Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women

George MacDonald’s classic fantasy novel, written with poetic splendour and vivid imagery, has captured imaginations and played with the deepest emotions of readers’ hearts for more than a century. C. S. Lewis and G. K. Chesterton can be counted among MacDonald’s admirers.

“Below lay a sea, still as death and hoary in the moon, sweeping into bays and around capes and islands, away, away, I knew not whither: Alas! it was no sea, but a low bog burnished by the moon. “Surely there is such a sea somewhere!” said I to myself.
A low sweet poice beside me replied — “In Fairy Land, Anodos.” I turned, but saw no one… I was soon to find the truth of the lady’s promise, that this day I should discover the road into Fairy Land.”

On his twenty-first birthday, Anodos discovers a secret inside his father’s old secretary desk that transports him into this world of mystical beauty and lurking dangers. As he makes his way through Fairy Land, Anodos is awed by its magical brilliance and captured by unrequited love. But to make it out, he must learn to overcome dangerous trials and become the man he’s meant to be. It’s the adventure of his lifetime.

Thirty-three original illustrations by Arthur Hughes, now in full colour for the first time, will transport readers into a world between dreams and reality, where splendor and horror battle for the human heart.