Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of Phantastes: A Faerie Romance

Phantastes: A Faerie Romance
cmj53 avatar reviewed A Vintage Adult Fairy Tale... on
Helpful Score: 3


In October 1857, George MacDonald wrote what he described as "a kind of fairy tale..." This was Phantastes--one of MacDonald's most important works; a work which so overwhelmed C.S. Lewis that a few hours after he began reading it he knew he "had crossed a great frontier." The book is about the narrator Anodos dream-like adventures in fairyland where he confronts tree-spirits and the shadow, sojourns to the palace of the fairy queen, and searches for the spirit of the earth. The tale is vintage MacDonald, conveying a profound sadness and a poignant longing for death.