Citation: George MacDonald, Lilith, A Romance (London: Chatto & Windus, 1895).
Lilith: A Romance. By George MacDonald. (“Off Lilith ’’ —The Kabala). London: Chatto & Windus, 1895.
8vo, pp. viii + 351 + (I).
This remarkable book, which uses for its machinery the mythology of the Talmud and the romance of the fourth dimension of space, was the last, and to many critics the greatest, of MacDonald’s imaginative books, and is discussed in admiring detail by Greville MacDonald in his “ George Macdonald” (pp. 546-555). Mrs. MacDonald was “troubled by the book’s strange imagery,” and her distress gave MacDonald “real heartache so that he began to question his ability to utter his last urgent message,” and submitted it to one of his children. Greville MacDonald thinks his father “did unquestionably get help from Blake. … He was possessed of a feeling that it was a direct mandate from God and produced two versions of it, five years intervening between the original writing and the first work, finally allowing the typewriter its help, but adding his usual and profuse pen-emendations.” The book attracted little notice at the time.
- 1895. Published by Dodd, Mead & Co., New York: 12mo, pp. vi + 351 (New York Pub. Lib.).
- 1924. Edited by Greville MacDonald, as a centenary commemoration, with an introductory key and a paraphrase of the earlier manuscript version; with a frontispiece by F. D. Bedford: published by George Allen & Unwin : 8vo, pp. xx 4- 396: introduction, pp. ix-xx.
These publication pages are a collaborative effort of members of The George MacDonald Society. We welcome comments on the individual publication pages to help improve the scope, accuracy, and utility of the descriptions.