Orts: Essays on Life, Literature, and Imagination

By George MacDonald George MacDonald’s literary merits, in the estimation of C. S. Lewis, derive almost exclusively from his work in fantasy; this he did “better than any man.” Yet MacDonald wrote more than fantasy; his works span five books of theology, a dozen-plus volumes of poetry, and scores of essays and lectures. And while the quality of this additional literary yield might not have attained the same lofty heights as did his fantasy, it still delivers—in that happy blend of gravity and levity particular to MacDonald—a trove of wisdom and imaginative insight into the works and ways of both God and man. I do not write for children, but for the childlike, whether of five, or fifty, or seventy-five. (George MacDonald) Orts (an archaic term for “leftovers”) is more than mere scraps from MacDonald’s literary table. Originally published in 1893 (as A Dish of Orts), the volume presents twelve essays on such topics as the imagination and its functions; Shakespeare and his genius, the p