George MacDonald: An Anthology 365 Readings

George MacDonald was a prolific writer. This book has the best that CS Lewis could find after extensively studying his works. I just discovered him. CS Lewis called him master and said he never wrote anything that was not influenced by MacDonald. I've read a lot of CS Lewis books and can see MacDonald's influence in many, many places - some places it nearly paraphrased; an exception might be "Till We Have Faces", which lewis said was his favorite book and is mine too, and seems to be quite original relative to MacDonald. I think MacDonald is twice as imaginative as lewis (i.e. Phantastes and Princess and the Goblin), better at communicating Christian and philosophical concepts (his writing style reminds me of Sartre - i.e. it is dense!), and just as good a writer as Lewis - however, CS Lewis said he is not a great writer, but the content of the writing makes up for it.

It's a mixed bag for me. I had to reread often to attempt to get the meaning of some quotes. Sometimes, I had to think and come back to it later.

This is an informative compilation of some writings of George MacDonald that were important to C.S. Lewis in the formation of his faith. Interestingly, MacDonald is a character in Lewis' The Great Divorce. A worth while read.

The quotes by MacDonald are missing context and are not always easy to understand. They seem very random at times. I was hoping that this would be a bit more in-depth and provide more to ponder. Still, there are certainly many gems of wisdom here. Just not quite what I expected.

I am halfway through the book and can't express how much it has spoken to me. The book is divided up into short, numbered sections, all less than half-a-page long; some as short as a sentence, and the reason is this: it is so rich with insight you cannot consume it in large gulps. You need to savor it, like fudge, to make sure you are relishing all that's there. I personally limit myself to about 10 sections per morning and I pause to journal and reflect on most.I don't think I would have been ready to listen to MacDonald a few years ago. He writes from a deep, still place of ruthless, rugged faith. It's particularly rewarding for me to read snippets of his theological thoughts having just read his Curdie books. I notice many of his reflections showing up in the pages of his fiction. I also see the origination of much of C.S. Lewis's thinking and fiction.Buy it and try it. If it doesn't ring true, wait a few years and try again. MacDonald's writings are a gift, as are his stories.

This book is just short (and when I say short I mean one paragraph or less) excerpts from things George MacDonald said or wrote throughout his life. I thought it would be a collection of his essays or sermons but its not. I was disappointed, but that's because reading a short paragraph a day isn't really what I like. I bought the wrong book for what I wanted, but I don't know that what I wanted/hoped for exists. If you like reading short inspirational quotes of one or two sentences each day to brighten your day, this is your kind of thing. If you're looking for more in depth reading, or a collection of George MacDonald's non-fiction work, this is not the book to find that.

Reading this compilation shed light on where Lewis got some of his ideas. When you get down to it, we all stand on the shoulders of others. MacDonald happened to fill that role for Lewis.

I can understand why C. S. Lewis liked Mr. MacDonald. His descriptions of the land and the people is marvelous. Highly recommended.

C.S.Lewis is my favourite writter but this book is simply too esoteric for me. I can not understand that MacDonald had such profound influence on Lewis because I can not discern from this why it is so. From skimming this book I was not able to discern what is so special about MacDonald. Could it be that I am not prepared yet for such a complicated personality. You never know. Sometimes you must simply wait to come to particular author to understand him. Pity, because I usually enjoy books by Lewis especially his collected letter which I recommend.

Fascinating

El hecho de que Lewis se haya tomado la molestia y el tiempo para hacer una selección de estas citas de MacDonald, que yo supongo obviamente que Lewis consideraba de las más importantes para él, es ya garantía de que pasaremos meditando un buen rato en cada una de ellas. Algunas no son meramente para masticar y digerir, sino sólo para disfrutar. No obstante es una compilación interesante y sustancial para cualquier lector nuevo de MacDoanld.Gran trabajo de Lewis.

George MacDonald is one of the great writers and thinkers of the past few centuries, but has been sadly shunned by academia for his inexorable Christian fervor. C.S. Lewis has done a great job of capturing many gems (mostly from G.M's more obscure writings). Of course, anyone who extracts excerpts will be biased towards the ones they prefer, so every reader may not be as inspired by each one...but with several hundred available, there's something for everyone.Having a large collection of quotes is a nice companion and contrast to owning a few of George MacDonald's large and lofty tomes.

C.S.ルイスにとてつもなく影響を与えたジョージ・マクドナルドのアンソロジー。ジョージ・マクドナルドに興味ある人にも、ルイスが好きな人にも何か得るものがあると思う。C.S.ルイスの著作集の延長として考えられると思う。ルイスのどういう思想に、マクドナルドのどういう思想が影響を与えたのか、垣間見えると思う。気に入ったところだけ、拾い読みができる。