Classic tales that should be read by everyone. ( )

Possibly the language and era in which the tales in this book was written effected my enjoyment of this book. There were some tales in it that I did like, for example, The History of Photogen and Nycteris was quite good actually. Overall however, I found most of the tales to be preachy and in effect little more than sermons dressed up as fairy tales. This makes sense since the author, George MacDonald, was a Christian minister, but understanding in this case did not increase my enjoyment.

On a positive note, the tales are very well written. The introduction also contains some very good insights by the author about writing and fairy tales in general that I found interesting. I do not dispute that this is an important and influential work, I just did not find the majority of the book to be entertaining.

For those that enjoy reading the classics, don't let my review put you off. I am judging this book entirely by my enjoyment of it, not by its literary merit. I would say that it would be worth your time to give it a shot. You may find it much more rewarding than I did. ( )

Macdonald's fairy tales have subtlety. His are proper fairy tales, yet the moral is not overstated, so obvious as those of Jesus or Aesop. Knowing of Macdonald as a moralist first, from C.S. Lewis's writings, I looked for the moral of each story. It sometimes seems obvious; the Princess of The Two Princesses is a little dense not to learn sooner than she does. But that is an almost superficial level of morality in the story. That is, there is a deeper level in the story, written in such a way that it surprises the reader. At least, my reactions surprised me. For example, in The Light Princess the hero sacrifices himself for love of the princess. This is nothing new. Yet it becomes a moving story with the princess's metamorphosis, as she realizes his sacrifice. Macdonald gives the reader just enough psychology of the characters to make them more human than most fairy tales provide. ( )

C.S Lewis wrote that he considered George Macdonald to be his master and I can see why after reading everyone of his wonderful fairytales. Both bring such warmth and wit to their allegorical writing and both have are masters of imagery. Macdonald reveals his deep love for nature through every story and it is clearly a love inspired by the creator of all the beauty in the natural world.

Reviewers at the time criticised Macdonald for lifting stories from other writers, I can see instances where this is the case such as the Giant's heart story being similair to Jack the Giant Killer but even when Macdonald does use a story as a basis for one of his own he puts a completely new spin on it.

I have to say I didn't enjoy the ones set within dreamlike worlds such as Nanny's dream or the Golden Key. There were things about them I enjoyed such as the imagery in Nanny's dream and the obvious Christian symbolism in the Golden Key but on the wbole I couldn't engage with them fully.

My favourite stories were The Light Princess, The Lost Princess and the History of Photogen and Nyceteris. All but one happen to be centered around a romantic relationship but what they all have in common is their stories of redemption through trial especially so in the Lost Princess which was the most difficult but rewarding to read as I kept wanting her to do better and magically be perfect everytime she slipped but she proved very fallable and thus human. In her I saw much of myself and many of the stories lessons have actually proved useful in real life!

To summarise, I love these books! There's so much I could say about each story but hopeful I can convince other people to read them so I can discuss it with them. I would recommend these if you love allegory and Lewis.