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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
challenging
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Diverse cast of characters:
No
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I don't really know what to make of this book. At times it was boring, at other times baffling, and at still other times deeply profound. I felt like the ending was rather anticlimactic. I am a huge fan of MacDonald's Unspoken Sermons and have great respect for his almost poetic approach to theology. For whatever reason, though, Lilith just didn't connect for me. Maybe I will try again in a few years.
This is my husband's favourite book and I can't quite figure out why. For some reason I'm OK with George MacDonald's allegorical work in his children's books - The Princess and Curdie is one of my favourite kids' books to the point that my cat is named Lina - but it seems rather heavy-handed and tedious in an adult book. What I do like about this, however, is the dreamlike style and fantastic visual images.
If there was one theologian I wish more Christians were familiar with, it might be 19th century Scottish preacher and author George MacDonald. His Unspoken Sermons is one of my all-time favorite works. Reading it was one huge step in changing how I think about God. MacDonald, like the best theologians, was not limited to writing theology. He also wrote, and is probably more well-known for, his fantasy literature. Books like Phantastes, The Princess and the Goblin and The Golden Key are precursors to modern fantasy. This book, I think his last work of fiction, is challenging. The main character, Mr. Vane, discovers a mirror in his library that leads into another world. In this world he meets various characters, many not very fleshed out. He also meets Adam and Eve.
The title character Lillith is Adam’s first wife. I found the narrative of the story weird and sometimes difficult to follow, but I find Lillith’s story to be fascinating. Further, if you are familiar with MacDonald’s theology you see a lot of that in here as well. In this review, I am going to share some quotes that I find striking.
Early on, Mr. Vane meets the “little people” who sometimes grow into vile giants. I found this quote humorous:
“When they begin to grow big they care for nothing but bigness; and when they cannot grow any bigger, they try to grow fatter. The bad giants are very proud of being fat."
"So they are in my world," I said; "only they do not say FAT there, they say RICH." (Ch. 13)
I found this quote humorous, as Vane reflects on preferring the company of books to people:
“I sighed—and regarded with wonder my past self, which preferred the company of book or pen to that of man or woman; which, if the author of a tale I was enjoying appeared, would wish him away that I might return to his story. I had chosen the dead rather than the living, the thing thought rather than the thing thinking! "Any man," I said now, "is more than the greatest of books!" I had not cared for my live brothers and sisters, and now I was left without even the dead to comfort me!” (Ch. 16)
One theme that MacDonald comes back to again and again is the nature of God’s judgment. Rather than seeing God’s judgment as some form of retribution, where God smashes recalcitrant people with a cosmic paddle, or casts them weeping into unending torture, MacDonald describes God’s judgment as a cleansing, consuming fire (see the essay “Consuming Fire” in Unspoken Sermons…also this better reflects scripture). Along with this, God’s judgment is found through our cold hearts being warmed and thus enabling us to see the consequences of our action: who we’ve hurt, how others feel and so on.
There is a hopefulness in this. Humans are not seen as a lump of evil that deserve nothing, but instead are seen as beautiful creations of God that, though they have gone astray, deserve love. The remedy for sin is not mere destruction, but restoration.
Adam tells Mr. Vane of Lilith, his first wife who rebelled:
"Lilith, when you came here on the way to your evil will, you little thought into whose hands you were delivering yourself!—Mr. Vane, when God created me,—not out of Nothing, as say the unwise, but out of His own endless glory—He brought me an angelic splendour to be my wife: there she lies! For her first thought was POWER; she counted it slavery to be one with me, and bear children for Him who gave her being. One child, indeed, she bore; then, puffed with the fancy that she had created her, would have me fall down and worship her! Finding, however, that I would but love and honour, never obey and worship her, she poured out her blood to escape me, fled to the army of the aliens, and soon had so ensnared the heart of the great Shadow, that he became her slave, wrought her will, and made her queen of Hell. How it is with her now, she best knows, but I know also. The one child of her body she fears and hates, and would kill, asserting a right, which is a lie, over what God sent through her into His new world. Of creating, she knows no more than the crystal that takes its allotted shape, or the worm that makes two worms when it is cloven asunder. Vilest of God's creatures, she lives by the blood and lives and souls of men. She consumes and slays, but is powerless to destroy as to create." (Ch. 29)
Despite this rebellion, hope remains for Lilith. We see this in quotes such as:
"Thou art beautiful because God created thee, but thou art the slave of sin: take thy hand from thy side." (Ch. 29)
“Annihilation itself is no death to evil. Only good where evil was, is evil dead. An evil thing must live with its evil until it chooses to be good. That alone is the slaying of evil." (ch. 30)
Before anyone says this hopeful view is too easy-going, there is tremendous pain in such restoration. I would argue that any who have seriously reckoned with the hurt they caused would prefer a simple smack on the back over recognizing and dealing with the hurt caused to fellow humans. Lilith resists dealing with this, seen in this exchange:
"I will not," she said. "I will be myself and not another!"
