"A novel which is the work of a man of genius"—and that launched MacDonald's career as one of the preeminent Victorian novelists of his day ( The Times). George MacDonald's first realistic novel, David Elginbrod, was published in 1863. Unable to get his poetry and fantasy published, one of MacDonald's publishers remarked, "I tell you, Mr. MacDonald, if you would but write novels, you would find all the publishers saving up to buy them of you. Nothing but fiction pays." Eventually MacDonald decided to try his hand at realistic fiction, and his publisher's words proved prophetic—within a few years publishers indeed were lining up to buy his books. Partially set in MacDonald's homeland of northern Scotland, the story of Hugh Sutherland and Margaret Elginbrod is replete with the dialect and thorough "Scottishness" that became MacDonald's trademark. The story takes the characters into the eerie world of the occult and spiritualism that so fascinated Victorian readers. This new edition by MacDonald biographer Michael Phillips streamlines the occasionally ponderous Victorian narrative style and updates the thick Doric brogue into readable English.
