With 13 children of his own clamouring for bedtime stories it isn't surprising that author George MacDonald discovered he had a gift for composing fairy tales. But these were fairy tales with a difference. At the Back of the North Wind, the first to be published, became a Victorian favourite and marked something of a milestone in children's fiction. While owing a debt to Hans Andersen, Dickens and Kingsley, MacDonald created a distinctive imaginary world existing in parallel with the grim social realities of mid-19th-century England. "A fairy tale is not al allegory," he once remarked. It is, of course, but the trick was to disguise it, to entertain the reader as well as instruct, leaving them to draw a moral if they pleased, or else simply to enjoy the fantasy. Children for over a hundred years have been enchanted and moved by the story of Nanny the crossing sweeper, her lame friend Jim, and above all Diamond, the poor coachman's son, whose life is transformed by a brief glimpse of a beautiful country "at the back of the north wind". The first edition (1871) was illustrated by the pre-Raphaelite artist Thomas Hughes, whose romantic and highly individualistic drawings are reproduced in the Everyman edition.
This book features in the following series: Everyman's Library Children's Classics, Everymans Library Childrens Classics .
There are 328 pages in this book. This book was published 2001 by Everyman .
George MacDonald (1824-1905) was a Scottish poet and writer of fiction.
This book contains the following story:
At the Back of the North Wind
A stable boy follows the North Wind on a series of adventures in George MacDonald's classic tale “At the Back of the North Wind”. On their travels Diamond sees the North Wind do good deeds, but also things that seem awful although they have good outcomes. The North Wind also shows him her own land - where there is no pain or death - but which he can only see in shadow until his own death.Full original text available here.