"Alas, you are another now, not yourself! Will you not be your real self?"
"I will be what I mean myself now."
"If you were restored, would you not make what amends you could for the misery you have caused?"
"I would do after my nature."
"You do not know it: your nature is good, and you do evil!"
"I will do as my Self pleases—as my Self desires."
"You will do as the Shadow, overshadowing your Self inclines you?" (ch. 39)
Soon Lilith begins to honestly examine herself, and it is a painful process:
"She is seeing herself!" said Mara; and laying her hand on my arm, she drew me three paces from the settle.” (Ch. 39)
"You cannot go near her," she said. "She is far away from us, afar in the hell of her self-consciousness. The central fire of the universe is radiating into her the knowledge of good and evil, the knowledge of what she is. She sees at last the good she is not, the evil she is. She knows that she is herself the fire in which she is burning, but she does not know that the Light of Life is the heart of that fire. Her torment is that she is what she is. Do not fear for her; she is not forsaken. No gentler way to help her was left. Wait and watch." ch. 39)
“She knew the one what God had intended her to be, the other what she had made herself.” (39)
“I gazed on the face of one who knew existence but not love—knew nor life, nor joy, nor good; with my eyes I saw the face of a live death! She knew life only to know that it was dead, and that, in her, death lived. It was not merely that life had ceased in her, but that she was consciously a dead thing. She had killed her life, and was dead—and knew it. She must DEATH IT for ever and ever! She had tried her hardest to unmake herself, and could not! she was a dead life! she could not cease! she must BE! In her face I saw and read beyond its misery—saw in its dismay that the dismay behind it was more than it could manifest. It sent out a livid gloom; the light that was in her was darkness, and after its kind it shone. She was what God could not have created. She had usurped beyond her share in self-creation, and her part had undone His! She saw now what she had made, and behold, it was not good! She was as a conscious corpse, whose coffin would never come to pieces, never set her free! Her bodily eyes stood wide open, as if gazing into the heart of horror essential—her own indestructible evil. Her right hand also was now clenched—upon existent Nothing—her inheritance! But with God all things are possible: He can save even the rich!” (39)
It is not just Lilith who must go through this process. Mr. Vane begins to as well:
“Then, of a sudden, but not once troubling my conscious bliss, all the wrongs I had ever done, from far beyond my earthly memory down to the present moment, were with me. Fully in every wrong lived the conscious I, confessing, abjuring, lamenting the dead, making atonement with each person I had injured, hurt, or offended. Every human soul to which I had caused a troubled thought, was now grown unspeakably dear to me, and I humbled myself before it, agonising to cast from between us the clinging offence. I wept at the feet of the mother whose commands I had slighted; with bitter shame I confessed to my father that I had told him two lies, and long forgotten them: now for long had remembered them, and kept them in memory to crush at last at his feet. I was the eager slave of all whom I had thus or anyhow wronged. Countless services I devised to render them! For this one I would build such a house as had never grown from the ground! for that one I would train such horses as had never yet been seen in any world! For a third I would make such a garden as had never bloomed, haunted with still pools, and alive with running waters! I would write songs to make their hearts swell, and tales to make them glow! I would turn the forces of the world into such channels of invention as to make them laugh with the joy of wonder! Love possessed me! Love was my life! Love was to me, as to him that made me, all in all!” (43)
Perhaps the lesson MacDonald is pointing at is this is a process we must all go through. We all - no matter how good or bad we imagine ourselves to be - must be cleansed by the flames of God’s consuming fire. These flames will bring life to whatever shadow of goodness and beauty resides in us:
“But to him who has once seen even a shadow only of the truth, and, even but hoping he has seen it when it is present no longer, tries to obey it—to him the real vision, the Truth himself, will come, and depart no more, but abide with him for ever." (43)
At least, that’s what I get the story to be saying. I love the final line, which reminds me of other images of our final destiny in knowing and being known by the divine:
“Novalis says, "Our life is no dream, but it should and will perhaps become one."
