And most importantly, for those readers who are drawn into the world of this undeniably eccentric Victorian fairy tale, the story elicits a powerful emotional response. One of the first aims of any good fiction writer-past or present-is to engage the reader's emotions. Just as the human spirit cannot be defined in its complexity, the gestalt of George MacDonald's story "The Golden Key" washes over the reader in waves of numinous, mythopoeic images that, taken as a whole, convey more meaning than do the individual images and scenes. "The Golden Key" stands as an outstanding example of MacDonald's visionary fairy tales, along with "The Light Princess," "The Princess and the Goblin," and "The Princess and Curdie." In his article, "The Fairytales of George MacDonald and The Evolution of a Genre." scholar Michael Mendelson describes how MacDonald adapts the traditional fairy tale format: MacDonald incorporates, transforms, and invigorates one of the oldest, most fundamental of all literary forms…These familiar narrative elements are here put to work in the service of a “new mythos,” so that the fairy tale becomes a means of symbolic discourse in which MacDonald attempts to expound his own unique vision (40). At the Back of the North Wind, his novel for children, is perhaps MacDonald's best-known work. This vision was undoubtedly influenced by MacDonald's religious background, but according to Rolland Hein in his book, The Harmony Within: The Spiritual Vision of George MacDonald, “the fantasies are not merely anecdotes and illustration of theological ideas at their best they are imaginative and symbolic explorations of a vision of the significance of life" (xviii). George MacDonald was a Scottish clergyman living in the Victorian era who stepped down as a minister to communicate his personal vision through the medium of fantastic fiction-novels for adults and children, and shorter fiction in the form of literary fairy tales.
Originally published: Grand Rapids, Mich.View gallery of Ruth Sanderson's illustrations for "The Golden Key"
Includes bibliographical references (page 79) and index Brief stories from the lives of 76 Catholic saints
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