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George MacDonald occupied a major position in the intellectual life of his Victorian contemporaries. The Complete Fairy Talesbrings together all eleven of his shorter fairy stories as well as his essay "The Fantastic Imagination." The subjects are those of traditional fantasy- fairies good and wicked, and children journeying into unsettling dreamworlds or undertaking life-risking labours. But though they allude to familiar tales such as "Sleeping Beauty" and "Jack the Giant-Killer", MacDonald's stories are profoundly experimental and subversive. By questioning the concept that a childhood associated with purity, innocence, and fairy-tale "wonder" ought to be segregated from adult scepticism and disbelief, they invite adult readers to adopt the same elasticity and open-mindedness that come so naturally to a child. Enlisting paradox, play, and nonsense much like Lewis Carroll's Alice books, these fictions challenge us to question and rethink our assumptions, and offer an elusive yet meaningful alternative order to the dubious certitudes of everyday life.… (more)
User reviews
Reviewers at the time criticised Macdonald for lifting stories from other writers, I can see instances where this is the case such as the Giant's heart story being similair to Jack the Giant Killer but even when Macdonald does use a story as a basis for one of his own he puts a completely new spin on it.
I have to say I didn't enjoy the ones set within dreamlike worlds such as Nanny's dream or the Golden Key. There were things about them I enjoyed such as the imagery in Nanny's dream and the obvious Christian symbolism in the Golden Key but on the wbole I couldn't engage with them fully.
My favourite stories were The Light Princess, The Lost Princess and the History of Photogen and Nyceteris. All but one happen to be centered around a romantic relationship but what they all have in common is their stories of redemption through trial especially so in the Lost Princess which was the most difficult but rewarding to read as I kept wanting her to do better and magically be perfect everytime she slipped but she proved very fallable and thus human. In her I saw much of myself and many of the stories lessons have actually proved useful in real life!
To summarise, I love these books! There's so much I could say about each story but hopeful I can convince other people to read them so I can discuss it with them. I would recommend these if you love allegory and Lewis.
On a positive note, the tales are very well written. The introduction also contains some very good insights by the author about writing and fairy tales in general that I found interesting. I do not dispute that this is an important and influential work, I just did not find the majority of the book to be entertaining.
For those that enjoy reading the classics, don't let my review put you off. I am judging this book entirely by my enjoyment of it, not by its literary merit. I would say that it would be worth your time to give it a shot. You may find it much more rewarding than I did.