Lilith, George MacDonald
Lilith, George MacDonald
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Lilith

Author: George MacDonald

Series: George MacDonald Fantasy Works #3

Narrator: Simon Hester

Unabridged: 11 hr 44 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/29/2025

Synopsis

First published in 1895, Lilith stands as one of George MacDonald’s most enigmatic and haunting works, a blend of fantasy, theology, and metaphysical speculation. Revered by literary giants such as C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, MacDonald’s fiction does not merely tell stories—it beckons readers into a deeper reality where moral and spiritual truths are woven into the very fabric of narrative.Lilith is not a conventional fantasy. Instead, it is a dreamlike descent into questions of life, death, identity, and salvation. The protagonist, Mr. Vane, a reserved scholar, stumbles into a surreal realm beyond the physical world, where he encounters spectral beings, timeless landscapes, and the mysterious figure of Lilith—a being of both terrible beauty and tragic consequence. The novel explores the path from self-will to self-surrender, drawing heavily on Christian mysticism, Platonism, and a deep reverence for divine grace.

About George MacDonald

George MacDonald was a prolific author of both children's and adult books, including such classics as At the Back of the North Wind, The Princess and the Goblin, Lilith, and Phantastes. His works were the inspiration for later writers, including G. K. Chesterton, C. S. Lewis, and J. R. R. Tolkien.

A consummate Scotsman, MacDonald was born on December 10, 1824, in Huntly, Aberdeenshire. He was ordained as a congregationalist minister in 1845 and became a pastor at Arundel. This appointment did not last long, as he soon came into conflict with his parishioners and church because of his belief in purgatory and that all people eventually came into heaven, even animals.

In 1852, MacDonald married Louisa Powell, with whom he had six sons and five daughters. He was forced to resign from his church position in 1853, and after a brief sojourn in Algiers for the sake of his health, he became a freelance preacher, lecturer, and writer. His literary breakthrough came in 1855 with the publication of the narrative poem Within and Without. In the two decades that followed, he gained increasing fame and success with his children's books but was never able to earn enough money to support his family. Luckily, in 1877 he was granted a pension at the request of Queen Victoria.

MacDonald died on September 21, 1905, in Scotland.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Vit on August 24, 2025

The hero of the tale is a man of letters… He spends a lot of time in his vast library… And it is a place where everything begins… ...something, I cannot tell what, made me turn and cast a glance to the farther end of the room, when I saw, or seemed to see, a tall figure reaching up a hand to a booksh......more

Goodreads review by Mark on September 15, 2007

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......more

Goodreads review by Mike (the Paladin) on April 15, 2014

I was torn between 4 and 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 th......more

Goodreads review by Dylan Jay on June 13, 2012

This is by far one of the darkest books I've ever read. Coming from a Christian minister, I would expect the book to be a bit preachy. I found, however, that the story is way more of a dark fairy tale set in a somewhat biblical world, with faint biblical themes. It's hard, of course, not to be a bit......more

Goodreads review by J. on June 03, 2022

Odd. MacDonald seems to discover the story he wanted to tell partway through, which triggered a sense of discontinuity between the story I thought I was reading and the story I turned out to be reading, ten or twenty chapters in. Some hopes the early chapters inspired were not fulfilled by the later......more

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