Phantastes: Difference between revisions

| name = Phantastes

| title_orig =

| translator =

| image = File:Phantastes Title Page 1894.jpg

| author = [[George MacDonald]]

| cover_artist =

|country language = EnglishUnited Kingdom

|language series = =English

|series =
|genre = [[Fantasy fiction|Fantasy ]]

| publisher = [[Smith, Elder & Co.]]

| release_date = [[1858 in literature|1858]]

| media_type = Print ([[Hardcover|Hardback]] & [[Paperback]])

| pages = 323

| preceded_by =

'''''Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women''''' is a [[fantasy novel]] novel by Scottish writer [[George MacDonald]], first published in [[London]] in 1858. It was later reprinted in paperback by [[Ballantine Books]] as the fourteenth volume of the ''[[Ballantine Adult Fantasy series]]'' in April 1970.

The story centres on the character Anodos ("pathless", or "ascent" in [[Greek language|Greek]]) and takes its inspiration from [[German Romanticism]], particularly ''[[Novalis]]''. The story concerns a young man who is pulled into a dreamlike world and there hunts for his ideal of female beauty, embodied by the "Marble Lady". Anodos lives through many adventures and temptations while in the other world, until he is finally ready to give up his ideals.

Anodos then encounters a woman and her daughter in a cottage who warn him about the evil [[Ash Tree]] and the [[Alder|Alder Tree]], who seek to destroy him. He is told that the [[spirits]] of these trees can leave their tree-hosts and wander throughout Fairy Land. He then explores the world of the fairies, which live in flowers, causing them to glow. The flowers, he is told, die if the fairies leave. He then has a nightmarish encounter with the spirit of the Ash Tree, escapes, and finds rest in the warmth and love of the [[Beech|Beech Tree]]'s spirit.

After this, heHe finds thea [[marble]] statue by [[Pygmalion (mythology)|Pygmalion]]. AfterWhen he sings to it, the statue flees from him. He pursues the ladyMarble and finds a woman he believes to be her. HoweverLady, thisbut lady isfinds actuallyinstead the Maid of the Alder Tree in disguise. The spiritMaid ofdeceives theAnodos Ashinto Treeletting joinshis theguard Maiddown andso isthe closeAsh tocan killingattack. AnodosHe whennarrowly heescapes isdoom, being saved by the [[knight]] [[Sir Percivale]]. Anodos then meets a woman and her daughter who believe in fairy tales and the [[Magic (supernatural)|magic]] of Fairy Land, despite the disbelief of the woman's husband. Anodos also finds his shadow, an evil presence that follows and torments Anodos throughout the rest of the story.

Anodos finds a large palace thatwith mysteriouslymany belongs to himrooms, and it containsincluding a roombedroom withlabelled anas inscription that reads "Sirhis Anodosown." In the palace library, he reads the story of Cosmo of [[Prague]]. Cosmo is a believer in fantasy who sacrifices his life to free the soul of his lover from an enchanted mirror (whether the event was a fictional story made by an author from Fairy Land or if it was a recording from an event in Anodos' world is left ambiguous).

Anodos spends much time in the palace, relating his various wanderings and readings. In one such wandering, heHe comes upon corridors filled with still statues. HearingAnodos the last vestiges of song fromexplores the corridors,halls and consideringrealises that the statues asdance recentlyin frozenthe intohalls, immobilityand uponreturn hisquickly approach,to Anodostheir venturespedestals deeperwhen andhe deeper into the hallsenters. He dreams of the marble lady, that she alone has an empty pedestal among the statues. He later finds this pedestal, and, figuring a way in which to trick the statues into continuing to dance as he enters the room, he eventually sings to the pedestalit. The marble lady materializes,materialises buton Anodosthe attemptspedestal, to grab her. Shebut flees and disappearshim. Anodos follows, going down into a strange subterranean world with gnome-like creatures (like the German [[Kobolds]]) that mock him.

Anodos escapes this place and finds himself inon the beach of a stormy sea. When aA boat arrives, he boards it. It takes him to an "island" with a cottage with four doors which is inhabited by an ancient lady with young eyes. Anodos enters each door in turn, each containing a different world. In the first he becomes a child again, remembering the death of his brother. He comes back to the cottage crying. In the next door he finds the marble lady and Sir Percivale, alive, well, and in love. They are talking about him, andHere Anodos (previously unnoticed) makes a last outburst of his love for the marble lady. They leave, as does Anodos. The next door recounts the death of a loved one of Anodos, and he finds his family [[mausoleum. His ancestors help him back to the cottage]]. Finally, Anodos travels through the last door ("the door of the timeless") but is saved by the ancient lady without remembering anything. The ancient lady says that because she saved him, he must leave (thevia "island"an in[[isthmus]] factbefore hasthe anisland isthmus)sinks underwater.

Next Anodos finds himself with two brothers who also call Anodos their "brother," due to a prophecy given to them that a third would come to help them. They are forging armorarmour and swords in order to fight three marauding giants thatliving have fortifiedin a castle nearby, to the dismay of thefortified townsfolk.The giants had seemed benevolent at first, but gradually shown their true nature as cruel & savage. The brothers are the sons of the kingstronghold. Anodos joins them in their fight, but they are attacked unarmedambushed by the giants unprepared. The brothers die in the fight, but Anodos lives, killing the giants and becoming a hero of the kingdom. He wandersjourneys to tell a woman, whom one of the brothers loved, of histhe honorablebrothers' death, but healong findsthe insteadway is captured by a manifestation of his shadow, whoand imprisonsimprisoned. Anodos in a tower. Anodos is savedescapes by the song of a woman whom he had met before in fairyFairy landLand, and he is not troubled by his shadow ever again. Anodos becomes the dedicated squire of the knight, and they become good friends. They come upon a temple full of worshipers doing an unknown evil to a select few.These victims are forced into a door in a platform with a wooden statue atop. Sir Percivale, always seeing good in people, is deceived, but Anodos rises to end the practice. He destroys the idol made of rotting wood that is sitting on a throne exposing a dark opening, out of which a werewolfish monster rushes to attack him. He kills the monster but is mortally wounded by it,before Percivale can save him. In death Anodos finds peace, having died nobly. He floats, overlooking things, and finally awakes alive in the "real" world, never forgetting his experiences in Fairy Land. His sisters inform him he had been gone 21 days, but to him it felt like 21 years.

* [httphttps://www.gutenberg.org/etextebooks/325 Phantastes] on [[Project Gutenberg]]

* {{librivox book | title=Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women | author=George MACDONALD}}

[[Category:FantasyBritish fantasy novels]]