Phantastes
by George MacDonald
|
Platforms
Windows Vista / XP / 2000, Mac OS X, Sony Reader Features
|
Availability:
Download Now Price: $2.39
|
|
Platforms
Windows Vista / XP / 2000, Mac OS X, Sony Reader Features
|
Availability:
Download Now Price: $2.75
|
|
Platforms
Windows Vista / XP / 2000, Mac OS X, Sony Reader Features
|
Availability:
Download Now Price: $2.99
|
|
Platforms
Windows Vista / XP / 2000, Mac OS X, Sony Reader Features
|
Availability:
Download Now Price: $2.99
|
|
Platforms
Windows Vista/XP/2000, Mac OS X 10.4.10-10.5, Sony Reader PRS-505 Features
|
Availability:
Download Now Price: $4.95
|
|
Platforms
Windows 98+, Tablet PC, Pocket PC 2003 Features
|
Availability:
Download Now Price: $2.75
|
|
Platforms
Windows 98+, Tablet PC, Pocket PC 2003 Features
|
Availability:
Download Now Price: $2.99
|
|
Platforms
Windows 98+, Tablet PC, Pocket PC 2003 Features
|
Availability:
Download Now Price: $2.99
|
|
Platforms
All Palm & Pocket PC handheld devices plus all Windows and Macintosh computers. Features
|
Availability:
Download Now Price: $3.84
|
Phantastes Summary
| Its height I could not distinctly see. As soon as I entered, I had the feeling so common to me in the woods, that there were others there besides myself, though I could see no one, and heard no sound to indicate a presence. Since my visit to the Church of Darkness, my power of seeing the fairies of the higher orders had gradually diminished, until it had almost ceased. But I could frequently believe in their presence while unable to see them. Still, although I had company, and doubtless of a safe kind, it seemed rather dreary to spend the night in an empty marble hall, however beautiful, especially as the moon was near the going down, and it would soon be dark. So I began at the place where I entered, and walked round the hall, looking for some door or passage that might lead me to a more hospitable chamber. |
|
|
| One of George MacDonald's most important works, Phantastes is the story of a young man named Anotos and his long dreamlike journey in Fairy Land. It is the fairy tale of deep spiritual insight as Anotos makes his way through moments of uncertainty and peril and mistakes that can have irreversible consequences. This is also his spiritual quest that is destined to end with the supreme surrender of the self. When he finally experiences the hard-won surrender, a wave of joy overwhelms him. His intense personal introspection is honest as he is offered the full range of symbolic choices--great beauty, horrifying ugliness, irritating goblins, nurturing spirits. Each confrontation in Fairy Land allows Anotos to learn many necessary lessons. As he continues on the journey, many shadowy beings threaten his spiritual well-being and compel him to sing. The songs are irresistible to a beautiful White Lady who is freed from inside a statue by the music, and Anotos remains captivated by her for a long time. He sees the world more objectively; his trek invites a natural descent into feelings of pride and egotism. But his losses and sorrows coalesce themselves into things of grace, and these experiences help his spiritual growth. Please Note: This book has been reformatted to be easy to read in true text, not scanned images that can sometimes be difficult to decipher. The Microsoft eBook has a contents page linked to the chapter headings for easy navigation. The Adobe eBook has bookmarks at chapter headings and is printable up to two full copies per year. Both versions are text searchable. |
|
|
| One of nineteenth-century novelist George MacDonald's most important works, Phantastes tells the story of its narrator's dreamlike adventures in fairyland, masterfully recounted to convey a sense of profound sadness and a poignant longing for death. |
|
|
| "I was dead, and right content," the narrator says in the penultimate chapter of Phantastes. C.S. Lewis said that upon reading this astonishing 19th-century fairy tale he "had crossed a great frontier," and numerous others both before and since have felt similarly. In MacDonald's fairy tales, both those for children and (like this one) those for adults, the "fairy land" clearly represents the spiritual world, or our own world revealed in all of its depth and meaning. At times almost forthrightly allegorical, at other times richly dreamlike (and indeed having a close connection to the symbolic world of dreams), this story of a young man who finds himself on a long journey through a land of fantasy is more truly the story of the spiritual quest that is at the core of his life's work, a quest that must end with the ultimate surrender of the self. The glory of MacDonald's work is that this surrender is both hard won (or lost!) and yet rippling with joy when at last experienced. As the narrator says of a heavenly woman in this tale, "She knew something too good to be told." One senses the same of the author himself. Newly designed and typeset in a modern 6-by-9-inch format by Waking Lion Press. |
|
|
eBooks > Titles > Authors > Fantasy > Fantasy > George MacDonald > Phantastes