… If, however, you are stepping in with an openness to being challenged and potentially changed-Salvé!” In her introduction, Johnson writes that Lilith “is not a book for those easily put off, nor for the faint of heart. And even though Lilith takes on qualities that evoke horror (think Edgar Allan Poe), it does so without becoming mired in gloom and despair, ultimately ending in an astonishing hopefulness. Even though the book takes on allegorical forms in its direct use of biblical characters and metaphors, it remains a true novel, or “a romance,” as its title suggests. Vane passing between the worlds, Lilith passes between various genres. MacDonald’s Lilith closely follows this mythology, weaving it into a broader, definitively Christian story. In the myth, she is banished from the Garden of Eden before the creation of Eve. The titular character of Lilith is based on the Judaic mythological figure of the same name, who was purported to be the first wife of Adam. Vane embarks on an eerie and life-altering adventure through a Victorian multiverse, encountering a macabre host of characters who roam the gate between death and life. Led by a ghostly, bird-like man he calls Mr. Vane as he passes between his haunted manor and the parallel worlds he discovers within it. Lewis as one of MacDonald’s greatest works, Lilith follows the story of Mr. The new version includes a preface by poet Malcolm Guite and a helpful introduction by scholar Kirstin Jeffrey Johnson. George MacDonald’s visionary and dark novel Lilith: A Romance, first published in 1895, was republished in September 2022 by The Works of George MacDonald.

Lilith by George MacDonald