"A Noble Unrest"
Contemporary Essays on the Work of George MacDonald

A collection of contemporary essays on the work of the Scottish author George MacDonald (1824-1905), who was a major nineteenth century writer, principally of fairy tales and works of fantasy, predominantly for children. His work was strongly influenced by his Christian beliefs, Romanticism and his own theories of the imagination.

The collection concludes with essays on the relevance of MacDonald's work for the contemporary reader. The title "A Noble Unrest" is drawn from a pertinent quotation from George MacDonald, which emphasizes the need for continuing consideration and reconsideration, here applied to the writer himself as an important literary and philosophical figure: "...repose is not the end of education; its end is a noble unrest, an ever renewed awaking from the dead a ceaseless questioning of the past for the interpretation of the future..." - George MacDonald, A Dish of Orts - "The Imagination: Its Functions and Culture", 1867.