Salted With Fire

by George MacDonald

Overview

Book Excerpt: r poorly dressed, and lookinguntidy, which at the moment she could not help, the mother took her for anordinary maid-of-all-work, and never for a moment doubted that her son mustsee her just as she did. He was her only son; her heart was full ofambition for him; and she brooded on the honour he was destined to bringher and his father. The latter, however, caring less for his good looks,had neither the same satisfaction in him nor an equal expectation from him.Neither of his parents, indeed, had as yet reaped much pleasure from hisexistence, however much one of them might hope for in the time to come.There were two things indeed against such satisfaction or pleasure--thatJames had never been open-hearted toward them, never communicative as tohis feelings, or even his doings; and--which was worse--that he had longmade them feel in him a certain unexpressed claim to superiority. Nor wouldit have lessened their uneasiness at this to have noted that the existenceof such an implicit claim was more orRead More

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781481880121
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	12/31/2012
Pages:	152
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.35(d)

About the Author

George MacDonald (1824-1905) was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister. Known particularly for his poignant fairy tales and fantasy novels, George MacDonald inspired many authors, such as W. H. Auden, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, E. Nesbit and Madeleine L'Engle. It was C.S. Lewis who 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." G. K. Chesterton cited The Princess and the Goblin as a book that had "made a difference to my whole existence." Elizabeth Yates wrote of Sir Gibbie, "It moved me the way books did when, as a child, the great gates of literature began to open and first encounters with noble thoughts and utterances were unspeakably thrilling." Even Mark Twain, who initially disliked MacDonald, became friends with him, and there is some evidence that Twain was influenced by MacDonald.