Among the great imaginative artists of the nineteenth century, MacDonald’s unusual talents were recognized even in his own lifetime. And in fact, although he died nearly seventy years ago, his reputation has retained all its luster and shows no signs of dimming.Evenor represents the last of the Adult Fantasy he wrote—three shimmering tales, brought together here for the first time.“George MacDonald was a Scot of genius as genuine as Carlyle’s; he could write fantasy that made all experience a fairytale. He could give the real sense that everyone had the end of an elfin thread that must at last lead them into Paradise.”G. K. Chesterton

In any time, the writing of George MacDonald would be remarkable, even brilliant. But for his own time, in his century, the depth of his inner vision is nothing less than extraordinary. Somewhere in this conservative ex-Minister of seemingly genial disposition there lurked a daemon of negation. LILITH is proof that he was able to express this in evocative and visionary prose for it is the tale of man in a nightmare, forever reaching for the unspeakably beautiful, eternally elusive dream.

George MacDonald was no mere teller of tales—therein, perhaps, lies the strength of this novel, and of LILITH: for these two fantasies are expressions of the contradiction and paradox in his own life. MacDonald, an ordained Scottish Minister, turned the direction of his life away from the Kirk. Just as much of his life was spent in a search—albeit a happy one—so with his heroes, wandering enchanted, beset by nightmare, glorying in eventual triumph. Lucky indeed that George MacDonald turned from the Ministry to being a writer of fantasy!