Opinions on an 18th century Scottish Poet/Professor (George MacDonald)

[DeepThought]

Hello, I'm new here and this is my first thread, hope you guys will bare with me for English is not my mother toungue, anyway here it goes. I've been lurking in this forum for quite some time now and have come to notice a certain 19th century weird/horror fiction writer (HP Lovecraft) who seems to be slithering his way into all sorts of discussions concerning SFF. So I went out (skipped lunch, of cause) and bought a copy of H.P. LOVECRAFT OMNIBUS 2: DAGON AND OTHER MACABRE TALES from Voyager books. Now, I'm not pretending to be a thinker/interllectual nor am I the usual garden variety literary critic/snob (overlook the dubious user name), mind you, but I do know good fiction from mainstream rubbish (not that there are no good books here and there). Lovecraft certainly seems to be the former and I have to admit readilly enjoying his work.
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Working my way through his enlightning but longish artical; SUPERNATURAL HORROR IN LITERATURE I've come across similar authors of interest that I'd love to tackle next, but unfortunately due to the availability issues of books in this region I've only been able to get my hands on two; TALES OF MYSTERY AND IMAGINATION, THE COMPLETE FAIRY TALES by Edga Allen Poe and George MacDonald respectively. With Poe I've had the good fortune of been aquainted with at early childhood, seem to recall being forced to read some of his poems in class, MacDonald is not as widely known of cause but no doubt in the same league if I may be so bold to venture. I could propablly dig up something from google, but since a lot of people here are into this sort of thing (18th century weird writers etc.), I would very much prefer to hear your opinions on this author's work. Anyway sorry to digress, hope this will spark a post or two.


Cheers, DeepThought​

 

[j d worthington]

I've read relatively little of MacDonald -- Lilith, Phantastes, Evenor (a very long time ago) and some of his fairy tales and books for younger audiences (The Princess and the Goblins, At the Back of the North Wind, etc.). My take on MacDonald is that he is a sometimes convoluted writer, and occasionally a bit too much concerned with his allegories for the story's sake, but withal a fascinating writer who well repays repeated readings (especially, for my taste, Lilith, which is a very haunting and fascinating piece).

I believe this has the complete text (it is in the public domain, as I recall):

Lilith, by George MacDonald

And this one has the full text for Phantastes:

Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women

A lot of the writers HPL suggested are now in public domain, and can be found in electronic forms on the 'net. There's also a site that has the full text of the essay, and links to various of the stories. I've listed it here before, and I'll see if I can track it down for you....

Here goes:

The H. P. Lovecraft Library

If you scroll down, you'll see a section on essays, and one specifically set up for SHiL, followed by a bibliography for the essay, with links to various of the stories he mentions; they've got quite a few on there (though by no means all). Enjoy!

 

[DeepThought]

Thanks for the links JD

I'll probably give Lilith a try before tackling The complete Fairy Tales.

Cheers, DeepThought

 

[j d worthington]

You're welcome!