1894 George MacDonald : Phantastes A Faerie Romance : 1st Illustrated

Phantastes; A Faerie Romance

By George MacDonald

With TWenty-Five Illustrations by John Bell

Published by Chatto & Windus, london, 1894. A New Edition. First illustrated edition. First thus. Hardback, 8vo, decorative cloth binding, patterened endpapers, pp viii, 280, [32 pages of publisher's catalogue]. Illustrated by Bell.

CONDITION
A very good copy of the first illustrated edition. The cloth binding is very good as can be seen in the images provide. A little dulling to the gilt title on the spine. Endpapers very good. All contents present. Some light foxing to the prelims of which we show examples of in the images provided. Text clean throughout with perhaps the odd margin with very faint spotting. Overall a very good copy.

Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women is a fantasy novel by Scottish writer George MacDonald published in London in 1858.

The story centres on the character Anodos ("pathless" in Greek) and takes its inspiration from German Romanticism, particularly Novalis. The story concerns a young man who is pulled into a dreamlike world and there hunts for his ideal of female beauty, embodied by the "Marble Lady". Anodos lives through many adventures and temptations while in the other world, until he is finally ready to give up his ideals.

The book influenced the fantasy authors C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and G. K. Chesterton and also the poet W. H. Auden.

(BS3/3UP)