What do you think?
Rate this book
George MacDonald: Victorian Mythmaker
Born in Scotland in the early 1800s, MacDonald discovered at a young age a fondness—and a skill—for writing poetry, fiction, fantasy, and sermons. As a young man, MacDonald was trained as an educator, but left his tutoring position to become a minister. Throughout his life, he was an enthusiast preacher—in fact many of his sermons were collected and printed.
Yet, MacDonald was best known for his literary skills. A popular writer of his day, he was revered in many literary circles, counting among his friends and fans, Tennyson, Mark Twain, Longfellow, and Lewis Carroll.
George Macdonald: Victorian Mythmaker lifts the veil of secrecy surrounding Macdonald's life, tell his story in his own words. This work is based on thousands of letters written to and by MacDonald as well as personal papers and documents collected in museums and libraries in American and Europe.
Yet, MacDonald was best known for his literary skills. A popular writer of his day, he was revered in many literary circles, counting among his friends and fans, Tennyson, Mark Twain, Longfellow, and Lewis Carroll.
George Macdonald: Victorian Mythmaker lifts the veil of secrecy surrounding Macdonald's life, tell his story in his own words. This work is based on thousands of letters written to and by MacDonald as well as personal papers and documents collected in museums and libraries in American and Europe.
453 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 1993
4 people are currently reading
51 people want to read
About the author
Rolland Hein
17 books6 followersRolland Hein was an American academic of English literature. He was professor emeritus of English at Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 8, 2024
I’ve often read that George MacDonald was a significant influence on the thinking and writing of CS Lewis, but I tried to read MacDonald’s Phantastes several years ago and found it an uninspiring slog and gave up. I thus would not have regarded a 400-page biography of MacDonald’s life to be required reading. Yet this rather hefty tome was recommended to me by someone whose opinion I highly value, so I gave it a chance, and I’m glad I did.
MacDonald was certainly an interesting character. One could say he invented the genre of fantasy fiction. His religious views were not regarded as perfectly orthodox, but he believed that rigid intellectual assent to particular theological dogmas was completely missing the point—instead, the critical issue is understanding the love of God and growing in our love for Him.
Of course the most fascinating material here has to with MacDonald’s religious views and how he tried to convey them in his literary works, but it was also interesting to read about the common struggles of life in the Victorian era. Prior to the advent of antibiotics or vaccines the MacDonald family suffered the tragic deaths of four of their children. Financially providing for his large family was a constant strain as well. Apparently, when it came to the concept of copyright protection, America at the time was like China today—unscrupulous American publishers sold pirated copies of his works, thus cheating him out of the income he deserved.
Here’s a curated collection of the highlights of my highlights:
A summary of MacDonald’s views and impact (from the final chapter):
“George MacDonald is most important because he achieved such stimulating imaginative presentations of his Christian convictions. He is the forerunner of such later writers of religious fantasy as G. K. Chesterton, Charles Williams, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Madeleine L'Engle.
“He is a commendable novelist and a significant theologian, but his strongest imaginative talent lies in writing literary fantasies that are mythic, that is, that contain themes, incidents, and characters which seem to answer to the reader's deepest nature and desires, portraying enduring truths of the human spirit. He is the original master in wielding the imaginative power these later writers also possess.
“In being an author who wrote such a large and diverse body of imaginative writing realistic novels, romances, fairy tales, fantasies for adults, and poetry—with the primary purpose of serving his vision of Christian truth, he may justly be viewed as the father of all such contemporary writers…
“Central to his thought is his vision of a glorious destiny for mankind. Corollary ideas are his view of the nature of the self, the need for each person‘s spirit to awaken and grow, the subjective nature of hell, and the centrality of paradox in truth.
“Deeply grounded in his study of the Bible, his vision affirms a human destiny grand beyond the power of the imagination to encompass. He enjoyed countering the objection that his expectations for the eternity of mankind were too good to be true by saying they were so good they had to be true. In the concluding chapter of Lilith, Vane suggests that his vision must have come from God and not simply from his own mind, for it seems to be true on the deepest level of human desire. People desire beauty to be, and beauty is, because God has given it, since good people desire truth more deeply than they do beauty, can it be that the truth they desire will have no realization? If the dream is from God, God will fulfill it. Vane concludes he is content to wait until in death he comes to see and know.
“MacDonald's vision of human destiny, like that of Paul in Ephesians, is that in the fullness of time all things will be united in Christ. He understood this to mean that people will become true and righteous in thought and act. Whatever suffering may be necessary to this end will be experienced.”
