With Slaughterhouse Five behind both of our book clubs, one group heading to the 700BC Homeric Mediterranean to journey through The Odyssey, and further explore the impact of war on us. The other group will be wandering the manor hallways, attics and libraries of 1890s Victorian Britain with George MacDonalds fantasy novel, Lilith.
Lilith (published in 1895) was written in an era our group has been in before. When we began this book club three years ago with The Brothers Karamazov (1880) we had many discussions about Dostoyevsky’s concern for the socialism, liberalism and industrialism encroaching on Russia. Modern rationalism was becoming the ruler of the classroom with scientific discoveries and theories pushing up against the established social order and traditional religious views of the world. I am suspicious that MacDonald and Dostoyevsky will have similar anxieties about the social and philosophical movements of the era, and I am curious is their solutions will be similar.
This is my first real venture into George MacDonald. I was introduced to him recently by a member of the book club who suggested a few of his novels. He was a big influence on the author of The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien as well as CS Lewis the author of the Narnia Chronicles. So I am expecting to see some seeds of their inspirations in Lilith.
Having previously been an evangelical Christian for 20 years, a worldview I have since left behind, this should be an interesting journey for me. I’m looking forward to it.
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