I am so delighted to have found this book amongst the treasures of project Guteberg. Thank goodness for public domain books and ebook readers! With the low price of admission, I find myself reading more and more books that I might not have otherwise taken the time to look up, or might not have remembered when I got to a library.
Once I started reading this book I couldn't put it down. However, as opposed to most books that pull you through solely with plot, I found myself going back and re-reading passages to think about the things MacDonald was saying. To me, this was the best MacDonald book that I've yet read. As with Sir Gibbie the main character is a boy who seems almost too good for this world. However, far from seeming a prig, this innocent ends up bringing the best out of all those around him. Without giving too much away, I'll just say that the imagery, the story, and the very feel of the book will now be one of my definitions of mythopoea. I can see how these MacDonald books would have so strongly influenced Tolkien and Lewis in their future literary works.
So many of the conversations between North Wind and young Diamond are underlined that I have a hard time picking my favorite part of the book. However, I think one of my favorite conversations may have been between these two characters when Diamond is asking North Wind whether she is real or just a dream. I feel that this must have in some way influenced Lewis in his ideas presented in his essay Weight of Glory, and in his idea for Aslan.
Although the end of the book is something that I suspected earlier on in the book, it did not lose any of its impact for this suspicion. To me this was wonderful proof that if a book has true substance behind it, then a suspected end does not ruin the overall story but in fact adds to it due to the sense of realism. Maybe this realism is a good refute to those who dismiss fantasy as escapist?
Once I started reading this book I couldn't put it down. However, as opposed to most books that pull you through solely with plot, I found myself going back and re-reading passages to think about the things MacDonald was saying. To me, this was the best MacDonald book that I've yet read. As with Sir Gibbie the main character is a boy who seems almost too good for this world. However, far from seeming a prig, this innocent ends up bringing the best out of all those around him. Without giving too much away, I'll just say that the imagery, the story, and the very feel of the book will now be one of my definitions of mythopoea. I can see how these MacDonald books would have so strongly influenced Tolkien and Lewis in their future literary works.
So many of the conversations between North Wind and young Diamond are underlined that I have a hard time picking my favorite part of the book. However, I think one of my favorite conversations may have been between these two characters when Diamond is asking North Wind whether she is real or just a dream. I feel that this must have in some way influenced Lewis in his ideas presented in his essay Weight of Glory, and in his idea for Aslan.
Although the end of the book is something that I suspected earlier on in the book, it did not lose any of its impact for this suspicion. To me this was wonderful proof that if a book has true substance behind it, then a suspected end does not ruin the overall story but in fact adds to it due to the sense of realism. Maybe this realism is a good refute to those who dismiss fantasy as escapist?
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