George MacDonald

This is great. For my fellow Lewis enthusiasts it's even better. <br />It's like loving a great man and then having him introduce you to his father. And you hear all the phrases and catch all the drifts and think: so that's where it came from.

There are some really great insights here. Finished again September 2018.

Nothing like reading a book about your favorite author, written by your second-favorite author! :)

Lewis's anthology (including his introduction to it) is an excellent and-relatively speaking-an easy gateway to the works of the man he called his "master." My only quibble with it is that it can leave the uninitiated with the quite erroneous impression that he loved MacDonald's sermons and fantasies, but didn't care for the novels. He doesn't actually SAY this, and a careful reading shows that he is only critical (wrongly so in my opinion, but let that pass) of MacDonald's ability, or at least of his consistent performance, as a literary technician. Yes, Lewis placed MacDonald's fantasies, along with his Unspoken Sermons and his Diary of an Old Soul above his realistic works: but the latter he still devoured with avidity. So far was he from dismissing them, that he said, upon the publication of the Anthology<br><br>"I am glad you agree with me about the value of MacDonald. I had hoped my Anthology might lead to a reprinting of some of his books, but it has not yet done so. Yet I keep on getting letters from people who have found him as helpful as you and I do: the last, oddly enough, was a Jesuit!" (letter to J S Goodridge, April 26th 1949.) <br><br>Given that what people have found MOST helpful over the years, is MacDonald's realistic fiction, and the fact that this comprises the majority of what MacDonald wrote, it's pretty clear that he was thinking of the realistic novels as well as the fantasies when he wrote this, if indeed he was not referring to them exclusively.<br><br>If anyone would like to check these novels out for themselves, I'm trying to do my own little bit to fulfil Lewis's wishes (a mere 70 odd years after he expressed them, but better late than never!), as I've been translating and independently re-publishing his Scottish novels. Six of them are now available for the first time in unabridged, translated (people have historically found the broad Scots an insuperable barrier) and illustrated form...including the most popular of them, and one of Lewis's own favourites, Sir Gibbie.<br><br><a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/42859736.Sir_Gibbie" title="Sir Gibbie by George MacDonald" rel="noopener"> <img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1542567546l/42859736._SX50_.jpg" alt="Sir Gibbie by George MacDonald" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"> </a>

<i>Christ is the way out, and the way in: the way from slavery into liberty.</i><br /><br />C.S. Lewis's introduction is wonderful. I always assumed this was a biography of MacDonald; instead it is a compilation of quotes from him. <br /><br />I liked reading this, but I am convinced I would enjoy it more if I had previously read the sources and had their context in mind as I read.

Two 5-star ratings from me in one week! That is almost unheard of! But this one deserves it. This was my daily read for 2017 and I just wrapped it up and it was all that I hoped and I will be referring back to it over and over again. C.S. Lewis obviously loved MacDonald and chose a powerful anthology. If you want a taste of MacDonald, you must get your hands on this one, but, beware, it is MEATY stuff and you cannot fly through it. Obviously I cannot offer up all of my favourite quotes on this one, but I will offer up the one that is going to carry over and be my motivational quote for 2018.<br /><br />“The man who for consciousness of well-being depends upon anything but life, the life essential, is a slave; he hangs on what is less than himself…Things are given us – this body, first of things – that through them we may be trained both to independence and true possession of them. We must possess them; they must not possess us. Their use is to mediate – as shapes and manifestations in lower kind of the things that are unseen, that is, in themselves unseeable, the things that belong, not to the world of speech but the world of silence, not to the world of showing, but the world of being, the world that cannot be shaken, and must remain. These things unseen take the form in the things of time and space – not that they may exist, for they exist in and from eternal Godhead, but that their being may be known to those in training for the eternal; these things unseen the sons and daughters of God must possess. But instead of reaching out after them, they grasp at their forms, regard the things seen as the things to be possessed, fall in love with the bodies instead of the souls of them.”<br /><br />

A "reader" of MacDonald thoughts extracted from the full range of his writings. 365 selections lend themselves to a daily round of reading and reflection. MacDonald, a nineteenth century Scot, expresses ideas which would be at home among contemporary Christian thinkers.<br /><br />C. S. Lewis, who edited this collection, admitted to MacDonald's premier role in Lewis' conversion to Christianity.

C.S Lewis has selected MacDonald's most poignant passages and put them all together in a delightful 365 Day Readings format. Full of extraordinary treasures! Each day's reading is a perfect size to "chew" and meditate on. They really get you thinking! You can tell that MacDonald was definitely a man "after God's own heart" and be assured that his writings will encourage, inspire and motivate you to grow closer to Christ. (These passages were mainly taken from his book "Unspoken Sermons" though quite a few of his other books were used as well)

3.5 stars. Lewis did something very difficult--he found bite-sized pieces of wisdom among George MacDonald's many, many, writings (both fiction and non-fiction). The only thing keeping me from giving this book a higher rating is that MacDonald's writings are so beautiful and full of meaning when read in their entirety that you lose much of this when you pull out paragraph-sized quotes. However, this book serves as an easy introduction to MacDonald and is great for reading in short sittings.

Excellent. Its like Proverbs or Penses for the late 19th century. Very well selected by CS Lewis from the works of George MacDonald.