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May 11, 2011

Mike (the Paladin) rated it:

I was torn between 4 ans 5 for this one(at first). I love it in many ways and give it 5 stars. Some will probably find it a little harder to read but that's more due to the time in which it is written and it's slightly dated style. I'm not sure that "relax" is the right word here but "relax" into the book and "experience it". This book is in my opinion amazing. I got it out of the library and still would like to find a copy available locally.

Great book. More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Mark rated it:

As my brother accurately described it, it starts out as a sort of Christian acid trip/Alice in Wonderland type experience. For the first half of the book you have almost no idea what is actually going on, but it's worth sticking it through because later it all falls into place. The story takes it's premise from an old Jewish myth about a companion named Lilith whom God gave to Adam before Eve. She was an angelic being, not human, and couldn't reconcile herself to the vocation of bearing A More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Mar 19, 2009

Danielle rated it:

I have an enormous respect for George MacDonald. His books such as At the Back of the North Wind, The Princess and Curdie, The Princess and the Goblin, The Day Boy and the Night Girl and even Alec Forbes and His Friend Annie were among my childhood favorites--they were magical and my first brushes with fantasy at 8-10 years old. He was an exceptionally gifted and inspired writer of the 1800's. I even respect his history as a clergyman who loved god but left off being a preacher because he believ More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Dec 24, 2007

Amanda rated it:

Much, much preachier and more metaphysical than Phantastes, this MacDonald fantasy appealed less to me but still kept me reading so that I finished all 250 pages in one sitting. In this book, MacDonald's love affair with death gets even heavier and creepier. He also seems to be making a commentary on the danger of the "New Woman," who willfully abandoned the role of "Angel in the House" at the turn of the century. The moments wherein he becomes wrapped up in the world-buil More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Feb 09, 2012

C. Hollis rated it:

I give Lilith more than one star because it succeeds as a fairy tale; I give it no more than two because it fails on every other level.

It's not that MacDonald is a bad writer; he can make aesthetically pleasing sentences. It's just that his underlying premise is so unbiblical, and he doesn't stop pushing that premise in our faces throughout the entire novel.

Basically, this is MacDonald's most widely-read defense of universalism, that Hell isn't really a place of eternal t More...

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Feb 02, 2012

Φλεγύας rated it:

This is one of these books that I -personally- would classify as solid 5/5.
I only gave it a 4/5 for a single reason. MacDonald is not a typical writer. He was a priest, or, in the words of Wikipedia, a Christian minister.
Why's that of importance? Because, the folk and the shepherds may use the same language, but not in the same way.
The reader of this magnificent, allegoric, deeply religious fairytale will need to arm himself/herself with tones of good will to push onwards when More...

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Mar 25, 2011

Karly rated it:

George MacDonald is one of the most severely underrated authors of all time. A contemporary to Lewis Caroll and major influence on C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, this man’s imagination apparently knew no bounds and that is incredibly apparent in his masterpiece, Lilith. Narrated by a nameless everyman figure, it follows his adventures in a world he discovers after inheriting his father’s house and many unsettling circumstances there, leading him to a mirror which reveals another realm. Incredibl More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 19, 2010

Veronica rated it:

'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 D More...

2 comments like (6 people liked it)

Oct 04, 2011

Elizabeth rated it:

I really really love George MacDonald--that is to say, I really really love his book, The Light Princess. I wanted to like Lilith a lot more than I did. It is so weird! And that's good. But...I don't know. I can be such a Whiny Wanda about this "allegory" business. Like, there's a Gulliver's Travels vibe here. I am not such a Gulliver fan. However, there are some excellent ambient MacDonald features: moonlight...ravens...old people who are completely awesome rulers of time/the More...

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Jul 16, 2010

cole rated it:

Lillith is a beautiful story that, as a good fairy tale should, draws the tragic and exultant in a heightening crescendo. The story is an enjoyable journey through an imaginative and enchanting allegory of love, forgiveness and redemption. The imagery is heavy enough that it is often hard to figure out just what everything represents or if someone or something represents anything at all. The narrator, Mr. Vane (one wonders if MacDonald was playing off the homophone with vain or not), can be hard More...

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May 17, 2011

Jesse rated it:

I must admit, that at first I didn't think I was going to be able to finish this book. The prose seemed convoluted and obscure; I was often having to reread pages because I felt like I had missed something. However, I'm really glad I stuck with it because now I can honestly say that this is the best George MacDonald I've read.

"Lilith" is a dark biblical fantasy, but unlike anything I've come across. I would say that MacDonald's "Lilith" is to Genesis what Ameri More...

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May 04, 2010

Jeslyn rated it:

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 o More...

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Feb 17, 2011

Kraig rated it:

This was a very interesting read. At first MacDonald's style and prose read like it was going in circles, everything felt like it was all rhyme and puzzles. After looking beyond the way the story was written and diving into the characters, plot and symbolism, I found this novel to be quite amazing. The way the author took the idea of Adam and Eve and the symbols and concepts of Christianity and mixing it with a myth of Lilith supposedly adams first wife and then became the queen of hell. The boo More...

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Mar 16, 2008

Ralph rated it:

The book is as difficult as people say it is, but I found it worth the effort. C. S. Lewis's introduction was a big help to me in getting into the book, and you can recognize in it many places that are reflected in Lewis' own writings. The evangelism of Lilith was perhaps the most remarkable and illuminating description I've ever read of the struggle of a person to come to faith.

