Lilith - Macdonald, George

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Résumé :
Lilith is a fantasy novel by Scottish writer George MacDonald, first published in 1895. It was reprinted in paperback by Ballantine Books as the fifth volume of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in September 1969. Lilith is considered among the darkest of MacDonald's works, and among the most profound. It is a story concerning the nature of life, death, and salvation. In the story, MacDonald mentions a cosmic sleep that heals tortured souls, preceding the salvation of all. MacDonald was a Christian universalist, believing that all will eventually be saved. However, in this story, divine punishment is not taken lightly, and salvation is hard-won. Mr. Vane, the protagonist of Lilith, owns a library that seems to be haunted by the former librarian, who looks much like a raven from the brief glimpses he catches of the wraith. After finally encountering the supposed ghost, the mysterious Mr. Raven, Vane learns that Raven had known his father; indeed, Vane's father had visited the strange parallel universe from which Raven comes and goes and now resides therein. Vane follows Raven into the world through a mirror (this symbolistic realm is described as the region of the seven dimensions, a term taken from Jacob Boehme). Inside the world, Vane learns of a house of beds where the dreamers sleep until the end of the world in death: a good death, in which life is found. Vane's grandfather refused to sleep there and is, instead, forced to do battle with skeletons in a haunted wood. After a treacherous journey through a valley (where the moon is the only thing to keep him safe), Mr. Vane meets the Little Ones, children who never grow up, remaining pure children or becoming selfish and getting bigger and dumber, turning into bags or bad giants. After conversing with Lona, the eldest of the children, Mr. Vane decides to help them, and sets off to gather more information, although the Raven (who is also Adam) has warned Mr. Vane that he needs to sleep along with the dreamers before he can really help them.

Biographie:
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Sommaire:
George MacDonald was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian Congregational clergyman. He established himself as a pioneering figure in modern fantasy writing and mentored fellow writer Lewis Carroll. In addition to his fairy stories, MacDonald wrote various works on Christian theology, including sermon collections. George MacDonald was born on December 10, 1824 in Huntly, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. His father, a farmer, descended from the Clan MacDonald of Glen Coe and was a direct descendant of one of the families killed in the 1692 massacre. MacDonald was raised in an exceptionally literary household: one of his maternal uncles was a renowned Celtic scholar, editor of the Gaelic Highland Dictionary, and collector of fairy stories and Celtic oral poetry. His paternal grandfather had helped to publish an edition of James Macpherson's Ossian, a contentious epic poem based on the Fenian Cycle of Celtic Mythology that contributed to the birth of European Romanticism. MacDonald's step-uncle was a Shakespeare scholar, while his paternal cousin was also a Celtic intellectual....