For the Childlike

George MacDonald (1824-1905) is one of the great Victorians, friend to John Ruskin, Lewis Carroll, and Arthur Hughes, among others. He wrote in virtually all the genres—fiction, drama, sermons, poetry, criticism, fantasy—but is perhaps best remembered as one of the greatest and most enduringly influential of the Victorian writers for children. Sixteen essays—five reprints and eleven original—analyze MacDonald's work for children. All the full-length fantasies—At the Back of the North Wind, The Princess and the Goblin, The Princess and Curdie, The Lost Princess—and the major short pieces—"The Light Princess," "The Golden Key," "Cross Purposes," "The Giant's Heart" receive extended commentary. Contributors: Celia Anderson, Melba Battin, A. Waller Hastings, Cynthia Marshall, Rod McGillis, Michael Mendelson, Nancy-Lou Patterson, Stephen Prickett, William Raeper, Frank Riga, Cordelia Sherman, Joseph Sigman, Lesley Smith, and Nancy Willard.

A collection of essays discussing the work of the nineteenth-century Scottish author best known for his children's fairy tales.

Roderick McGillis, Professor of English, University of Calgary, is former editor of the Children's Literature Association Quarterly and recently edited the Oxford World's Classics edition of MacDonald's Princess books (1990).