Evenor

On arriving at Seymour and Katherine's house the other day I was handed a pile of books - an excellent selection and what a fab way to be greeted! Seymour has picked out some gems for low-key bedtime reading and I will be making my way through them steadily!

The first to be picked from the pile was George Macdonald's 'Evenor'. How could I resist a short story collection so lovingly introduced with quotes from CS Lewis and GK Chesterton?

Evenor contains three stories - the last of his 'Adult Fantasy' I'm told. The first and longest of these is 'The Wise Woman' - really a novella in its own right and definitely my favourite of the three. Like all good allegorical fiction it forces you to consider something that might have become 'ordinary' from another perspective.

It's fascinating to read and see the influences on CS Lewis as well, although Lewis is still as much a genius in my eyes! I didn't find this collection as thoroughly enjoyable and thought-provoking as my encounters with Lewis' worlds, but it did leave me with a desire to read more by Macdonald. Someone who has played such an important role in British literature, especially the fantasy variety, over the last two centuries, deserves more reading. Onto Phantastes.