The Complete Fairy Tales - Softcover

MacDonald, George

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1420932500 ISBN 13: 9781420932508

Publisher: Digireads.com, 2009

Synopsis

The works of George MacDonald have influenced the likes of W. H. Auden, J. R. R. Tolkien, Madeleine L'Engle, C. S. Lewis, and Mark Twain. Best known for his tales of fantasy and fairies, Macdonald commented of his work that he wrote "not for children, but for the child-like, whether they be of five, or fifty, or seventy-five." This collection brings together some of his most memorable stories. Included in this edition of "The Complete Fairy Tales" are the following stories: The Light Princess, The Shadows, The Giant's Heart, Cross Purposes, The Golden Key, Little Daylight, Nanny's Dream, Diamond's Dream, The Carasoyn, The Wise Woman, The Day Boy And The Night Girl (The Romance Of Photogen And Nycteris), and an essay on fantasy writing entitled The Fantastic Imagination.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY U. C. KNOEPFLMACHER

"I have never concealed the fact that I regarded [George MacDonald] as my master.... The quality that had enchanted me in his imaginative works turned out to be the quality of the real universe, the divine, magical, terrifying and ecstatic reality in which we all live". -- C. S. Lewis

George MacDonald occupied a major position in the intellectual life of his Victorian contemporaries. The Complete Fairy Tales brings together all eleven of his shorter fairy stories as well as his essay "The Fantastic Imagination". The subjects are those of traditional fantasy: fairies good and wicked, children embarking on elaborate quests, journeys into unsettling dreamworlds, life-risking labors undertaken. But though they allude to familiar tales such as "Sleeping Beauty" and "Jack the Giant-Killer", MacDonald's stories are profoundly experimental and subversive.

By questioning the concept that a childhood associated with purity, innocence, and fairy-tale "wonder" ought to be segregated from adult skepticism and disbelief, they invite adult readers to adopt the same elasticity and open-mindedness that come so naturally to a child. Enlisting paradox, play, and nonsense much like Lewis Carroll's Alice books, these fictions challenge us to question and rethink our assumptions, and offer an elusive yet meaningful alternative order to the dubious certitudes of everyday life.

About the Author:

George MacDonald (1824-1905) was a minister who was rejected by his congregation, and struggled thereafter to support his family of eleven children by writing. In his own day he was celebrated as poet, preacher, and lecturer, and as the author of numerous novels. He is best known today for his vivid children's stories.
U. C. Knoepflmacher has published widely on children's literature and the Victorian period.

About this edition

• Publisher: Digireads.com
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1420932500
• ISBN 13: 9781420932508
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 216