乔治·麦克唐纳

乔治·麦克唐纳（George MacDonald，1824年12月10日—1905年9月18日），苏格兰作家，诗人，基督教牧师。

麦克唐纳是一位多产的小说家。他以凄美的童话和幻想的作品闻名，他对后来的作家产生影响，如威斯坦·休·奥登，C·S·路易斯，伊迪丝·内斯比特和马德琳·恩格尔。

马克·吐温最初不喜欢麦克唐纳，后来与他成为了朋友，有一些证据表明，马克·吐温受到麦克唐纳的影响。

他的一句名言至今流传：当一种感觉存在的时候，他们感到它好像永远不会离开；当它离开了以后，他们感到它好像从未来过；当它再回来时，他们感到它好像从未离开。

George MacDonald (10 December 1824 – 18 September 1905) was a Scottish author, poet and Congregational minister. He became a pioneering figure in the field of modern fantasy literature and the mentor of fellow-writer Lewis Carroll. In addition to his fairy tales, MacDonald wrote several works of Christian theology, including several collections of sermons.

Early life

George MacDonald was born on 10 December 1824 in Huntly, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, to George MacDonald, manufacturer, and Helen MacKay. His father, a farmer, was descended from the Clan MacDonald of Glen Coe and a direct descendant of one of the families that suffered in the massacre of 1692.

MacDonald grew up in an unusually literate environment: one of his maternal uncles, Mackintosh MacKay, was a notable Celtic scholar, editor of the Gaelic Highland Dictionary and collector of fairy tales and Celtic oral poetry. His paternal grandfather had supported the publication of an edition of James Macpherson's Ossian, the controversial epic poem based on the Fenian Cycle of Celtic Mythology and which contributed to the starting of European Romanticism. MacDonald's step-uncle was a Shakespeare scholar, and his paternal cousin another Celtic academic. Both his parents were readers, his father favoured scientists and novellists, while his mother had received a classical education which included multiple languages.

MacDonald suffered lapses in health in his early years and was subject to problems with his lungs such as asthma, bronchitis and even a bout of tuberculosis. This last illness was considered a family disease and two of MacDonald's brothers, his mother, and later three of his own children died from the illness. Even in his adult life, he was constantly traveling in search of purer air for his lungs.

MacDonald grew up in the Congregational Church, with an atmosphere of Calvinism. However, his family was atypical, with his paternal grandfather a Catholic-born, fiddle-playing, Presbyterian elder; his paternal grandmother an Independent church rebel; his mother was a sister to the Gaelic-speaking radical who became moderator of the Free Church, while his step-mother, to whom he was also very close, was the daughter of a priest of the Scottish Episcopal Church.

MacDonald graduated from the King's College, Aberdeen, in 1845 with a degree in chemistry and physics. He spent the next several years struggling with matters of faith and deciding what to do with his life. His son, biographer Greville MacDonald, stated that his father could have pursued a career in the medical field but he speculated that lack of money put an end to this prospect. It was only in 1848 that MacDonald began theological training at Highbury College for the Congregational ministry.

Early career

MacDonald was appointed minister of Trinity Congregational Church, Arundel, in 1850, after briefly serving as a locum minister (a temporary replacement for a parish minister) in Ireland. However, his sermons—which preached God's universal love and that everyone was capable of redemption—met with little favour and his stipend was cut in half. In May 1853, MacDonald tendered his resignation from his pastoral duties at Arundel. Later he was engaged in ministerial work in Manchester, leaving that because of poor health. Lady Byron helped convince MacDonald to travel to Algiers in 1856 with the hope that the sojourn would help turn his health around. When he got back, he settled in London and taught for some time at the University of London. MacDonald was also for a time editor of Good Words for the Young.

Writing career

MacDonald is often regarded as the founding father of modern fantasy writing.