Informing the Inklings: George MacDonald and the Victorian Roots of Modern Fantasy

Magdalen College, where C.S. Lewis taught in Oxford, was an appropriate site for the “Informing the Inklings” conference hosted by the George MacDonald Society.

Participants explored how MacDonald and fellow literary figures such as S.T. Coleridge, Lewis Carroll, Charles Kingsley, and Andrew Lang paved the way for 20th century fantasists such as C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Contributors include Stephen Prickett, Malcolm Guite, Trevor Hart, and Jean Webb as well as other Inklings experts. Like the authors they write about, these scholars believe imaginative fiction has the power to enrich and even change our lives.

About the cover art:

The illustration of the king in the rose fire comes from The Princess and Curdie (Blackie, 1912). The artist, Helen Stratton (1867-1961), was a follower of Art Nouveau in the style of the Glasgow School of Art. The face of the king appears to be based on George MacDonald.
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The rose design framing the inner illustration was adapted from a cover of At the Back of the North Wind. (Blackie, 1915).

This title has been compiled by the Rabbit Room Press. You can see the full collection we carry here.