Phantastes

I experienced persecution in order to bring you the following post. You’d better appreciate it.

On Sunday, when I was helping some friends tear apart their kitchen so they could paint it, I found a beautiful copy of Phantastes by George MacDonald (CS Lewis’ inspiration). This is very exciting, because my public library is very short on MacDonald books, and I’ve always wanted to read more of his stories. Perhaps I should have contained my exuberance, because I’m afraid I made a fool of myself.

Karen: Devin! Devin! Listen to this quote – it’s sooooo good. I’m going to write it down, but let me read it to you first! “Perhaps, like a geologist, I was about to turn up to the light some buried strata of the human world with it’s fossil remains charred by passion and petrified by tears.” Charred by passion and petrified by tears? That’s incredible!

Devin: [Incredulously, and with a laugh that was far from reverent] He compared that to geology?

Miffed, I went downstairs to get my notebook, only to dash up the stairs again, this time to show my books to Nathan.

Karen: Nathan! Look – isn’t this pretty! My journal just happens to match the cover of Phantastes! They look so good together.

Nathan: [With a particularly devastating face that relied on a raised eyebrow for its effectiveness] What color are the roots of your hair again?

Granted, I was gushing, but still, MacDonald is kind of a big deal.

All that to say, I’ve passed through fire and floods to bring you these succulent morsels from the first couple of chapters.

“A spirit.
The undulating woods and silent well,
And rippling rivulet, and evening gloom,
Now deepending the dark shades, for speech assuming,
Held communion with him; as if he and it
Were all that was.”

~ Shelley’s Alastor

“”She…said, in a voice that strangely recalled a sensation of twilight, and reedy river banks, and a low wind…”

“that is always the way with you men; you believe nothing the first time; and it is foolish enough to let mere repetition convince you of what you consider in itself unbelievable.”

Profound, no?

I think this book is going to be wonderful.