Lilith

I was torn between 4 and 5 for this one at first I love it in many ways and give it 5 stars Some will probably find it a little harder to read but that s due to the time in which it is written and it s slightly dated style I m not sure that relax is the right word here but relax into the book and experience it This book is in my opinion amazing I got it out of the library and still would like to find a copy available locally.Great book UPDATE I have since bought the book It has stayed with me s [...]

As my brother accurately described it, it starts out as a sort of Christian acid trip Alice in Wonderland type experience For the first half of the book you have almost no idea what is actually going on, but it s worth sticking it through because later it all falls into place The story takes it s premise from an old Jewish myth about a companion named Lilith whom God gave to Adam before Eve She was an angelic being, not human, and couldn t reconcile herself to the vocation of bearing Adam s chil [...]

I have an enormous respect for George MacDonald His books such as At the Back of the North Wind, The Princess and Curdie, The Princess and the Goblin, The Day Boy and the Night Girl and even Alec Forbes and His Friend Annie were among my childhood favorites they were magical and my first brushes with fantasy at 8 10 years old He was an exceptionally gifted and inspired writer of the 1800 s I even respect his history as a clergyman who loved god but left off being a preacher because he believed, [...]

This is by far one of the darkest books I ve ever read Coming from a Christian minister, I would expect the book to be a bit preachy I found, however, that the story is way of a dark fairy tale set in a somewhat biblical world, with faint biblical themes It s hard, of course, not to be a bit biblical, considering some of the main characters are Adam, Eve, and Lilith the first wife of Adam MacDonald writes this story in a way that truly makes them characters in a book, rather than bible superher [...]

George MacDonald is one of the most severely underrated authors of all time A contemporary to Lewis Caroll and major influence on C.S Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien, this man s imagination apparently knew no bounds and that is incredibly apparent in his masterpiece, Lilith Narrated by a nameless everyman figure, it follows his adventures in a world he discovers after inheriting his father s house and many unsettling circumstances there, leading him to a mirror which reveals another realm Incredibly com [...]

Written as a fantasy novel with much spiritual wisdom and insight George MacDonal in his companion of phantastes , again achieved to render with Lilith a remarkable piece of literature which will hunt relentlessly your dreams and don t have mercy for the boundaries of your imagination In brief a few words about MacDonal himself A poet, Scottish author and a Christian minister.he lived from 10 December 1824 to 18 September 1905.A prolific writer and after an exciting and eventful life with much s [...]

This was an interesting book to read after David Lindsay s A Voyage to Arcturus Both deal with fantastic travel Lilith with inter dimensional travel, Arcturus with inter planetary travel as a means of religious and spiritual discovery Both drag you on a harrowing journey, where many questions go unanswered Lilith, however, is blatantly Christian It is fun to read a fantasy novel that illustrates the milestones of Christianity, particularly Creation and the Resurrection, using quirky versions of [...]

I m a fan of George MacDonald for his fantasies and for his children s books His two older fantasies, Lilith and Phantases, are difficult to read and they re difficult to pigeon hole But why do we even want to pigeon hole things in the first place Oh, right Marketing.Anyway, like I said, Lilith is not the easiest book to read Perhaps it s partially due to the era MacDonald was writing in, but he certainly isn t pandering to the lowest denominator here The story is a haunting tale of a man named [...]

A long time we were together, I and the moon, walking side by side, she the dull shine, and I the live shadow I didn t like Lilith the first time I read it, despite being a big fan of MacDonald and the people he influenced, like CS Lewis Tolkien , but over the years as I have read it and read it again it has become one of my favorite books Do not make the mistake of trying to understand each nuance that would be like trying to understand all the symbolism of a Salvador Dali painting Yes, the sto [...]

What to say about this book Well, it s the darker companion to Phantastes It s an immersive fantasy dream experience that transcends plot though it has one It s a Christian exhortation to the reader die to self if you would live forever It is by turns odd, humorous, witty, sweet, downright chilling, and glorious It s often a blend of The Pilgrim s Progress and Alice in Wonderland, but I love it than both those books put together Lilith begins as a man called Vane steps through a mirror into a v [...]

The second of MacDonald s adult fiction I ve read I come to them via C S Lewis s enthusiasm for his writings.It s been said of Lewis, as writer, teacher a conversationalist, that his own love enthusiasm for certain books authors could be infectious send readers listeners away eager to read works which then proved to be disappointing to them, wondering what he saw in them.This is partly true of my response to Lilith There are many weaknesses in the plot style of this book that are very trying Thr [...]

This is perhaps my favorite book of all time It does not get enough good press It is definitely MacDonald s magnum opus I would recommend it to all fantasy lovers and readers just looking for something refreshingly different Like most of George MacDonald s work, Lilith does have strong religious undertones, but they are presented in a unique way that I don t believe will offend or even distract non religious readers The religious content is comparable to that in the works of CS Lewis I promise t [...]

1.5 stars All I am after reading this book is confused People talk about the journey the main character undertook, and all that did was confuse me The setting confused, the characters did as well, but there was clearly an ulterior motive that the author was going for There was a smattering of a climax, albeit very short, over too quickly and confusing The resolution didn t resolve anything either.

Free download available at Project Gutenberg.An excess of morality for may taste.

This is one of these books that I personally would classify as solid 5 5.I only gave it a 4 5 for a single reason MacDonald is not a typical writer He was a priest, or, in the words of , a Christian minister.Why s that of importance Because, the folk and the shepherds may use the same language, but not in the same way.The reader of this magnificent, allegoric, deeply religious fairytale will need to arm himself herself with tones of good will to push onwards when the sentences become tiresome an [...]

