The 19th century Scottish novelist, George MacDonald, is best remembered for his fantasy books for children, works such as The Princess and the Goblin and At the Back of the North Wind. He is also remembered as having played a seminal role in C.S. Lewis’s conversion to Christianity (a point I discussed in my earlier article ‘The Baptized Imagination.’) Still others may be familiar with MacDonald through the popular novels that my father, Michael Phillips, edited for Bethany House Publishers in the 80’s.
Few people are as familiar with MacDonald’s views on beauty. As a young man, MacDonald was deeply moved by things of beauty, while he relished the romantic poets and the German romances of his era. The literature from these genres stirred MacDonald’s imagination with images of loveliness, while his close affinity with the natural world constantly fed a deep attraction to things of beauty.
Few people are as familiar with MacDonald’s views on beauty. As a young man, MacDonald was deeply moved by things of beauty, while he relished the romantic poets and the German romances of his era. The literature from these genres stirred MacDonald’s imagination with images of loveliness, while his close affinity with the natural world constantly fed a deep attraction to things of beauty.
Keep reading...
1 comment:
That introduction to Wordsworth is one of my favorite passages.
-Matt Petersen
Post a Comment