Phantastes

If you’ve ever wondered where C.S. Lewis and Tolkien got their inspiration for their books, a big part of it was their reading of George MacDonald.

George MacDonald pretty much invented modern fantasy. He’s a really intriguing guy and it’s so crazy how a lot of amazing books we have today were inspired by his ideas.

This post is just a few thoughts about the story I’m currently reading, which was written by him and has been really interesting.

Stories upon Stories

I can’t give you a play-by-play summary of what Phantastes is about, because it’s a little confusing and there’s not a singular, simple plotline to follow.

That’s all I’m gonna say.

Some of the events include:

• Meeting the birch tree, who falls in love with him
• Swimming in a palace pool decorated in gems
• Being tricked by two evil trees, one who waters his roots with human corpses.
• Getting lost in the enchanted library

And a lot of others.

Thoughts

I’ve been finding this novel really imagination-provoking and engaging.

It’s sometimes hard to follow what’s happening, which makes sense because Fairyland is a different world and a really strange one at that.

However, I’ve never read any book like this. Constant mystery and enchantment, never really knowing what’s real or not. It’s original fantasy at its’ best.

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I haven’t finished the book yet at the time of writing this post. Just putting that out there.

Typically I want to finish the book before I write a post about it, but in this case, I was just excited to write a little about it and I’m pretty sure I’m still gonna love it by the time I finish it.

Anyway. Thank you for reading this, I hope it’s been helpful and/or interesting. Keep an eye out for my next post.

Happy reading!!