Incandescent and blazingly truthful, George MacDonald s 1895 fantasy on Life after life, is not just a book, its a portal To what end that portal leads, I will leave the reader to discover for themself As the author C.S Lewis credits as having baptized his imagination, MacDonald s influence on the creation of Narnia is not difficult to locate in Lillith Likewise, I can only assume that J.M Barrie, a fellow Scotsman, was influenced by MacDonald s writing as he formed his Never land characters Lon [...]

I give Lilith than one star because it succeeds as a fairy tale I give it no than two because it fails on every other level.It s not that MacDonald is a bad writer he can make aesthetically pleasing sentences It s just that his underlying premise is so unbiblical, and he doesn t stop pushing that premise in our faces throughout the entire novel.Basically, this is MacDonald s most widely read defense of universalism, that Hell isn t really a place of eternal torment but rather a holding cell fo [...]

Much, much preachier and metaphysical than Phantastes, this MacDonald fantasy appealed less to me but still kept me reading so that I finished all 250 pages in one sitting In this book, MacDonald s love affair with death gets even heavier and creepier He also seems to be making a commentary on the danger of the New Woman, who willfully abandoned the role of Angel in the House at the turn of the century The moments wherein he becomes wrapped up in the world building aspect of the fantasy and sto [...]

Starts out lovely but becomes disconnected and hard to follow If you liked, Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, you know the sort of dedication it takes to finish this A good writer entertaining his edgiest explorations I might revisit this, but my to read pile has too many abandoned books at the moment DNF.

Groundbreaking fantasy one of the first books I want to reread when I retire Read it as part of an Inklings research project at the Oregon Extension Part of my paradigm shift and brain remolding.

Christian fantasy stories DO include sexy, undying, shape shifting, blood drinking, women

This is the third novel I ve read by George MacDonald, the first being The Princess and The Goblin, sort of a young adult novel, which was wonderfully written I then started searching out other titles and now have a little collection Frankly, I was a bit worried in the beginning it started very reminiscent of Phantastes, and was loaded with exclamation points, which seemed oddbut don t be fooled the story picks up in a hurry, and is an excellent read MacDonald s imaginings of the world after dea [...]

George Macdonald certainly had an imagination This book takes the reader on a journey, alongside Mr Vane, similar in some ways to other journey stories from MacDonald s own Phantastes to Pilgrims Progress or The Hobbit Aren t all these stories similar leaving home, entering the unknown, learning about yourself and the world, finding redemption I find MacDonald in this book, like Phantastes, somewhat difficult to read Perhaps it is that the style is so different from later fantasy a la Tolkien an [...]

George MacDonald stands apart singularly in my reading experiences C.S Lewis said that every page he wrote plagiarized MacDonald s ideas, and also admitted that MacDonald was not a great writer in the quality of his prose I agree fully on the later and see his point with the former In his favor, MacDonald s adult fantasy work is great reading because he has the most distinctly confident and original ideas for myth I have every read His fantastic worlds are wholly original and inspired His spirit [...]

At times beautiful and others frustrating, this somewhat overly long book takes you through a rollercoaster of emotions both through the characters in the story and in the reading of that story The story is one of a man who stumbles into another world, a purgatory He stumbles through this world with guidance from a host of extravagantly imagined characters a man who is also a raven who is also Adam, perpetually young children, a tormented evil half leopard half woman princess etc MacDonald s ima [...]

This is my third journey through George MacDonald s Lilith most recently in the form of an audio book and it just gets better and better each time I visit the mysterious world through which Mr Vane traverses, and the characters and personages he encounters there Each time I ve read it I ve I ve learned something about myself, for good and bad, and its the highest form of praise for a book and author when you can say that the book is not only great reading, but that it changes your life to some d [...]

A friend of mine often referred to MacDonald as her favorite author, but for whatever reason, I never tried any of his books until now I was actually looking for free and decently narrated audiobooks on Librivox I say decently, because these books are narrated by volunteers, and some days, I have had a hard time finding something well narrated So I tried Lilith, and oh my What a book The blurb below says how he influenced Tolkien and CS Lewis, yes That s the same kind of huge human and religious [...]

Odd.MacDonald seems to discover the story he wanted to tell partway through, which caused a sensation of discontinuity between the story I thought I was reading and the story I turned out to be reading, ten or twenty chapters in Some hopes the early chapters inspired were not fulfilled by the later chapters.Some horrors sprang upon me, unexpected but not unwelcome in an otherwise whimsical book.Don t read MacDonald for his stories, or his writing style Read him for the curiosity of his images an [...]

Lilith is probably a prime example of why Tolkien famously disliked allegory The book wavers between stretches of tedious exposition and somewhat ridiculous plot interwoven with achingly beautiful scenes and haunting imagery The themes of death and paradise are heavy stuff, and for me they don t always merge comfortably with their corresponding story elements although maybe that s the point I m torn between three and four stars, but bumping it upward because its beauty and power outweigh the awk [...]

The surreal vignettes are often entertaining, but the main character does things, and feels things, for little apparent reason Perhaps best approached allegorically, but Lilith flew high over my head and I don t feel the need to chase it with a net.Disappointing I like MacDonald very much and have always heard of this as one of his best I believe I can understand people raving over Lilith , but this group does not include me Perhaps worth trying again in a few decades 2.2 5Available on Gutenberg [...]