sign in| help
Search advanced search
 
Books
Search:
x dismiss this message

Did you know you can edit this page?

Lilith
  • Rated 0 stars
Read Lilith

Lilith (edit title/settings)

A Romance

by George MacDonald (Author) (edit contributors)

Share this book on:
see page history

Description edit see section history

Lilith, by nineteenth-century Christian novelist, George MacDonald, is the chronicle of five trips taken by its narrator, Mr. Vane, into another world where, under the spell of MacDonald's extraordinary imagination, he explores the ultimate mystery of evil. The volume is introduced by C.S.

Summary edit see section history

While the narrator is sitting in his library reading, he catches from the corner of his eye an old man. When he gets up to investigate he notices one of his books missing. Confused, he calls his butler, the butler lies and says he does not know. Three days later, he sees the man again. This... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

While the narrator is sitting in his library reading, he catches from the corner of his eye an old man. When he gets up to investigate he notices one of his books missing. Confused, he calls his butler, the butler lies and says he does not know. Three days later, he sees the man again. This man again takes a book, one that is suppose to be immovable. Again he calls his butler and tells him all he has seen. In exchange the butler tells him of the Legend surrounding the library and how he had thought the Old Man had been forgotten, whom we learn was called Mr.Raven. They promise to keep this a secret between the two of them.

About a week later, the old man appears, but this time he leaves the library and heads up toward the attic. The narrator follows him. In the attic he comes upon an old-fashioned mirror. On top stood a black eagle with outstretched wings, in his beak a golden chain, from whose end hung a black ball. Staring at the mirror, and without warning the narrator is suddenly standing in another world in a wild country, but he believes he has just stepped through a picture. While trying to get a better look of what was before him in the distance, he notices something coming towards him, a raven. It is only when he trips and falls onto the hard earth that he realizes he is no longer in his house.

Shocked, startled and confused, the narrator tries desperately to figure out if what he is experiencing is a dream or reality or something in between. Not knowing what's going one he asks aloud "How did I get here?" and is immediately answered. Confused because he does not see another human being around, he soon realizes his question was answered by the raven, and sets out having a conversation with the raven.
The raven eventually walks away and after some time the narrator follows, finding himself in a forest that eventually leads him back home.

The next day, the narrator goes about his usual day when it suddenly starts to pour. While staring out the window to watch the shower, he perceives Mr. Raven heading his way. Mr. Raven entered the house and without a word walked toward a door, which the narrator opens for him that leads to outside. Mr. Raven just stared at the weather without making a move to leave. When the narrator decides to strike up a conversation. When the rain stops Mr. Raven tries to convince the narrator to go back. When the narrator still refuses, the raven asks him to just step into the garden and the narrator obliges.
The raven then proceeds to pull a worm out of the ground throw it into the air and instantly change into a butterfly and without realizing it, is back in that strange world.
Mr. Raven tells the narrator that he has no idea as to who he is and must discover that before he can go home. Also, many days have passed since he was in the strange world, because time does not exist there.
The narrator, whom we learn is called Mr. Vane decides to stay in the other world for the adventure he will experience.

So, now Mr. Vane and Mr. Raven journey to Mr. Raven's home. Or rather his wife's home, that she calls the Sexton's Cottage. There he is given some bread to eat and wine to drink, and when he starts to feel sleepy they lead him to his couch.

Characters/People edit see section history

  • Mr. Vane: Narrator.A man.Sees the supposed forgotten old man.Father dead, mother dead within year after father.Tends to find himself alone a lot.Devoted to the physical sciences.An only child.
  • Mr.Raven: Appears in library and takes books then returns them the next day.Was librarian to Sir Upward.Disappeared along with Sir Upward, but returned every so often to the library as an apparition.Described as the "devil" by the ancient woman.Can turn into a raven.
  • Butler: Been with family all his life.Very faithful.Knows of the old man but thought he had been forgotten.Had never seen old man before, just heard of him from an ancient woman.
  • Ancient Woman: Told butler about the legend concerning Mr.Raven and described him to a "T" without having ever seen him.Said he was librarian to that of Sir Upward.
  • Sir Upward: Great reader.Past owner of the house.Read strange, forbidden, evil books and was encouraged by Mr.Raven.One day disappears with Mr.Raven and is never seen again.
  • Grandfather/ Old Sir Ralph: Refused to believe in the Old Man and whoever should mention him, would without a warning be dismissed from the house.He believed it was only a story the maids made up so that they could throw themselves in the arms of a man.Believed in nothing he could not see or lay hold of.
  • Mrs. Raven: All in white.Warm.
  • Lona: Add a description of this character.
  • Mara
  • Adam
  • Luva
Show all 11 characters
Popular Covers