The title character Lillith is Adam’s first wife. I found the narrative of the story weird and sometimes difficult to follow, but I find Lillith’s story to be fascinating. Further, if you are familiar with MacDonald’s theology you see a lot of that in here as well. In this review, I am going to share some quotes that I find striking.
Early on, Mr. Vane meets the “little people” who sometimes grow into vile giants. I found this quote humorous:
“When they begin to grow big they care for nothing but bigness; and when they cannot grow any bigger, they try to grow fatter. The bad giants are very proud of being fat."
"So they are in my world," I said; "only they do not say FAT there, they say RICH." (Ch. 13)
I found this quote humorous, as Vane reflects on preferring the company of books to people:
“I sighed—and regarded with wonder my past self, which preferred the company of book or pen to that of man or woman; which, if the author of a tale I was enjoying appeared, would wish him away that I might return to his story. I had chosen the dead rather than the living, the thing thought rather than the thing thinking! "Any man," I said now, "is more than the greatest of books!" I had not cared for my live brothers and sisters, and now I was left without even the dead to comfort me!” (Ch. 16)
One theme that MacDonald comes back to again and again is the nature of God’s judgment. Rather than seeing God’s judgment as some form of retribution, where God smashes recalcitrant people with a cosmic paddle, or casts them weeping into unending torture, MacDonald describes God’s judgment as a cleansing, consuming fire (see the essay “Consuming Fire” in Unspoken Sermons…also this better reflects scripture). Along with this, God’s judgment is found through our cold hearts being warmed and thus enabling us to see the consequences of our action: who we’ve hurt, how others feel and so on.
There is a hopefulness in this. Humans are not seen as a lump of evil that deserve nothing, but instead are seen as beautiful creations of God that, though they have gone astray, deserve love. The remedy for sin is not mere destruction, but restoration.
Adam tells Mr. Vane of Lilith, his first wife who rebelled:
"Lilith, when you came here on the way to your evil will, you little thought into whose hands you were delivering yourself!—Mr. Vane, when God created me,—not out of Nothing, as say the unwise, but out of His own endless glory—He brought me an angelic splendour to be my wife: there she lies! For her first thought was POWER; she counted it slavery to be one with me, and bear children for Him who gave her being. One child, indeed, she bore; then, puffed with the fancy that she had created her, would have me fall down and worship her! Finding, however, that I would but love and honour, never obey and worship her, she poured out her blood to escape me, fled to the army of the aliens, and soon had so ensnared the heart of the great Shadow, that he became her slave, wrought her will, and made her queen of Hell. How it is with her now, she best knows, but I know also. The one child of her body she fears and hates, and would kill, asserting a right, which is a lie, over what God sent through her into His new world. Of creating, she knows no more than the crystal that takes its allotted shape, or the worm that makes two worms when it is cloven asunder. Vilest of God's creatures, she lives by the blood and lives and souls of men. She consumes and slays, but is powerless to destroy as to create." (Ch. 29)
Despite this rebellion, hope remains for Lilith. We see this in quotes such as:
"Thou art beautiful because God created thee, but thou art the slave of sin: take thy hand from thy side." (Ch. 29)
“Annihilation itself is no death to evil. Only good where evil was, is evil dead. An evil thing must live with its evil until it chooses to be good. That alone is the slaying of evil." (ch. 30)
Before anyone says this hopeful view is too easy-going, there is tremendous pain in such restoration. I would argue that any who have seriously reckoned with the hurt they caused would prefer a simple smack on the back over recognizing and dealing with the hurt caused to fellow humans. Lilith resists dealing with this, seen in this exchange:
"I will not," she said. "I will be myself and not another!"
"Alas, you are another now, not yourself! Will you not be your real self?"
"I will be what I mean myself now."
"If you were restored, would you not make what amends you could for the misery you have caused?"
"I would do after my nature."
"You do not know it: your nature is good, and you do evil!"
"I will do as my Self pleases—as my Self desires."
