George MacDonald | 
 enlarge | Author: C. S. Lewis
Publisher: HarperOne
Category: Book
List Price: $12.95
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Rating:  18 reviews
Sales Rank: 229246
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.6
ISBN: 0060653191
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.8
EAN: 9780060653194
ASIN: 0060653191
Publication Date: March 2001
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Product Description
In this collection selected by C. S. Lewis are 365 selections from MacDonalds inspiring and challenging writings.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 13 more reviews...
 Extreme, complex, multi-faceted ... wisdom in sound bites August 22, 2007
No wonder CS was drawn to this man's writing! Lewis sorts through MacDonald's body of work to get to real nuggets.
MacDonald packs more theological mind-fodder in one or two sentences than most can pack in a book. There are sound bites that will occupy your thoughts all day.
Excellent, Short Devotionals July 16, 2007
George MacDonald has a lot of spiritual wisdom; I love short little tidbits of his thinking that I myself can think on. If you like MacDonald (or Lewis) and his books, especially the spiritual aspect, you will love these quotes.
Star Pupil Lewis re-introduces his master in "George MacDonald" April 26, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
In CS Lewis' 1945 novel, "The Great Divorce," 19th century fantasy poet/pastor George MacDonald guides Lewis' narrarator on passages between hell (the joyless, fearful "grey city") and heaven. The narrator (by extension, Lewis himself) acknowledges MacDonald's life influence from when, at 16, the then-agnostic Lewis read MacDonald's "Phantasies" and concluded: "Here begins the new life."
MacDonald's influence reaches past Lewis to forebears Lewis Carroll (whom MacDonald mentored through Carroll's writing/publishing "Alice in Wonderland"), James Barrie, and GK Chesterton. Barrie and Chesterton helped co-chair MacDonald's centenary celebration in 1924, and Chesterton later called MacDonald "one of the three or four greatest men of 19th century Britain."
No wonder Lewis prefaces his anthology of MacDonald quotes by calling its compilation "discharging a debt of justice." MacDonald, overlooked in a fantasy literature timeline stretching from Lewis and fellow Inkling J.R.R. Tolkein to J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter, shows his wisdom through 365 excerpts from his poems, sermons, and short stories. Each is less than a page-long for easy daily reading.
Referring continually to Lewis' introduction helps while reading his MacDonald selections. Lewis writes, "Nowhere else outside the New Testament have I found terror and comfort so intertwined." It guides MacDonald images of the Good Shepherd's sharp-toothed sheepdogs tracking and returning sinners (quote 149), or being told in bereavement "you must be made miserable that you may wake from your sleep to know that you need God." (quote 223, from a man who lost a wife and daughter during his life). Even misplaced daily items are God's blessing against materialism (81). Lewis built his "Screwtape Letters" concept near completely around quotes 245-247.
"George MacDonald" rewards those consistently referencing it. It captures not only MacDonald's freedom from his Calvinist upbringing, but does so though powerful images of Father and Son, Christ and His faithful. It straddles God's demanding "the last farthing" against sin to man's ability to deny self (159, 300) and see that self as God does (208, 243) before we see Him for what He is. Fear and shame, to MacDonald, are undesirable but acceptable introductions (349, 214, 242), until we know, accept, and obey that deeper love (208, 243).
These are excerpts, nothing more. Even praising MacDonald's vision Lewis admits, "If I were to deal with him as a writer...certainly MacDonald has no place in its first rank - perhaps not even in its second." Indeed, many MacDonald inspired (again, Lewis' beloved "Narnia" series) would take his approach to fantasy as a window into human behavior to wildly popular heights a century after his death. "George MacDonald" is neither biography nor full appreciation. But it reintroduces a key 19th literary/spiritual figure through his star pupil, and is recommended for fans of Lewis and of Christian fiction.
Roots September 12, 2005
2 out of 10 found this review helpful
Always interesting to discover the roots of an author's world.
(By the way, Amazon's packaging/quality is 5*.)
 I guess I just don't like anthologies July 31, 2005
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is probably the only book written by C.S. Lewis that I will give less that 4 stars. I think it's great that he wanted to have an anthology of George Macdonald, but it just didn't work. Don't get me wrong, the quotes are great, but it just doesn't really give you an idea of who Goerge MacDonald is, and what his writing is like. Nearly all of the quotations are from his book of sermons, which is not one of his most popular works. If you have heard of George MacDonald and want to check him out, I would reccomend just jumping straight into The Princess and the Goblin or one of his other works. This just isn't the "usual" George MacDonald, and you don't get much of a hint as to what his "fantasies," which are what he is famous for, are like.
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