The works of
George MacDonald
1824 1905
Novelist, poet, preacher and the father of modern fantasy, who wrote, he said, “not for children, but for the childlike, whether of five, or fifty, or seventy-five.” His books are gathered here, free to read and download.
The Library
Each book is the volunteer transcription made for Project Gutenberg, set here for comfortable reading, chapter by chapter.
Fantasy and fairy tales
The romances and fairy stories for which he is best remembered.
Phantastes
First published 1858
A young man’s dream-journey through Fairy Land: MacDonald’s first prose romance.
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Cross Purposes and The Shadows
First published 1867
Two fairy tales from Dealings with the Fairies.
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The Light Princess and Other Fairy Stories
First published 1867
Three fairy tales: The Light Princess, The Giant’s Heart and The Golden Key.
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At the Back of the North Wind
First published 1871
Little Diamond, a London coachman’s son, is carried away at night by the North Wind.
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The Princess and the Goblin
First published 1872
Princess Irene, the miner boy Curdie, the goblins under the mountain, and the grandmother in the tower.
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A Double Story
First published 1875
Also known as The Wise Woman: a parable of two spoilt girls, a princess and a shepherd’s daughter.
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The Princess and Curdie
First published 1882
Curdie, sent by the old princess on a quest, comes to the corrupt court of Gwyntystorm.
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Lilith
First published 1895
His last romance: Mr. Vane passes through an old mirror into a strange world of sleep, death and waking.
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Novels
Novels of Scottish and English life, many of them set in the Aberdeenshire of his boyhood.
David Elginbrod
First published 1863
His first novel: a Scottish ploughman’s faith, and the young tutor who learns from it.
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Adela Cathcart
First published 1864
A Christmas house party sets out to cure a melancholy young woman with stories, The Light Princess among them.
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Alec Forbes of Howglen
First published 1865
Boyhood and youth in a small Aberdeenshire town and at the university.
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Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood
First published 1867
A vicar’s first years in a country parish, told by himself.
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Guild Court
First published 1868
A London story of clerks, shopkeepers and the people of a city court.
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Robert Falconer
First published 1868
A boy’s search for his lost father, from an Aberdeenshire childhood to the London slums.
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The Seaboard Parish
First published 1868
The sequel to Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood: the vicar’s family by the Cornish sea.
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The Vicar’s Daughter
First published 1871
The third of the Walton books, told by the vicar’s daughter after her marriage.
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Wilfrid Cumbermede
First published 1871
An orphan’s own story of his boyhood, a lost sword, and a long-hidden wrong.
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Malcolm
First published 1875
A fisherman’s grandson on the coast of the Moray Firth, and the secret of his birth.
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St. George and St. Michael
First published 1876
A romance of the English Civil War, at Raglan Castle.
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Thomas Wingfold, Curate
First published 1876
A young curate is brought to ask whether he believes anything he preaches.
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The Marquis of Lossie
First published 1877
The sequel to Malcolm.
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Paul Faber, Surgeon
First published 1879
An unbelieving country doctor, and the story of his marriage.
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Sir Gibbie
First published 1879
A mute orphan of the Aberdeen streets, whose goodness nothing can put down.
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Warlock o’ Glenwarlock
First published 1881
A poor laird and his son in their ancient Aberdeenshire castle; also called Castle Warlock.
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Mary Marston
First published 1881
A shopkeeper’s daughter in a market town, and the trials of an honest shop.
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Weighed and Wanting
First published 1882
A family’s fall from comfort, and the daughter who learns to serve.
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Donal Grant
First published 1883
A young poet becomes tutor in a castle that hides a dark secret.
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What’s Mine’s Mine
First published 1886
Highland brothers, and the newly rich family who buy their clan’s land.
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Home Again
First published 1887
A farmer’s son leaves home for literary fame in London, and comes back.
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The Elect Lady
First published 1888
A short Scottish novel.
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The Flight of the Shadow
First published 1891
A young woman’s own story of a family shadow.
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There and Back
First published 1891
A young bookbinder, a baronet’s secret, and the curate Thomas Wingfold again.
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Heather and Snow
First published 1893
Two young people grow up together in the Aberdeenshire hills.
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Salted with Fire
First published 1897
A young minister’s hidden wrong, and how it is set right.
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Far Above Rubies
First published 1898
A short novel of a young poet and his wife.
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Shorter stories
For children
Ranald Bannerman’s Boyhood
First published 1871
A minister’s son grows up in a Scottish country parish.
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Gutta-Percha Willie, the Working Genius
First published 1873
A doctor’s son with a gift for making and mending things.
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A Rough Shaking
First published 1891
An orphan of an earthquake makes his way through a hard world.
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Sermons
Unspoken Sermons
First published 1867
Three series of sermons never preached aloud, on the consuming fire, justice, righteousness and the Father’s love.
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The Miracles of Our Lord
First published 1870
Chapters on the miracles of Jesus, read as revelations of the Father.
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The Hope of the Gospel
First published 1892
Sermons on salvation from sin, the remission of sins, and the hope of the universe.
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Poetry
A Hidden Life and Other Poems
First published 1864
The story in verse of a Scottish farmer’s son, with other poems.
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A Book of Strife in the Form of the Diary of an Old Soul
First published 1880
A prayer in seven-line stanzas, one for each day of the year.
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The Poetical Works of George MacDonald
Volume I
First published 1893
The collected poems: Within and Without, A Hidden Life, The Disciple and others.
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The Poetical Works of George MacDonald
Volume II
First published 1893
The collected poems: parables, ballads, songs and poems for children.
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Rampolli
First published 1897
Translations, chiefly from Novalis and German hymns, with poems of his own.
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Essays and criticism
England’s Antiphon
First published 1868
An anthology and history of English religious poetry, from the thirteenth century to his own day.
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The Tragedie of Hamlet
First published 1885
Shakespeare’s play in the text of the 1623 Folio, with MacDonald’s commentary.
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A Dish of Orts
First published 1893
Essays on the imagination, fairy tales, Shakespeare, Wordsworth and Shelley.
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Read online
Every book, chapter by chapter, set for comfortable reading on any screen, with notes, contents and full-text search.
Download
EPUB for e-readers and plain text: 110 files in all, free to keep and share.
Modern English
4 books also have a paragraph-by-paragraph paraphrase in present-day English, to read beside the original.
Listen
Audiobook recordings of 40 books, read by the volunteers of LibriVox, free to listen to or download.
Who was George MacDonald?
Born in Huntly, Aberdeenshire, in 1824, MacDonald trained for the Congregational ministry, lost his first pulpit within three years for teaching too large a hope, and spent the rest of his life writing: some fifty books of novels, fairy tales, poems and sermons.
His fantasies, Phantastes, At the Back of the North Wind, the Princess books and Lilith, shaped the imaginations of G. K. Chesterton and C. S. Lewis and opened the way for the modern fantasy that followed them. His sermons, above all the Unspoken Sermons, set out a faith in a God whose love will not let any creature go.