Loading covers…

Choose your book’s cover

Quotes edit see section history

  • “Might a man at any moment step beyond the realm of order, and become the sport of the lawless?”
    Narrator
  • “"Oblige me by telling me where I am.""That is impossible. You know nothing about whereness. The only way to come to know where you are is to begin to make yourself at home."”
    Narrator and Raven
  • “"Tell me, then, who you are - if you happen to know." "How should I help knowing? I am myself, and must know!" "If you know you are yourself, you know that you are not somebody else; but do you know that you are yourself? Are you sure that you are not your own father? - or, excuse me, your own fool? - Who are you pray?""..."”
    Raven and Narrator
  • “Indeed, who was I? It would be no answer to say I was who! Then I understood that I did not know myself, did not know what I was, had no grounds on which to determine that I was one and not another. As for the name I went by in my own world, I had forgotten it, and did not care to recall it, for it meant nothing, and what it might be was plainly of no consequence here. I had indeed almost forgotten that there it was a custom for everybody to have a name!”
    Narrator
  • “Calling me a raven, or thinking me one, you allowed me existence, which is the sum of what one can demand of his fellowbeings. Therefore, in return, I will give you a lesson: - No one can say he is himself, until first he knows that he is, and then what himself is. In fact, nobody is himself, and himself is nobody.There is more in it than you can see now, but not more than you need to see. You have, I fear, got into this region too soon, but none the less you must get to be at home in it; for home, as you may or may not know, is the only place where you can go out and into. There are places you can go into, and places you can go out of; but the one place, if you do but find it, where you may go out and in both, is home.”
    Raven
  • “No man knows it when he is making an idiot of himself.”
    Narrator
  • “"Am I, or am I not, a free agent?""A man is as free as he chooses to make himself, never an atom freer.""You have no right to make me do things against my will!""When you have a will, you will find that no one can.""You wrong me in the essence of my individuality!""If you were an individual I could not, therefore now I do not. You are but beginning to become an individual."”
    Mr. Vane and Mr. Raven
  • “"Could you not teach me to know a prayer-flower when I see it?""I could not. But if I could, what better would you be? you would not know it of yourself and itself! Why know the name of a thing when the thing itself you do not know? Whose work is it but your own to open your eyes? But indeed the universe is to make such a fool of you that you will know yourself for one, and so begin to be wise!"”
    Mr. Vane and Mr. Raven
  • “You can tell what sort a man is by his creature that comes oftenest to the front.”
    Mr. Raven
  • “The direct sunlight brought out the painting wonderfully; for the first time I seemed to see it, and for the first time it seemed to respond to my look.”
    Narrator
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • But indeed the business of the universe is to make such a fool of you that you will know yourself for one, and so begin to be wise!'
    Highlighted by 70 Kindle customers
  • The part of philanthropist is indeed a dangerous one; and the man who would do his neighbour good must first study how not to do him evil, and must begin by pulling the beam out of his own eye.
    Highlighted by 57 Kindle customers
  • 'A man is as free as he chooses to make himself, never an atom freer,'
    Highlighted by 56 Kindle customers
  • Annihilation itself is no death to evil. Only good where evil was, is evil dead. An evil thing must live with its evil until it chooses to be good. That alone is the slaying of evil.'
    Highlighted by 42 Kindle customers
  • When one says to the great Thinker:—'Here is one of thy thoughts: I am thinking it now!' that is a prayer—a word to the big heart from one of its own little hearts.—Look, there is another!'
    Highlighted by 37 Kindle customers
  • I saw now that a man alone is but a being that may become a man—that he is but a need, and therefore a possibility.
    Highlighted by 34 Kindle customers
  • Turn your back on fear, and your face to whatever may come. Give yourself up to the night, and you will rest indeed. Harm will not come to you, but a good you cannot foreknow.'
    Highlighted by 34 Kindle customers
  • The darkness knows neither the light nor itself; only the light knows itself and the darkness also. None but God hates evil and understands it.
    Highlighted by 33 Kindle customers
  • 'Doubt,' I said to myself, 'may be a poor encouragement to do anything, but it is a bad reason for doing nothing.'
    Highlighted by 31 Kindle customers
  • Every one, as you ought to know, has a beast-self—and a bird-self, and a stupid fish-self, ay, and a creeping serpent-self too—which it takes a deal of crushing to kill! In truth he has also a tree-self and a crystal-self, and I don't know how many selves more—all to get into harmony. You can tell what sort a man is by his creature that comes oftenest to the front.'
    Highlighted by 26 Kindle customers
Show all 20 quotes from this book

Setting & Locations edit see section history

First Sentence edit see section history

I had just finished my studies at Oxford, and was taking a brief holiday from work before assuming definitely the management of the estate.

