Publisher's Synopsis
The magical story of Diamond, the son of a poor coachman, who is swept away by the North Wind - a radiant, maternal spirit with long, flowing hair - and whose life is transformed by a brief glimpse of the beautiful country - at the back of the north wind. It combines a Dickensian regard for the working class of mid-19th-century England with the invention of an ethereal landscape. More than a century after it was written, George MacDonald's At the Back of the North Wind continues to intrigue readers with its allegorical treatment of life and death. The great Christian writer C. S. Lewis, working a generation later, called MacDonald "the greatest genius of his kind." Find out for yourself what so impressed Lewis and countless readers. George MacDonald was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister. He was a pioneering figure in the field of fantasy literature and the mentor of fellow writer Lewis Carroll. His writings have been cited as a major literary influence by many notable authors including W. H. Auden, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Walter de la Mare, E. Nesbit and Madeleine L'Engle. C. S. Lewis wrote that he regarded MacDonald as his "master": "Picking up a copy of Phantastes one day at a train-station bookstall, I began to read. A few hours later," said Lewis, "I knew that I had crossed a great frontier." G. K. Chesterton cited The Princess and the Goblin as a book that had "made a difference to my whole existence."