"You will do as the Shadow, overshadowing your Self inclines you?" (ch. 39)
Soon Lilith begins to honestly examine herself, and it is a painful process:
"She is seeing herself!" said Mara; and laying her hand on my arm, she drew me three paces from the settle.” (Ch. 39)
"You cannot go near her," she said. "She is far away from us, afar in the hell of her self-consciousness. The central fire of the universe is radiating into her the knowledge of good and evil, the knowledge of what she is. She sees at last the good she is not, the evil she is. She knows that she is herself the fire in which she is burning, but she does not know that the Light of Life is the heart of that fire. Her torment is that she is what she is. Do not fear for her; she is not forsaken. No gentler way to help her was left. Wait and watch." ch. 39)
“She knew the one what God had intended her to be, the other what she had made herself.” (39)
“I gazed on the face of one who knew existence but not love—knew nor life, nor joy, nor good; with my eyes I saw the face of a live death! She knew life only to know that it was dead, and that, in her, death lived. It was not merely that life had ceased in her, but that she was consciously a dead thing. She had killed her life, and was dead—and knew it. She must DEATH IT for ever and ever! She had tried her hardest to unmake herself, and could not! she was a dead life! she could not cease! she must BE! In her face I saw and read beyond its misery—saw in its dismay that the dismay behind it was more than it could manifest. It sent out a livid gloom; the light that was in her was darkness, and after its kind it shone. She was what God could not have created. She had usurped beyond her share in self-creation, and her part had undone His! She saw now what she had made, and behold, it was not good! She was as a conscious corpse, whose coffin would never come to pieces, never set her free! Her bodily eyes stood wide open, as if gazing into the heart of horror essential—her own indestructible evil. Her right hand also was now clenched—upon existent Nothing—her inheritance! But with God all things are possible: He can save even the rich!” (39)
It is not just Lilith who must go through this process. Mr. Vane begins to as well:
“Then, of a sudden, but not once troubling my conscious bliss, all the wrongs I had ever done, from far beyond my earthly memory down to the present moment, were with me. Fully in every wrong lived the conscious I, confessing, abjuring, lamenting the dead, making atonement with each person I had injured, hurt, or offended. Every human soul to which I had caused a troubled thought, was now grown unspeakably dear to me, and I humbled myself before it, agonising to cast from between us the clinging offence. I wept at the feet of the mother whose commands I had slighted; with bitter shame I confessed to my father that I had told him two lies, and long forgotten them: now for long had remembered them, and kept them in memory to crush at last at his feet. I was the eager slave of all whom I had thus or anyhow wronged. Countless services I devised to render them! For this one I would build such a house as had never grown from the ground! for that one I would train such horses as had never yet been seen in any world! For a third I would make such a garden as had never bloomed, haunted with still pools, and alive with running waters! I would write songs to make their hearts swell, and tales to make them glow! I would turn the forces of the world into such channels of invention as to make them laugh with the joy of wonder! Love possessed me! Love was my life! Love was to me, as to him that made me, all in all!” (43)
Perhaps the lesson MacDonald is pointing at is this is a process we must all go through. We all - no matter how good or bad we imagine ourselves to be - must be cleansed by the flames of God’s consuming fire. These flames will bring life to whatever shadow of goodness and beauty resides in us:
“But to him who has once seen even a shadow only of the truth, and, even but hoping he has seen it when it is present no longer, tries to obey it—to him the real vision, the Truth himself, will come, and depart no more, but abide with him for ever." (43)
At least, that’s what I get the story to be saying. I love the final line, which reminds me of other images of our final destiny in knowing and being known by the divine:
“Novalis says, "Our life is no dream, but it should and will perhaps become one."
I reached chapter 14 and decided I value my time more than reading some antique fantasy novel written back in 1895 about one ex-preacher’s beliefs in universalism. I hate books that preach at you. I hate it even more when it’s wrapped up in a fantasy genre, all ready to trap you into wasting many hours of reading something I had no understanding of.
I only wanted to read George MacDonald’s books was because Lewis Carroll, C. S. Lewis, and Tolkien admired him.
I certainly can see the influence he had on these fantasy writers, but thank God they wrote way better than him.
Now one star is for the fact he can write good purple prose that you will absolutely love, even though you won’t understand what was the author trying to say with his words.
I only wanted to read George MacDonald’s books was because Lewis Carroll, C. S. Lewis, and Tolkien admired him.
I certainly can see the influence he had on these fantasy writers, but thank God they wrote way better than him.
Now one star is for the fact he can write good purple prose that you will absolutely love, even though you won’t understand what was the author trying to say with his words.
mysterious
slow-paced
Really fascinating to read one of the first modern fantasies. It’s easy to see now why Lewis chose George MacDonald to be his guide through heaven in The Great Divorce. I can see echoes of Lilith in TGD, The space trilogy, and Chronicles of Narnia. That being said, this definitely isn’t my style of book, but I was able to appreciate it from a literary standpoint. It very much felt like the author was teaching his readers what a fantasy was more than anything, and he was hyper-concerned with the metaphysical aspects of the fantasy realm, so the story took a backseat to those issues.