Customer Reviews

The Poet's Homecoming (MacDonald / Phillips series)

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I started to write this review without fully understanding how abused this version of George MacDonald's story was. Having read the other review, and skimmed through the first couple of pages of the original (Home Again) available on Project Gutenberg, I can't help but agree that anybody would be doing themselves a disservice to read this version. In fact, I'm disappointed in myself for having done so. That being said, the story itself is well worth the read. If the choice a reader is facing is to read The Poet's Homecoming or to read Home Again, they should read Home Again, but it would still be better to read The Poet's Homecoming than nothing at all.
I'm a little conflicted about this novel. It's more of an essay and a series of reflections on becoming a man than really a novel. At times, this can seem a little overbearing, and if the reader is not a Christian, they may disagree with MacDonald's thesis that no true maturity can be found before recognizing God as the foundation for all things. Despite that, there is a lot of wisdom in this book. It's been my experience that wisdom can be hard to receive. You have to be in the right place for yourself, and it has to be given to you in the right way. Perhaps it was merely a matter of circumstance that let this book mean as much to me as it did (though it's up to me to apply it to my life), and I couldn't promise any other reader the same experience. Without intending criticism, a reader in a different state of mind might find this book insulting or trite, though I think that reader would be missing out on a valuable experience.

This is another one of the books by George MacDonald edited, revised and re-titled by Phillips. George MacDonald is a wonderful writer. Read him in the original.