[p 401-3]
Re his views on Universalism:
“MacDonald energetically maintained doctrines that were deeply offensive to some people committed to Reformed theology. He came out strongly on the side of F. D. Maurice (as well as the Unitarians) in the contemporary controversy concerning the duration of punishment of the wicked in the next life. He hoped for the eventual salvation of all people. (But in a manner quite different from the easy salvation the term universalism generally implies.)”
[p 188]
Re God’s wrath:
“MacDonald's perceptions anticipate what would be generally affirmed today: that a person transfers his experiences with his earthly father to the divine one. Because he saw his father as greatly admirable, he reasoned that the Divine Father could hardly be less so. Such thinking helped him to dismiss an image that he saw many of his fellow Scots entertaining: God as wrathful tyrant. It did not, however, lead him to minimize God's wrath (as do many who emphasize the Fatherhood of God), but rather to understand it as entirely corrective, never vindictive.”
[p 143]
Re self-denial:
“To him self-denial was not life-denying but rather self-forgeting. Self-denial was the only means of coming into a realization, through the accompanying spiritual freedom, of the preciousness of life. In spite of his besetting poverty, ill health, general uncertainty concerning the future, and periods of deep depression, MacDonald saw life at its heart as thoroughly good and right.”
[p 138]
Re the questionable value of rumination:
“I suspect that self-examination is seldom the most profitable, certainly it is sometimes the most unpleasant, and always the most difficult of moral actions—that is, to perform in a genuine fashion. I am certain that a good deal of the energy spent by some devout and upright people on trying to understand themselves and their own motives, would be expended to better purpose, and with far fuller attainment even in regard to that object itself, in the endeavour to understand God, and what he would have us to do.”
[p 355]
Re the value of doctrine:
“That MacDonald thought precisely and consistently on matters of Christian doctrine is abundantly clear from his writings, especially from Unspoken Sermons. But in any contact with an individual he was convinced help lay in addressing the heart not the head. Mere intellectually held opinions were spiritually dangerous.”
[p 363]
Re his view of the Atonement:
“MacDonald was careful to acknowledge that some good people he loved and honored held to the view of the Atonement that he was opposing, and, so long as they remained satisfied with their view, he did not want to disturb them. He certainly was not interested in argument. He was quite confident that the time would come as they grew in their union with God that they would see otherwise. Rather, he was writing to people who, having encountered this teaching, were morally repulsed by it and had either turned from accepting Christianity or had accepted it joylessly. They trusted in the ‘merits of Christ’ for salvation from the wrath of God and the just consequences of their sin, not unlike people who had found a foolproof insurance policy.”
[p 371]
Re Christian messaging in art:
“Seeing no direct references to God in the final version of Lilith, as in the other fantasies and fairy tales, he feels this ‘releases these works from religious doctrine and opens them up to wider interpretation. ... This is important since it encourages us not to read Lilith as a Christian document.’ But this feature may be explained in terms of the strength of MacDonald's conviction that to see anything truly is to see God in it, a prevalent theme in his later novels.”
[p 388]
MacDonald was certainly an interesting character. One could say he invented the genre of fantasy fiction. His religious views were not regarded as perfectly orthodox, but he believed that rigid intellectual assent to particular theological dogmas was completely missing the point—instead, the critical issue is understanding the love of God and growing in our love for Him.
Of course the most fascinating material here has to with MacDonald’s religious views and how he tried to convey them in his literary works, but it was also interesting to read about the common struggles of life in the Victorian era. Prior to the advent of antibiotics or vaccines the MacDonald family suffered the tragic deaths of four of their children. Financially providing for his large family was a constant strain as well. Apparently, when it came to the concept of copyright protection, America at the time was like China today—unscrupulous American publishers sold pirated copies of his works, thus cheating him out of the income he deserved.
Here’s a curated collection of the highlights of my highlights:
A summary of MacDonald’s views and impact (from the final chapter):
“George MacDonald is most important because he achieved such stimulating imaginative presentations of his Christian convictions. He is the forerunner of such later writers of religious fantasy as G. K. Chesterton, Charles Williams, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Madeleine L'Engle.
“He is a commendable novelist and a significant theologian, but his strongest imaginative talent lies in writing literary fantasies that are mythic, that is, that contain themes, incidents, and characters which seem to answer to the reader's deepest nature and desires, portraying enduring truths of the human spirit. He is the original master in wielding the imaginative power these later writers also possess.
