A review by vinpauld
Lilith by George MacDonald

3.0

When I was a kid, I loved George MacDonald's two children's books about Princess Irene (The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie). My first reading of Lilith, a fantasy written for adults was over 45 years ago, when I was around 19. During the intervening years, I had forgotten that it is a bit of a tough read. The book is episodic and dreamlike but often the dialogue makes you feel like you are being forced to navigate through a series of riddles written in an archaic language. Prepare yourself for lots of out-of-fashion words - words like whence, descried, and plenty of thees and thous. Some of the book is quite imaginative and atmospheric, but I found it a bit of a slog to get through and I was happy when I came to the end. After finishing it, I wondered how I ever managed to get through it when I was in my late teens.