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Aug 28, 2010

Bridget rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Jan 05, 2011

My name is Mello rated it:

I've read this book prolly 4 or 5 times since discovering it...one of those rare books that you do NOT need to know what the hell is going on to enjoy it, because the vivid detail makes you see and feel everything the narrator does. Just some advice though--beyond maybe "oh it looks like he's in the afterlife"--DON'T TRY TO UNDERSTAND OR INTERPRET IT, you'll just be wasting perfectly good brain energy. Just enjoy it, feel it. Seriously, swim in it!!! Even if you do understand what is b More...

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Aug 09, 2009

Jenna rated it:

This is perhaps my favorite book of all time. It does not get enough good press. It is definitely MacDonald's magnum opus. I would recommend it to all fantasy-lovers and readers just looking for something refreshingly different. Like most of George MacDonald's work, Lilith does have strong religious undertones, but they are presented in a unique way that I don't believe will offend or even distract non-religious readers. The religious content is comparable to that in the works of CS Lewis. I pro More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Becca added it

He considered it his best book. I think "At the Back of the North Wind" is the best (although I've always liked Sir Gibbie and many others as well).

Dr. Neuhauser let me know about some publishers of unedited George MacDonald books.

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Aug 21, 2008

Ron rated it:

The only thing more pathetic than this tale were the highlighting and marginal notes by someone who had no idea what MacDonald was about. Perhaps only read because all the great experts tell us to read it.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 25, 2011

D_Davis rated it:

Overall, MacDonald's early fantasy novel was a little too dense for my complete enjoyment. There were moments of absolute brilliance - that is a fact - but there were too many moments where I felt as though I was slogging through.

Most of this has to do with the dated writing style; while I do very much enjoy affected styles, and I do tend to enjoy some purple-prose, the tone of MacDonald's novel was somewhat elusive. He uses more exclamation marks in a single volume than many authors w More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Apr 08, 2009

K.D. rated it:

This is my third journey through George MacDonald's 'Lilith' (most recently in the form of an audio book) and it just gets better and better each time I visit the mysterious world through which Mr. Vane traverses, and the characters and personages he encounters there. Each time I've read it I've I've learned something about myself, for good and bad, and its the highest form of praise for a book and author when you can say that the book is not only great reading, but that it changes your life to More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 24, 2011

Martin rated it:

I recently finished it and what a pain it was. I liked about the first 2/3 of the book, it was slow paced but sort of cute in a way.

However, in the last part it got so heavy in religious themes that I almost started feeling physically sick. Suddenly there was no real content, just a constant stream of religious lingo. I ended up skimming the last 30 pages or so just to get rid of it.

I have nothing against christianity in particular. I felt the same way while reading Stranger More...

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Aug 03, 2010

Jed rated it:

Sort of hard to get through, sort of all over the place, but sort of magnificent at the end. You can clearly see some of the thinking that helped get Lewis to the place he ended up theologically.
It is odd that MacDonald, the most outspoken Universalist I'm aware of, is so very harsh in dealing with sin proper: purgatory (or something like it) pervades all his work until it seems almost synonymous with Christianity. To put it in seminary-talk, on his view, justification does not (or seems no More...

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Mar 20, 2011

Ellen rated it:

This was probably my favorite of all of the MacDonald fantasy novels I've read over my lifetime. I found the writing lyrical and full of imagery, and the storyline interesting. I'd recommend this one to lovers of the older fantasy novels. A series of these novels was released in the late 1960s-early 1970s by Ballantine in paperback, and I think I collected all of them back then. Perhaps some of them are being sold in used books stores that are online or brick-and-motor shops, I don't know. The B More...

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Jan 30, 2012

Dmdutcher rated it:

Mr Vane comes to his father's house. While examining it's library, he finds a secret door, which leads into a mirror. That mirror is a door into a fantastic world, where the enigmatic Mr. Raven greets him. From there it's a wild, metaphysical adventure between death and life, with the ultimate fight over something that has been unresolved since the dawn of creation.

Very, very much like a Christian The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath while predating it, it's weird, often dark fantasy. And More...

2 comments like

Aug 27, 2011

Emma rated it:

well that was weird, but also good in a sort of freakishly gothic kind of a way.

Quotes:
'There are places you can go into, and places you can go out of, but the one place, if you do but find it, where you may go out and in both, is home.'

'When a heart is really alive, then it is able to think live things. There is one heart all whose thoughts are strong, happy creatures, and whose very dreams are lives. When some pray, they lift heavy thoughts from the ground, only to dro More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 10, 2011

Sam rated it:

I thoroughly enjoyed the first half of this book where Vane discovers a whole new world through various locations across his newly inherited house and garden. On doing so he steps into a world, which appears to be somewhat different from our own with strange and mystical creatures from the Little Ones to the Giants and a princess that becomes a spotted leopard. But as Vane continues on his journey through this world the religious aspect of MacDonald's work gradually becomes overbearing and ta More...

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Oct 21, 2010

Douglas rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Feb 10, 2012

Harmonybites rated it:

This 1895 book was recommended in A Reader's Guide to Fantasy's "Seven-League Bookshelf"--a list of 30-odd books considered the "cream" of the genre. Macdonald was a close friend of Lewis Carroll and saw Alice in Wonderland in manuscript; C.S. Lewis greatly admired Macdonald and named him as one of his most important influences. In Lilith Dante's Divine Comedy is mentioned and I can see similarities with not just Dante but works of Carroll and Lewis. As with Carroll's Throug More...

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Mar 09, 2009

Kj rated it:

Incandescent and blazingly truthful, George MacDonald's 1895 fantasy on Life after life, is not just a book, its a portal. To what end that portal leads, I will leave the reader to discover for themself. As the author C.S. Lewis credits as having "baptized his imagination," MacDonald's influence on the creation of Narnia is not difficult to locate in "Lillith". Likewise, I can only assume that J.M. Barrie, a fellow Scotsman, was influenced by MacDonald's writing as he form More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

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