“In being an author who wrote such a large and diverse body of imaginative writing realistic novels, romances, fairy tales, fantasies for adults, and poetry—with the primary purpose of serving his vision of Christian truth, he may justly be viewed as the father of all such contemporary writers…
“Central to his thought is his vision of a glorious destiny for mankind. Corollary ideas are his view of the nature of the self, the need for each person‘s spirit to awaken and grow, the subjective nature of hell, and the centrality of paradox in truth.
“Deeply grounded in his study of the Bible, his vision affirms a human destiny grand beyond the power of the imagination to encompass. He enjoyed countering the objection that his expectations for the eternity of mankind were too good to be true by saying they were so good they had to be true. In the concluding chapter of Lilith, Vane suggests that his vision must have come from God and not simply from his own mind, for it seems to be true on the deepest level of human desire. People desire beauty to be, and beauty is, because God has given it, since good people desire truth more deeply than they do beauty, can it be that the truth they desire will have no realization? If the dream is from God, God will fulfill it. Vane concludes he is content to wait until in death he comes to see and know.
“MacDonald's vision of human destiny, like that of Paul in Ephesians, is that in the fullness of time all things will be united in Christ. He understood this to mean that people will become true and righteous in thought and act. Whatever suffering may be necessary to this end will be experienced.”
[p 401-3]
Re his views on Universalism:
“MacDonald energetically maintained doctrines that were deeply offensive to some people committed to Reformed theology. He came out strongly on the side of F. D. Maurice (as well as the Unitarians) in the contemporary controversy concerning the duration of punishment of the wicked in the next life. He hoped for the eventual salvation of all people. (But in a manner quite different from the easy salvation the term universalism generally implies.)”
[p 188]
Re God’s wrath:
“MacDonald's perceptions anticipate what would be generally affirmed today: that a person transfers his experiences with his earthly father to the divine one. Because he saw his father as greatly admirable, he reasoned that the Divine Father could hardly be less so. Such thinking helped him to dismiss an image that he saw many of his fellow Scots entertaining: God as wrathful tyrant. It did not, however, lead him to minimize God's wrath (as do many who emphasize the Fatherhood of God), but rather to understand it as entirely corrective, never vindictive.”
[p 143]
Re self-denial:
“To him self-denial was not life-denying but rather self-forgeting. Self-denial was the only means of coming into a realization, through the accompanying spiritual freedom, of the preciousness of life. In spite of his besetting poverty, ill health, general uncertainty concerning the future, and periods of deep depression, MacDonald saw life at its heart as thoroughly good and right.”
[p 138]
Re the questionable value of rumination:
“I suspect that self-examination is seldom the most profitable, certainly it is sometimes the most unpleasant, and always the most difficult of moral actions—that is, to perform in a genuine fashion. I am certain that a good deal of the energy spent by some devout and upright people on trying to understand themselves and their own motives, would be expended to better purpose, and with far fuller attainment even in regard to that object itself, in the endeavour to understand God, and what he would have us to do.”
[p 355]
Re the value of doctrine:
“That MacDonald thought precisely and consistently on matters of Christian doctrine is abundantly clear from his writings, especially from Unspoken Sermons. But in any contact with an individual he was convinced help lay in addressing the heart not the head. Mere intellectually held opinions were spiritually dangerous.”
[p 363]
Re his view of the Atonement:
“MacDonald was careful to acknowledge that some good people he loved and honored held to the view of the Atonement that he was opposing, and, so long as they remained satisfied with their view, he did not want to disturb them. He certainly was not interested in argument. He was quite confident that the time would come as they grew in their union with God that they would see otherwise. Rather, he was writing to people who, having encountered this teaching, were morally repulsed by it and had either turned from accepting Christianity or had accepted it joylessly. They trusted in the ‘merits of Christ’ for salvation from the wrath of God and the just consequences of their sin, not unlike people who had found a foolproof insurance policy.”
[p 371]
Re Christian messaging in art:
“Seeing no direct references to God in the final version of Lilith, as in the other fantasies and fairy tales, he feels this ‘releases these works from religious doctrine and opens them up to wider interpretation. ... This is important since it encourages us not to read Lilith as a Christian document.’ But this feature may be explained in terms of the strength of MacDonald's conviction that to see anything truly is to see God in it, a prevalent theme in his later novels.”
