About the book

Anodos finds his familiar room changing into the beginning of a journey through a world governed by unfamiliar possibilities. Woods, houses, a palace, mysterious figures, and stories within the story continually alter the direction and meaning of his search. Attractions that seem to promise fulfilment can disclose a danger in the way he approaches them. MacDonald builds the romance through dreamlike transitions rather than the steady geography of an ordinary quest, allowing a recurring image or encounter to gain significance through return. The narrator's desire to grasp beauty or secure a role for himself becomes part of what the journey examines. This adult fairy romance rewards patience with uncertainty, as its imaginative episodes gradually ask how attention and love might change when they cease to require ownership.

Desire and possession
Imaginative journey
Self-transformation

Why read it

For a dreamlike journey whose changing images make the education of desire as important as the discovery of a strange world.

Fantasy romance · English text edited by Greville MacDonald

Contents and reading sections

About the book

Why read it

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