Dealings With Fairies

Dealings with the Fairies is a landmark collection of five highly imaginative and profound fairy tales. The volume contains some of George MacDonald's most celebrated shorter works, including "The Light Princess," "The Giant's Heart," and "The Golden Key." Each narrative gracefully balances whimsical nonsense with a deep, haunting sense of spiritual mystery. Adding immense value to this rare first edition are the twelve exquisite wood-engraved illustrations by Arthur Hughes, a prominent Pre-Raphaelite artist. Hughes’s delicate, ethereal style perfectly captures the dreamlike atmosphere of MacDonald’s prose, making this specific collaboration a highly sought-after masterpiece of Victorian book design. 

The mastermind behind this collection was George MacDonald (1824–1905), a Scottish author, poet, and pioneering Christian minister who is widely regarded as the grandfather of modern fantasy literature. Defying the heavy-handed, moralistic conventions of Victorian children's books, MacDonald believed that fairy tales should operate like music, appealing directly to a reader's subconscious and awakening a deep sense of wonder. His life was shaped by personal tragedy, persistent poverty, and chronic illness, yet his writing remained filled with an radiant, optimistic mysticism. Through his unique ability to blend the earthy realities of human suffering with expansive, mythic landscapes, MacDonald single-handedly elevated fantasy from simple nursery entertainment into a serious literary art form.

MacDonald’s historical legacy is most profoundly felt through his massive, direct influence on the inkling circle, serving as the chief literary catalyst for both C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Lewis famously declared that reading MacDonald’s Phantastes had "baptized his imagination," and he later went on to cast MacDonald as his spiritual guide in his own novel, The Great Divorce. Tolkien similarly drew heavy inspiration from MacDonald’s myth-making, particularly using the subterranean cultures in The Princess and the Goblinas a foundational blueprint for the goblins and dwarves of Middle-earth. This scarce 1867 first edition of Dealings with the Fairies stands as a premier artifact of literary history, capturing the exact moment when the seeds of modern high fantasy were first planted.

Blue cloth binding with gilt stamped decoration and titles to front and spine. Blank stamped decoration to the rear. All edges gilt. Brown endpapers. Ads dated December 1866 and containing 12 illustrations in black and white. Scarce. Fine condition.