Publisher's Synopsis
This fantasy classic begins when a very ordinary young man awakes one morning to find that his room is transforming into a forest. It turns out to be Fairy Land, a dreamlike world in which everything seems to possess life and mysterious meanings. During his wanderings through the world he encounters evil and good spirits, ghosts and fairies -- he is tormented by his shadow which has gained a life of its own, he is told many magical tales and he fight deadly battles -- all of which form a spiritual journey for the young man, on the path to becoming a whole, grown-up human being.
Phantastes: A Færie Romance for Men and Women (1858) is among scholars held as the first fantasy novel. With profound inspiration from literary fairy tales by Romantic authors such as E.T.A. Hoffmann and Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, the English priest George MacDonald (1824-1905) went a step further and created a substantial fantasy world in which the whole magical plot takes place. The author was a good friend of Lewis Carroll, who in turn was inspired by MacDonald to write Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865). Others followed the example: J.M. Barrie with Peter Pan, L. Frank Baum with The Wizard of Oz and Lord Dunsany with his tales from Elfland-- and today, after the successes of C.S. Lewis and especially J.R.R. Tolkien, fantasy has finally become the most prolific and popular of modern genres.
