Adela Cathcart, Volume II [Paperback]

George MacDonald (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2002

Adelia Cathcart has an illness of the spirit -- perhaps an illness of the soul. No one -- not her father, her neighbors, not even the curate of her parish nor his doctor brother can scry the secret of her malady. But her uncle John -- not a blood relation, but a friend of her father's who goes by the name "John Smith" -- has a notion. He notices that as the neighbors tell an anecdote to one another in her presence Adelia seems for a moment to come back to life. We should read her stories, he says. Beautiful, beautiful stories. Now they read the tale of "The Broken Swords," a story of two sisters and a brother who gaze for the last time on a great pale-golden star that followed the sun down the steep west. It went down to arise again; and the brother about to depart might return, but more than the usual doubt hung upon his future. For between the white dresses of the sisters, shone his scarlet coat and golden sword-knot, which he had put on for the first time, more to gratify their pride than his own vanity. The brightening moon, as if prophetic of a future memory, had already begun to dim the scarlet and the gold, and to give them a pale, ghostly hue. And slowly, slowly, Adelia begins to recover. . . .

Product Details

• Paperback: 180 pages
• Publisher: Borgo Press (December 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592248012
• ISBN-13: 978-1592248018
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,550,182 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Buy the Johannesen edition of Adela, February 16, 2005

By 

Matthew D. Jewett "Von Ofterdingen" (Grand Rapids, MI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Adela Cathcart, Volume II (Paperback)

This edition splits up Adela into three seperate books. If you want it all together in wonderful hard cover edition get the Johannesen published edition.

Stories can heal. This important yet unbalanced work by MacDonald acts as treatise on the medicinal power of a well told narrative. Framing some of MacDonald's best known short stories is one girl's struggle for meaning and the awakening of her imagination by a group of storytellers.

"Adela Cathcart" showcases the three George MacDonald personas that dominate his cannon. The three main storytellers in this work, Mr. Smith, the curate and the doctor represent the whimsical fairy-tale writer MacDonald, the mystical preacher MacDonald, and the gothic MacDonald. Mr. Smith has told more than "The Light Princess," and "The Giant's Heart." He has also told "The Princess and the Goblin," and "The Wise Woman." He is the spirit of play, of whimsy, the love of nonsense that united him with his friend Lewis Carroll. Likewise, the curate has told more than his tales in the "Adella." He has written parts of the novels, like "Donal Grant," some poetry, and the "Unspoken Sermons." His preaching can either be presented through the vision, the abstract and mysterious, or through the direct absolute moral. The latter can disrupt a narrative, the former brings added depth and significance to the events. The final persona is the doctor who represents the dark gothic side to MacDonald's work. This side of MacDonald has been seen not only in the "Cruel Painter," but in "The Portent" and parts of "Lilith," the story of Cosmo in "Phantastes," and some of the novels.

MacDonald is at his best when all three parts are combined as they are in "On the Back of the North Wind," "Phantastes," the "Golden Key," and even "Lilith." While "Adela" has many wonderful stories, the problem with them is that MacDonald's personas are divorced from each other and can only influence the other through critical or praiseworthy comments after the story is finished. The doctor and the curate cannot collaborate as they do in MacDonald's novels. Neither can Mr. Smith collaborate with the curate as they do in the longer fairy tales. This is bipolar MacDonald: fascinating, full of wonder, but flawed and lacking balance.