George MacDonald may be a familiar name to you or, like me, it may be one of just vague recognition. My recognition of the name came, of course, from my readings of Lewis who, as stated in the quote above, mentions him often. Stumbling across the internet a couple of weeks ago I came across his name and decided to investigate further. To say the least, I was thrilled with what I found. I also found him in good company, listed among ‘the classics’ of Poe, Austen and Shakespeare on a website called Readprint. (You’ll find the link to this site at the end of this article).

MacDonald lived in the 1800’s and is described as a poet, novelist and fantasy writer but he was also a preacher, for part of his life, and I found his theological writings to be as fascinating as the works of his imagination. In his poetry you will find varying combinations of his love of nature, childhood fantasies and also his personal faith.

In “A Dish of  Orts” you will find a lecture he gave on Wordsworth’s poetry. I love his description of the connection between nature, poetry and spirit as quoted  here:

 “In this (Wordsworth’s poetry) you see the growth of the influence of nature on the mind of the poet. You observe, too, that nature passes into poetry; that form is sublimed into speech. You see the result of the conjunction of the mind of man, and the mind of God manifested in His works; spirit coming to know the speech of spirit. The out flowing of spirit in nature is received by the poet, and he utters again, in his form, what God has already uttered in His.”      

In his ‘A Book of Dreams: Book Two’, MacDonald shows his ability paint pictures of God’s creation in his own words:

For in a wave-worn rock I lie;
Outside, the waters foam;
And echoes of old storms go by
Within my sea-built dome.

Yet within that same ‘Book of Dreams’, in Book One he delves into the beauty of his personal spirituality with passionate words of intimacy:

Spread thou once more thine arms abroad,
Lay bare thy bosom’s beat;
Thou shalt embrace me, O my God,
And I will kiss thy feet.

The depth of this man and his writings have continued to amaze me as I continue to forage through the various poems, essays and, now, his adult fantasy novels. Being one who has always appreciated an attitude of humility in the area of spirituality, particularly in the Christian realm, I was thrilled to read this quote by MacDonald taken from a letter to his father and recorded in the book, ‘George MacDonald and His Wife’ by Greville MacDonald.

We are far too anxious to be definite and to have finished, well-polished, sharp-edged systems – forgetting that the more perfect a theory about the infinite, the surer it is to be wrong, the more impossible it is to be right.’

With that final quote I’ll end this little review and hope that it has been enough to entice you to look further into the writings of this man of a former century, yet timeless in his words of beauty and wisdom. 

MacDonald’s writings are easily accessible at either of the following websites:

http://www.george-macdonald.com/index.htm

http://www.readprint.com/author-197/George-MacDonald-books