Table of Contents edit see section history

I. The Library
II. The Mirror
III. The Raven
IV. Somewhere Or Nowhere?
V. The Old Church
VI. The Sexton's Cottage
VII. The Cemetery
VIII. My Father's Manuscript
IX. I Repent
X. The Bad Burrow
XI. The Evil Wood.
XII. Friends and Foes
XIII. The Little Ones
XIV. A Crisis
XV. A Strange Hostess
XVI. A Gruesome Dance
XVII. A Grotesque Tragedy
XVIII. Dead or Alive?
XIX. The White Leech
XX. Gone! - But How?
XXI. The Fugitive Mother
XXII. Bulika
XXIII. A Woman of Bulika
XXIV. The White Leopardess
XXV. The Princess
XXVI. A Battle Royal
XXVII. The Silent Fountain
XXVIII. I Am Silenced
XXIX. The Persian Cat
XXX. Adam Explains
XXXI. The Sexton's Old Horse
XXXII. The Lovers and the Bags
XXXIII. Lona's Narrative
XXXIV. Preparation
XXXV. The Little Ones in Bulika
XXXVI. Mother and Daughter
XXXVII. The Shadow
XXXVIII. To the House of Bitterness
XXXIX. That Night
XL. The House of Death
XLI. I Am Sent
XLII. I Sleep the Sleep
XLIII. The Dreams That Came
XLIV. The Waking
XLV. The Journey Home
XLVI. The City
XLVII. The "Endless Ending"

Glossary edit see section history

  • desultory: aimless or immethodical
  • analogy: a similarity between like features of two things, on which a comparison may be basedex. the analogy between the heart and a pump.
  • panorama: an unobstructed and wide view of an extensive area in all directions.
  • evanescent: vanishing; fading away; fleeting.
  • vellum: calfskin, lambskin, kidskin, etc.
  • allude: to refer
  • pretext: excuse
  • garret: an attic, usually a small, wretched one.
  • vistas: an avenue or passage
  • disconsolate: characterized by or causing dejection; cheerless; gloomy
  • motes: a small particle or speck, esp. of dust.
  • espied: to see at a distance; catch sight of.
  • romp: to play or frolic in a lively or boisterous manner.
  • haply: perhaps; by chance.
  • psychical: sensitive to influences or forces of a nonphysical or supernatural nature.
  • apt: inclined; disposed; given; prone
  • adumbration: to produce a faint image or resemblance of; to outline or sketch.
  • entity: something that has a real existence; thing
  • uncanny: mysterious; arousing superstitious fear or dread; uncomfortably strange
  • pervaded: to become spread throughout all parts of
  • crag: a steep, rugged rock; rough, broken, projecting part of a rock.
  • taper: a candle
  • hitherto: up to this time; until now
  • thrush: any, medium-sized songbird of the family Turdinae, usually dull brown and often speckled below, and including many outstanding singers.
  • sultry: oppressively hot or moist; sweltering
  • descried: to discover; perceive; detect.
  • deluge: a drenching rain; downpour.
  • cataract: a descent of water over a steep surface; a waterfall
  • approbation: approval
  • steppes: the vast grasslands
  • obstinacy: stubbornness.
  • mire: to plunge
  • sexton: an official of a church charged with taking care of the edifice and its contents, ringing the bell, etc., and sometimes with burying the dead.
  • discomfited: to confuse and deject; disconcert
  • liveries: a uniform worn by servants.
  • hyacinth: a bulbous plant, of the lily family, widely cultivated for its cylindrical cluster of fragrant flowers in a variety of colors.
  • wiseacre: a person who possesses or affects to possess great wisdom.
  • sojourn: a temporary stay
  • hawthorn: any plants belonging to the rose family, typically a small tree with stiff thorns, certain North American species of which have white or pink blossoms and bright-colored fruits and are cultivated in hedges.
  • ethereal: heavenly
  • lo: look
  • primeval: pertaining to the first age or ages, esp. of the world
  • precipitate: sudden
Show all 43 glossary entries

Errata edit see section history

p.14 - He was no longer a raven, but a man above the middle height with a stoop, very thin, and WEARING a long black tailcoat.
p.31 - The woman took it from him gently, GAVE it a little piece of bread, and went out with it, closing the door behind her.

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 5 of 64 in Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series. (publisher series)

Preceded by The Silver Stallion, and followed by Dragons, Elves, and Heroes.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. George MacDonald (Author)

Other Contributors:

  1. C. S. Lewis (Introduction)

Classification edit see section history

We’re hiding the movie connections, books that influenced this book, books influenced by this book, books that cite this book and books cited by this book sections. If you would like to add content to them, you must first make them visible.

© 2006-2012 Shelfari | Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Copyright Policy

Close