Lilith, by George MacDonald
"Off Lilith!" , the Kabbalah
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I first picked up the book Lilith by George MacDonald, in the tiny library at my small Catholic school . It was surprising to find a book like Lilith there, in those days. I assume that it was there because after Vatican II, things had changed a little bit in the Catholic church. But it was also a weird little library in a weird little Northeastern Catholic school back in the 70's. The book itself was probably put there originally by somebody possibly in the 60's, or before. The school was quite old. It's possible, that as it was referenced upon a biblical/religious tale , the person who put it into the library never actually read it, and saw it for it's adult content…But who knows?
And a library is prominently featured in the book…This particularly intrigued me as I was, and still am, very fascinated by them.
(I later found out that MacDonald himself was also fascinated by libraries, as he had been working in one as a young man, on a large estate. This probably goes part of the way in explaining why he ended up writing it into his book. )
My brother and I, avid readers, had at that time started reading things like Tolkien's Hobbit, which was quite popular in the 60's and 70's, and other books of science-fiction and fantasy, like The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, which I had also found in the same library! So at the time, I was also extremely excited to find Lilith…
It seemed like a treasure to me. It had a beautiful cover that was at once both lovely, but also creepy and strange. Although probably only 10 years of age at the time I was, as I said, reading a lot of science-fiction and fantasy. As a child I loved books, and was luckily reading ahead of my age, and books of fantasy like Lilith were particularly exciting to my precocious, pre-teen mind.
(I'm also sure, that books like Lilith and J.R.R. Tolkien's Hobbit, and other fantasy and occult literature,very popular then, were partly involved in my becoming punk and goth late in the 1970's, believe it or not.....)
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Lilith is an extremely Freudian book, with sexualized old testament type lusty biblical images, and feelings, which is very surprising, as it was written in Victorian times, by a minister, as that was what MacDonald was.
(Although probably, in part,because it was based on the sucubbus aspect of the Lilith story.):
I must see, if but once more, the woman I had brought to life! I did not desire her society: she had waked in me frightful suspicions; and friendship, not to say love, was wildly impossible between us! But her presence had had a strange influence upon me, and in her presence I must resist, and at the same time analyse that influence!
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(There is no actual sex scene anywhere, I believe), but people get pregnant and have illegitimate children, and babies are left upon doorsteps, and in other places, and it is extremely erotic, and dark, in the description of the antagonist, and in Vane's feelings for her, as well as situations described, considering its authour....So MacDonald was certainly not one's typical Victorian minister. Possibly as he was a Scott, born in Aberdeenshire, with a Celtic temperament.....and looking recently at his photos I noticed his strong resemblance to Rasputin! The language of the book itself is very formal
and Victorian,
but in a strongly poetic way....
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At any rate, the book Lilith actually begins, with our hero, Mr. Vane, in his own library. He has just Inherited a large estate from his deceased parents. All alone in the world, he spends much time in his new library, leisurely examining and reading all of the books. One day, in a particularly descriptive passage, whilst sitting in his library, he encounters a phantom shape, possibly a revenant. This uncanny stranger seems to be taking books off the shelves of the library. Vane soon goes on to encounter more strangeness; for instance, a weird mirror in an old, tiny dusty little unused attic garret. This mirror appears to take one to a different dimension..…
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I took another step forward to see him better, stumbled over something—doubtless the frame of the mirror—and stood nose to beak with the bird: I was in the open air, on a houseless heath!
The hero/narrator Mr. Vane goes through much fear, uncertainty and confusion, and escapes quickly back to our realm, but he finally again really enters the mirror and goes into the other world....
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One of the very best things about the book Lilith, beyond its interesting story, is its incredible descriptive images. MacDonald's imagination was very vivid and extensive. He takes many tales, myths, and ideas from biblical, old testament, and other religious writings and and weaves them into a lovely, elaborate and engrossing narrative. (Many writers of fantasy and science-fiction, for instance C.S. Lewis, considered MacDonald to be a far superior writer to themselves.):
C. S. Lewis wrote that he regarded MacDonald as his "master": "Picking up a copy of Phantastes one day at a train-station bookstall, I began to read. A few hours later," said Lewis, "I knew that I had crossed a great frontier."en.m.wikipedia.org/...
Macdonald again:
In the evening of a gloomy day of August I was sitting in my usual place, my back to one of the windows, reading. It had rained the greater part of the morning and afternoon, but just as the sun was setting, the clouds parted in front of him, and he shone into the room. I rose and looked out of the window. In the centre of the great lawn the feathering top of the fountain column was filled with his red glory. I turned to resume my seat, when my eye was caught by the same glory on the one picture in the room—a portrait, in a sort of niche or little shrine sunk for it in the expanse of book-filled shelves. I knew it as the likeness of one of my ancestors, but had never even wondered why it hung there alone, and not in the gallery, or one of the great rooms, among the other family portraits. 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. With my eyes full of the light reflected from it, something, I cannot tell what, made me turn and cast a glance to the farther end of the room, when I saw, or seemed to see, a tall figure reaching up a hand to a bookshelf.
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