighted that these wonderful stories are available to a world that is in dire need of their message." -Madeleine L'Engle Includes the following volumes and stories: The Wise Woman and Other Fantasy Stories "The Wise Woman or the Lost Princess: A Double Story" "Little Daylight" "Cross Purposes" "The Castle: A Parable" The Gray Wolf and Other Fantasy Stories "The Gray Wolf" "The Cruel Painter" "The Broken Swords" "The Wow O'Rivven" "Uncle Cornelius, His Story" "The Butcher's Bills" "Birth, Dreaming, Death" The Light Princess and Other Fantasy Stories "The Light Princess" "The Giant's Heart" "The CArasoyn" "Port in a Storm" "Papa's Story [A Scot's Christmas Story]" The Golden Key and Other Fantasy Stories "The Golden Key" "The History of Photogen and Nycteris" "The Shadows" "The Gifts of the Child Christ"
Author
George MacDonald was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister. He was educated at Aberdeen University and after a short and stormy career as a minister at Arundel, where his unorthodox views led to his dismissal, he turned to fiction as a means of earning a living. He wrote over 50 books. Known particularly for his poignant fairy tales and fantasy novels, MacDonald inspired many authors, such as G.K. Chesterton, W. H. Auden, J.R.R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Madeleine L'Engle. Lewis wrote that he regarded MacDonald as his "master": "Picking up a copy of Phantastes one day at a train-station bookstall, I began to read. A few hours later," said Lewis, "I knew that 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, "It moved me the way books did when, as a child, the great gates of literature began to open and first encounters with noble thoughts and utterances were unspeakably thrilling." Even Mark Twain, who initially disliked MacDonald, became friends with him, and there is some evidence that Twain was influenced by MacDonald. For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George\_M...
