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 Biblical characters. The Narnia series,which was hugely influenced by MacDonald, handles these ideas more elegantly through allegory and better writing, but Lilith is still an interesting read.The book is focused on death: living is life in death, every immoral action is a new death, death is actually life, etc. These philosophies are often delivered gravely by a talking raven, and in a confusing semantic manner similar to any other talking animal in a Lewis Carroll story. This gets a bit tedious and confusing,because MacDonald's writing juggles between clunky and to-the-point and lushly poetic. However, there were enough monsters,beautiful ladies,and mutilations to balance this out. The Narnia series has always been very important to me, so it was fun to read a book that so directly influenced C.S. Lewis. Hidden mundane objects in country houses used as portals to another world, speaking animals, fantastical Christian allegory-it's all in there. However, I don't think Lilith was intended as a children's novel, and it is interesting to see the contrast between these two books and and how each distilled their theological fantasies*. Lilith is mildly gothic, but certainly not as terrifying as Lewis's The Last Battle,which is downright apocalyptic.Personally, I imagined this book's world through a filter of cheesy BBC video quality, like the music video for the Cure's "Charlotte Sometimes" or an episode of Doctor Who. That's just me. I think it's because there is a lot of wandering through a British country house in the beginning.Anyway.Lilith is worth the read if you're a fan of C.S. Lewis and would like to see a direct influence. It's got some beautiful,solemn,creepy bits, and good descriptions of hideous beings. If you're remotely Catholic, it might freak you out a little. It triggered my ingrained Catholic terror of the afterlife. So I suppose this was a good choice for Lent. *It's an experience similar to reading Lewis's Narnia series v.s. his Space Trilogy.
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 odd...but don't be fooled: the story picks up in a hurry, and is an excellent read. MacDonald's imaginings of the world after death, fulfillment of biblical promises, and descriptions of our temporal understandings and behavior make this a story of great depth and scope - every once in a while I'm struck by what an enormous tale an author has crafted, not even in the number of pages, but the scope of vision that they have: did they come up with the "general idea" first and, if so, how much of the tale was the "general idea"; or did they take a small thought and begin to weave other things into it as they went along? At any rate, some authors amaze me with their vision, and MacDonald is one of them. It is a page turner, without question, but a story that had me pondering throughout, and finishing with joy that I had read it. Both C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien credit George MacDonald as their inspiration to become authors, and it is easy to see that in his writings. Favorite quote from the book: "That which is within a man, not that which lies beyond his vision, is the main factor in what is about to befall him: the operation upon him is the event."In spite of the exuberant use of exclamation points at the outset, it still ranks 5 stars to me.
Do You like book Lilith (2002)?
'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 story is confusing, along the lines of Alice in Wonderland, and no, I honestly don't think MacDonald is a great writer. His power lies in his imagination and his ability to communicate realities about the human condition through these wild flights of fantasy. Lilith is ultimately a story about a terribly wicked woman and an ordinarily-selfish man who both find redemption through rest and sorrow, rather than their own strength. In between all this are desert monsters, skeleton dances, mirrors into other worlds, waking, sleeping, and a creepy librarian. Oh, not to mention MacDonald's weird poetry.Lilith and Phantastes are MacDonald's less-accessible books. If you haven't read MacDonald yet (shame on you) then you should start with The Princess and the Goblin or his fairy tales (Photogen and Nycteris is my favorite). Then move on to his masterpieces!
—Veronica
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 imagination is on full tilt from beginning to end. I can forgive his flawed universalist views, he is not the first to think them nor the last, and they do not harm the fantastic story. So what frustration? The story seemed at times like it would never end and to drag in the worst ways. The main character was annoyingly naive at times to the point that you just wanted to yell at him to get a clue.
—Paul
Wildly imaginative story delivered in a very matter-of fact tone, no wows or gee whizzes. The whole 260 pages is either one dream or a series of dreams or repeated cycling from life to death. So much shape-shifting that I can't keep track of who's who or who was who in the last chapter. For example, is Lilith the white leopardess or the spotted one? Overall, too phantasmagorical, too fluid for me. I like magic, but want it to connect to something that looks like reality. In Tolkien's Rings, say, the fantasy has a sort of permanence. Ents stay ents, orcs stay orcs. In this book nothing keeps its shape or consistency for long. Trees disappear, animals turn into mud and back again, the evidently dead are nursed to life. Nothing definitely dies, yet I kept asking myself, as does the protagonist, Mr Vane, did Vane die at the beginning of this book and is it all a vision of what happens after death?Macdonald's style is exemplary, never stilted except in dialogue. The story moves apace, but I got restive with the constant inconstancy and had to make an effort to get to the end. I prefer, like most people, to wish at the end there was more to come, not to sigh with relief.The Alice books are dreams, too. I like them better (a) for their wit and humor, qualities in which Macdonald is seriously challenged and (b) because transitions in Alice's progression are easier to follow. Macdonald's book has the chaos of a real dream; events in the Alice books smoothed into a literary dream.
—Stephen
