Short Stories
Various compilations of MacDonald’s short stories exist. We’ve divided them between those published during MacDonald’s lifetime (or shortly after his death) and more recent publications.
While some publishers have classified The Wise Woman as a short story, we, like Johannesen Publishing, classify it as a novella, and pages devoted to it can be found in the Fantasy section. Pages dedicated to the title stories of The Light Princess, The Portent, and The Golden Key collections are categorized under the Fantasy heading as well.
A number of MacDonald’s short stories—often referred to as “fairy tales”—are equally for young readers and adults. These would include all of the stories listed in The Light Princess and Other Fairy Tales and Dealings with the Fairies, below, as well as Photogen and Nycteris from Stephen Archer and Other Tales.
To jump to a section, please select one of the following:
Short Stories in Alphabetical Order
Collections Published Prior to 1925
Recent Collections
To learn more about George MacDonald’s short stories, see the links under the next heading, “Collections Published Prior to 1925”. For a comprehensive list of publication appearances for each of the stories listed below, click here.
The History of Photogen and Nycteris / The Day Boy and the Night Girl (1882)
If I Had a Father (1882)
The Light Princess (1866)
Little Daylight (1871)
The Little Girl That Had No Tongue (Unpublished)
The Old Nurse’s Story
Papa’s Story: A Scots Christmas Story (1865)
The Portent (1864)
Port in a Storm (1866)
The Shadows (1864)
Stephen Archer (1882)
Tell Us a Story / The Giant’s Heart (1863)
Uncle Cornelius: His Story (1869)
My Uncle Peter (1864)
The Wow o' Rivven (1864)
The Bell (1864)
Birth, Dreaming, Death / The School Master’s Story (1864)
The Broken Swords (1854)
The Butcher’s Bills (1882)
The Carasoyn (1871)
The Castle (1864)
A Child’s Holiday (1864)
The Christmas Dinner (1864)
Cross Purposes (1862)
The Cruel Painter (1864)
The Curate and His Wife (1864)
The Day Boy and the Night Girl / The History of Photogen and Nycteris (1879)
The Giant’s Heart / Tell Us a Story (1863)
The Gifts of the Child Christ (1882)
The Golden Key (1867)
The Gray Wolf (1864)
Choose from the links below to learn more about George MacDonald’s short stories. Note: Adela Cathcart is not itself a “short story”, but rather a collection of short stories housed within the framework of a realistic fiction narrative.
Contains:
The Christmas Dinner
The Light Princess
The Bell
The School Master’s Story (also known as Birth, Dreaming, and Death)
Song (poems)
The Curate and His Wife
The Shadows
The Evening at the Curate (poems)
Percy and His Mother (poems)
The Broken Swords
My Uncle Peter
The Giant’s Heart
A Child’s Holiday (poem and story)
The Cruel Painter
The Castle
Dealings with the Fairies, Alexander Strahan, 1867. Interior artwork by Arthur Hughes. Contemporary reprints are available on Amazon.
Contains:
The Light Princess
The Giant’s Heart
The Shadows
Cross Purposes
The Golden Key
The Fairy Tales of George MacDonald, edited by Greville MacDonald, the author’s son. We have just published the first new edition of this wonderful work, originally released in 1904, including all the original illustrations by Arthur Hughes.
Contains:
Preface by Christopher MacDonald (MacDonald’s great-great-grandson)
Foreword by Douglas Gresham, stepson of C.S. Lewis
Introduction by Greville MacDonald
The Light Princess
The Giant's Heart
The Golden Key
The Shadows
Little Daylight
Cross Purposes
The Carasoyn
The Day Boy and the Night Girl (The History of Photogen and Nycteris: A Day and Night Mährchen)
The Light Princess and Other Fairy Tales
Contains:
The Light Princess
The Giant’s Heart (also known as Tell Us a Story)
The Shadows
Cross Purposes
The Golden Key
The Carasoyn
Little Daylight
Contains:
The Portent
The Cruel Painter
The Castle
The Wow O’ Rivven
The Broken Swords
The Gray Wolf
Uncle Cornelius: His Story
Stephen Archer and Other Tales (Later published as “The Gifts as the Child Christ”)
Contains
Stephen Archer
The Gifts of the Child Christ
The History of Photogen and Nycteris (also known as The Day Boy and The Night Girl)
The Butcher’s Bills
Port in a Storm
If I Had a Father
The following hyperlinks navigate to those titles currently available on Amazon.
The Golden Key and Other Stories, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Contains:
The Golden Key
The History of Photogen and Nycteris
The Shadows
The Gifts of the Child Christ
The Gifts of the Child Christ: Fairytales and Stories for the Childlike, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (in two volumes)
Contains:
Introduction (The Gifts of the Child Christ: Fairytales and Stories for the Childlike) • essay by Glenn Edward Sadler
The Fantastic Imagination • (1893) • essay by George MacDonald
The Gifts of the Child Christ • (1882)
The History of Photogen and Nycteris
The Shadows
Little Daylight
The Golden Key
Cross Purposes
The Wise Woman, or The Lost Princess: A Double Story • (1875)
The Castle: A Parable (variant of The Castle)
Port in a Storm
Papa's Story: A Scots Christmas Story
The Girl That Lost Things • (1885) • poem
The Light Princess
The Giant's Heart
The Carasoyn
The Gray Wolf
The Cruel Painter
The Broken Swords
The Wow O' Rivven
Uncle Cornelius, His Story
The Butcher's Bills
Birth, Dreaming, Death: The Schoolmaster's Story
That Holy Thing • (1883) • poem
The Gray Wolf and Other Stories
Contains:
The Gray Wolf
The Cruel Painter
The Broken Swords
The Wow O’Rivven
Uncle Cornelius His Story
The Butcher’s Bills
Birth, Dreaming, Death.
The Complete Fairy Tales, Penguin Classics
Contains:
The Light Princess
The Shadows
The Giant’s Heart
Cross Purposes
The Golden Key
The Carasoyn
The Wise Woman, or The Lost Princess: A Double Story
The History of Photogen and Nycteris: A Day and Night Mährchen
Little Daylight; Nanny’s Dream; and Diamond’s Dream (Excerpted from At the Back of the North Wind)
Six tales and ten festive poems, each of them embracing the magic of the season, and showing the Heart to which "The Gifts of the Child Christ" point.