Friday 17 April 2015

George MacDonald – official unveiling of new plaque

Wellington Square
Saturday 2nd May, 2.30 PM

Edward Preston will be conducting a walk at the end of the ceremony.

George MacDonald came to Hastings in 1857 for health reasons and lived at 27 Tackleway in the Old Town. Whilst there he wrote his first prose book entitled "Phantastes". This work was later to inspire the likes of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.

George MacDonald and family left Hastings for London in 1858. They were to return some ten years later with a somewhat larger family, now including 11 children. The family lived at Holloway House off Old London Road. Whilst at Holloway House MacDonald completed his book "At the Back of the North Wind"

He took an active interest in local activities and was founder of the Hastings & St Leonards Philosophical Society which was started in 1858 and gave lectures at the Public Hall in Hastings and the Assembly Rooms in St Leonards.

Fantasy
Realistic fiction
David Elginbrod (1863; republished as The Tutor's First Love), originally published in three volumes
  • Alec Forbes of Howglen (1865; republished as The Maiden's Bequest)
  • Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood (1867)
  • Guild Court: A London Story (1868)
  • Robert Falconer (1868; republished as The Musician's Quest)
  • The Seaboard Parish (1869), a sequel to Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood
  • Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood (1871)
  • Wilfrid Cumbermede (1871–72)
  • The Vicar's Daughter (1871–72), a sequel to Annals of a Quiet Neighborhood and The Seaboard Parish
  • The History of Gutta Percha Willie, the Working Genius (1873), usually called simply Gutta Percha Willie
  • Malcolm (1875)
  • St. George and St. Michael (1876)
  • Thomas Wingfold, Curate (1876; republished as The Curate's Awakening)
  • The Marquis of Lossie (1877; republished as The Marquis' Secret), the second book of Malcolm
  • Paul Faber, Surgeon (1879; republished as The Lady's Confession), a sequel to Thomas Wingfold, Curate
  • Sir Gibbie (1879; republished as The Baronet's Song)
  • Mary Marston (1881; republished as A Daughter's Devotion)
  • Warlock o' Glenwarlock (1881; republished as Castle Warlock and The Laird's Inheritance)
  • Weighed and Wanting (1882; republished as A Gentlewoman's Choice)
  • Donal Grant (1883; republished as The Shepherd's Castle), a sequel to Sir Gibbie
  • What's Mine's Mine (1886; republished as The Highlander's Last Song)
  • Home Again: A Tale (1887; republished as The Poet's Homecoming)
  • The Elect Lady (1888; republished as The Landlady's Master)
  • A Rough Shaking (1891)
  • There and Back (1891; republished as The Baron's Apprenticeship), a sequel to Thomas Wingfold, Curate and Paul Faber, Surgeon
  • Heather and Snow (1893; republished as The Peasant Girl's Dream)
  • Salted with Fire (1896; republished as The Minister's Restoration)
  • Far Above Rubies (1898)
Poetry
  • Twelve of the Spiritual Songs of Novalis (1851), privately printed translation of the poetry of Novalis
  • Within and Without: A Dramatic Poem (1855)
  • Poems (1857)
  • "A Hidden Life" and Other Poems (1864)
  • "The Disciple" and Other Poems (1867)
  • Exotics: A Translation of the Spiritual Songs of Novalis, the Hymn-book of Luther, and Other Poems from the German and Italian (1876)
  • Dramatic and Miscellaneous Poems (1876)
  • A Book of Strife, in the Form of the Diary of an Old Soul (1880), privately printed
  • The Threefold Cord: Poems by Three Friends (1883), privately printed, with Greville Matheson and John Hill MacDonald
  • Poems (1887)
  • The Poetical Works of George MacDonald, 2 Volumes (1893)
  • Scotch Songs and Ballads (1893)
  • Rampolli: Growths from a Long-planted Root (1897)
Nonfiction
  • Unspoken Sermons (1867)
  • England's Antiphon (1868, 1874)
  • The Miracles of Our Lord (1870)
  • Cheerful Words from the Writing of George MacDonald (1880), compiled by E. E. Brown
  • Orts: Chiefly Papers on the Imagination, and on Shakespeare (1882)
  • "Preface" (1884) to Letters from Hell (1866) by Valdemar Adolph Thisted
  • The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: A Study With the Test of the Folio of 1623 (1885)
  • Unspoken Sermons, Second Series (1885)
  • Unspoken Sermons, Third Series (1889)
  • A Cabinet of Gems, Cut and Polished by Sir Philip Sidney; Now, for the More Radiance, Presented Without Their Setting by George MacDonald (1891)
  • The Hope of the Gospel (1892)
  • A Dish of Orts (1893)
  • Beautiful Thoughts from George MacDonald (1894), compiled by Elizabeth Dougall

No comments: