George MacDonald’s first major fiction work, in his words “a sort of fairy tale for grown people,” Phantastes was published in 1858 by Smith, Elder & Co., London.
This unusual fantasy, subtitled A Fairie Romance, is one of MacDonald’s most mysterious 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 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 thus MacDonald ultimately turned to the writing of realistic fiction in the 1860s.
When young atheist C.S. Lewis discovered Phantastes in 1916, within a few hours he said he knew he “had crossed a great frontier.” MacDonald’s unusual fantasy set Lewis on the road toward his eventual conversion to Christianity, and forever after he referred to MacDonald as his “master.”
In spite of its poor initial reception among Victorian readers, Lewis’s affection for it established Phantastes as one of MacDonald’s most enduring and studied works in literary and academic circles.
(Source: The Cullen Collection)
“I knew now, that it is by loving, and not by being loved, that one can come nearest the soul of another; yea, that, where two love, it is the loving of each other, and not the being beloved by each other, that originates and perfects and assures their blessedness.”
Recommended Editions and Adaptions
WRITTEN WORKS
From Johannesen Printing & Publishing (hardcover)
Annotated Scholarly Edition, edited by Pennington and McGillis
In addition to the text, there are 184 pages containing an authoritative introduction, life chronology, textual notes, book reviews, and comparative source materials. With 354 footnotes to explain obscure words and literary references
150th Anniversary Edition, edited by Nick Page, illustrations by Arthur Hughes
Cullen Collection edition, with introduction by Michael Phillips
OTHER MEDIA
Room to Roam: Poem from Phantastes, recited by David Jack
Phantastes: The Album, by Caleb Hayashida
"I hope that for those who haven’t read the book the music will encourage you to do so, and for those who have read it the music will help you to see some of the beauty I see in Phantastes."
Articles about Phantastes
VARIOUS SOURCES
Romanticism, the Marble Lady, and Orders of Longing in Phantastes, by Kelly Lehtonen
Phantastes: Enchanting Beauty and Sacrificial Love, by Seth Myers
Crossing a Great Frontier: Essays on George MacDonald's Phantastes
edited by John Pennington
“The Circle of the Imagination: George MacDonald’s Phantastes and Lilith”, by Colin Manlove
George MacDonald's Phantastes: Spiral Journey to the Goddess, by Bonnie Gaarden
“The Multiple Realms of George MacDonald’s Phantastes”, by Adrian Gunther
“Music in Phantastes and Lilith by George MacDonald: The Phenomenon of Intermediality”, by A. I. Samsonova
“The Art of Manliness: Ekphrasis and/as Masculinity in George MacDonald’s Phantastes”, by Albert D. Pionke
“In Search of Spiritual Maturity: George MacDonald’s Phantastes”, by Susan E. Howard
“George MacDonald’s Phantastes: Spiral Journey to the Goddess”, by Bonnie Gaarden
“‘Within and Without’: Exploring the Mind in the Novels of George MacDonald”, by Saskia Voorendt
“‘Felicitous Space’ in the Fantasies of George MacDonald and Mervyn Peake”, by Anita Moss
NORTH WIND ARCHIVE
The home page of the North Wind Archive can be accessed here.
“Did William Morris Start MacDonald Writing Fantasy”, by Colin Manlove
“Dryad Fancies and Fairy Imaginations in Phantastes”, by John Docherty
“George MacDonald and the Anthropology of Love”, by Robin Phillips
“George MacDonald as a Mythopoeist”, by Joyce R. Hines
“Gustav Holst and George MacDonald”, by R.B. Shaberman
“Mirrors in MacDonald’s Phantastes: A Reflexive Structure”, by Fernando Soto
“Riddled with Evil: Fantasy as Theodicy in George MacDonald’s Phantastes and Lilith”, by Courtney Salvey
“The Ideal and the Shadow: George MacDonald’s Phantastes”, by Chris Brawley
“The Shadow of Anodos: Alchemical Symbolism in Phantastes”, by Aren Roukema
“The Sources of Phantastes”, by John Docherty
“The Structure of George MacDonald’s Phantastes”, by Adrian Gunther
“Connecting Dimensions: Direction, Location, and Form in the Fantasies of George MacDonald", by Daniel Creed
“The Fourfold Myth of Death and Rebirth in George MacDonald’s Phantastes", by James T. Williamson
REVIEWS
“Phantastes by George MacDonald”, by Suzannah Rowntree
“Review of Phantastes by George MacDonald”, by Andrea Lundgren
“The Sweet and Mystical Beauty of George MacDonald’s Phantastes”, by Matthew Lee Anderson
“Phantastes by George MacDonald”, by Nyki Blatchley
“A Review of George MacDonald’s Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women”, by Brian Murphy
“Opening Doors to Fairyland: George MacDonald’s Phantastes”, by Mari Ness
“George Macdonald: Phantastes”, by M.H. Parkinson
Review by Rachel Bomberger of Eerdman’s
SUMMARIES AND STUDY GUIDES
“Phantastes”, Book-Lover
WINGFOLD
Wingfold is a quarterly magazine that restores material by and about George MacDonald, in print since 1993. To subscribe, click here. To request any of the following articles that appear in back issues of Wingfold, contact Barbara Amell at b_amell@q.com.
Summer 1996
“Phantastes Poster in a Fantastic Place”, by Mary Taylor
Fall 2001 (Full issue on Phantastes)
1858 Review
1859 Review
1872 Reviews
“Introduction to Phantastes”, by Greville MacDonald
“On Phantastes”, by Barbara Amell
Illustrations & Title Designs, by John Bell & Arthur Hughes
Spring 2009
“George MacDonald” Pt. 2