Phantastes

This new edition of George MacDonald's 1858 classic is presented and introduced as Volume 1 of 38 in The Cullen Collection by Michael Phillips.George MacDonald’s first major fiction work, in MacDonald’s words “a sort of fairy tale for grown people,” Phantastes was published in 1858. This unusual fantasy, subtitled a “fairie romance,” is one of MacDonald’s most enigmatic and esoteric titles. The book’s narrator, Anodos, enters Fairy Land through a mysterious old wooden secretary. From that beginning, he embarks on a dream-like series of encounters that follow the form of an epic quest, though the purpose and destination of his journey remain cryptic and obscure and are never fully clarified.Two volumes of poetry prior to this had set MacDonald apart as a talented young author to watch in England's literary circles. Sales of Phantastes, however, proved a disappointment, and MacDonald ultimately turned to the writing of realistic fiction in the 1860s. When young atheist C.S. Lewis discov