[p 388]
March 7, 2024
This was 4 1/2 star thus rounded it to 5. It took a bit before I was hooked. The author did an excellent work in his research and reviewing of all MacD books and writings. Much info on the backgrounds of his families backgrounds in Scotland. George lived in an interesting era 1824-1902.
January 16, 2020
In the span of about 3 years, George MacDonald's fantasies, sermons, and poetry have captured and transformed my imagination. For his ability to use imagined worlds to convey spiritually edifying truths, he is second to none, a spiritual predecessor and inspiration to such greats as C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Madeleine L'Engle, and G.K. Chesterton. For his articulation of the all-encompassing, ultimately victorious love of the Father God, and his rejection of the idea that God can harbor anything that even appears evil, MacDonald is the most Christlike of theologians.
In this book Rolland Hein accomplishes the worthwhile task of giving George MacDonald an informative and balanced biography. Having studied and written on MacDonald's works for much of his career, to the point of being perhaps the world's foremost authority on MacDonald, Hein is uniquely suited to this endeavor. He obviously admires MacDonald, but unlike other biographers (such as Michael Phillips), he tempers his enthusiasm and tries to stick to the facts. Thus he neither apologizes for nor endorses MacDonald's ideas about universal salvation; he simply explains MacDonald's views, their development, and how they fit into the overall story of his life. He does not shy away from critiquing MacDonald's weaker works or showing his personal weaknesses (albeit without judgment). He conveys, for instance, the difficulty of MacDonald's relationship with John Ruskin, whose questionable life decisions sometimes put his friends in an awkward position; MacDonald obviously intended to be a good friend to Ruskin throughout his struggles, but it is unclear whether he actually attained this.
It is tempting, based on some comments that MacDonald himself made, to try to reconstruct MacDonald's life through his writings. Certainly many of his writings contain autobiographical elements, but Hein only draws these parallels where the facts about MacDonald's life can be established elsewhere. While quoting many of MacDonald's works to bring clarity to MacDonald's thinking, Hein mostly relies on MacDonald's written correspondence with others, so that we get a sense not only of MacDonald's imaginative world but also of his relational world and his everyday life. In particular, Hein does an excellent job showing how difficult circumstances (including the loss of several children) account for the darker tone of MacDonald's later works (especially The Diary of an Old Soul and Lilith). He also shows how deliberately MacDonald avoided making a following himself in order to avoid the inevitable distortion of his message, which may account for his present lack of popularity in comparison to other authors such as C.S. Lewis.
In this book Rolland Hein accomplishes the worthwhile task of giving George MacDonald an informative and balanced biography. Having studied and written on MacDonald's works for much of his career, to the point of being perhaps the world's foremost authority on MacDonald, Hein is uniquely suited to this endeavor. He obviously admires MacDonald, but unlike other biographers (such as Michael Phillips), he tempers his enthusiasm and tries to stick to the facts. Thus he neither apologizes for nor endorses MacDonald's ideas about universal salvation; he simply explains MacDonald's views, their development, and how they fit into the overall story of his life. He does not shy away from critiquing MacDonald's weaker works or showing his personal weaknesses (albeit without judgment). He conveys, for instance, the difficulty of MacDonald's relationship with John Ruskin, whose questionable life decisions sometimes put his friends in an awkward position; MacDonald obviously intended to be a good friend to Ruskin throughout his struggles, but it is unclear whether he actually attained this.
It is tempting, based on some comments that MacDonald himself made, to try to reconstruct MacDonald's life through his writings. Certainly many of his writings contain autobiographical elements, but Hein only draws these parallels where the facts about MacDonald's life can be established elsewhere. While quoting many of MacDonald's works to bring clarity to MacDonald's thinking, Hein mostly relies on MacDonald's written correspondence with others, so that we get a sense not only of MacDonald's imaginative world but also of his relational world and his everyday life. In particular, Hein does an excellent job showing how difficult circumstances (including the loss of several children) account for the darker tone of MacDonald's later works (especially The Diary of an Old Soul and Lilith). He also shows how deliberately MacDonald avoided making a following himself in order to avoid the inevitable distortion of his message, which may account for his present lack of popularity in comparison to other authors such as C.S. Lewis.
June 15, 2017
While some parts of this biography were interesting, it was overall quite watered-down and poorly-written, especially compared to those on MacDonald that were written by Greville MacDonald and William Raeper. I don't think I learned anything new, and I got somewhat fed-up with Hein's repeated use of the word "zest." There were some other instances where I felt like the correcting and guiding pen of an editor was sorely lacking.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews