Stays with one after finishing
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What I can say about this book is that it remains in the mind, a living world, long after it has been finished. It slowly sinks or seeps into one's dreams and one's conciousness - a true world.
But, the language is old. But who cares. If you can read past the language of the Victorians, you will get there.
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A huge journey
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Told in first person. We experience the other world through Mr Vane's eyes and thoughts and wishes. His journey is wonderous and educational. Swiftian in its comparisons of scale, relativity, responsibility, choice, free-will. Melodic in its overtures, themes and reprises. I was as exhausted as Vane towards the end - I even skipped a few chapters to see what I could see - but that was the point, the whole point and nothing but the point m'lud - until you go though it, you won't be changed. Then, with new eyes both Mr Vane and reader witness the evil Lilith confront the same fate.
A humbling, beautiful, strangely comforting read.
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A superb working out of Christian Universal Salvation
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MacDonald's fantasy novel is actually the best modern treatment of what St. Gregory of Nyssa's theology of Apocatastasis (Universal Salvation) would be like, worked out in reality. I have recommended this novel to several students & colleagues for just such a purpose. This book, together with the writings of St. Gregory of Nyssa and of the Russian Philosopher Nicholas Berdyaev make the best case for how such a concept could be integrated into orthodox Christian thought, preserving both the free will of the creature and the loving universal salvific will of the Creator.
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Absolutely Brilliant - A Deep Journey into the Innerworld
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Lillith is the result of a full and mature exploration of the "otherworld" by an author who knew more about the symbols of the mythopoeic realm than most any other author in the last 100 years (including C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, and Lewis Carol). If you're looking for a light reading story book, or merely entertaining fiction, this book is probably not for you. Some people taking it superficially see nothing more than an incomprehensible juxtaposition of images that reveres the qualities of obedience and submission. However, this would be to entirely miss the point of this story, which is about the process of inner transformation of human desire and will. It is very existentialist in that it places the responsibility for our progress on ourselves rather than on circumstances outside of ourselves. For those willing to dig deeper however, many rewards await those willing to ponder the story's rich (and often riveting!) tapestry of images. Taken further, the story describes the path of an individual's complete inner transformation in a language of symbols not merely arbitrarily arranged, but composed out of a deep understanding of the nature of the inner world of the human psyche. I would highly recommend this book, and regard it (together with *phantastes*) as possibly the best of genre for fiction / phantasy writing in the last 100 years. Madame L'engel regarded MacDonald as the "godfather of phantasy", and Lewis regarded him as his "master". Lillith is certainly worthy material for earning this distinction.
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Enjoy other worlds? This is the book for you!
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I would recomend this book to anyone who enjoys adventure, other worlds, thinking about strange but wonderful things, and using their imagination. This is one of the best books I have ever read. I could not put it down!!
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