“too long for traditional publishing”, and on Saint Valentine’s day nonetheless! Yeah, this rubbed me the wrong way a little, since I’m perfectly within the boundaries of the word count recommended for my genre and hey, if you like the project we can trim it, right? Wrong. Apparently.
Anyway, this means you get a romantic tale: Lilith by George MacDonald.
George Macdonald is a capital author, especially for a Tolkien fan such as myself, as his novels shaped the taste for fantasy we find in books such as The Hobbit.
His enigmatic novel Lilith is a much different story, considered appalling by some and a masterpiece by others.
Young Mr. Vane inherits a vast, old house filled with secrets. By interacting with objects in the house, such as a mirror, he finds himself transported to another world, an alternate reality known as “the region of the seven dimensions.”
Haunting and steeped in symbolism, the region hosts creatures such as Mr. Raven, the alluring yet dangerous Lilith (reimagined as a powerful princess, not the demon of folklore), and Adam, the first man. Vane embarks on five journeys through the mirror, and grapples with questions about good and evil, life and death, rebellion against God, the search for true understanding, the transformative power of love and the true nature of reality.
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