Lilith in a New Light

Considered George MacDonald’s greatest work, Lilith (1895) is among the most popular and profound fantasy novels of the Victorian era. This collection of critical essays is the first book-length study of this important literary work. The selections function in working dialogue with one another, driven by the central idea of liminality in fantasy literature. In addition to providing fresh interpretations of the novel, these essays implement esteemed background scholarship on Lilith, including that of notable author C.S. Lewis. Analytical topics include MacDonald’s rhetorical strategy as a writer of prose romance, the implications of the novel’s famous “endless ending,” and the significance of Lilith in the development of modern fantasy.

Lucas H. Harriman lives in Davie, Florida, and is pursuing doctoral work at the University of Miami.

Edited by Lucas H. Harriman

Series Editors Donald E. Palumbo and C.W. Sullivan III

Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 191
Bibliographic Info: bibliographies, index
Copyright Date: 2008
pISBN: 978-0-7864-3810-5
Imprint: McFarland
Series: Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy

Introduction      1

1. Liminality in Lilith      7
ROBERT A. COLLINS
2. Liminality and the Everyday in Lilith      15
TOM SHIPPEY
3. Lilith, Textuality, and the Rhetoric of Romance      21
MICHAEL MENDELSON
4. Myth, Mysticism, and Magic: Reading at the Close of Lilith      39
VERLYN FLIEGER
5. The Logic of Fantasy and the Crisis of Closure in Lilith      46
COLIN MANLOVE
6. The Demoness and the Grail: Deciphering Lilith      59
JEANNE MURRAY WALKER
7. A Fresh Look at Lilith’s Perplexing Dimensions      71
ROLLAND HEIN
8. Collins Agonistes; or, Why Did I Bother To?      83
ROGER C. SCHLOBIN
9. The Revelatory Potential of Lilith’s Immanent Eternity      85
LUCAS H. HARRIMAN
10. Frustrated Interpretation in Lilith      93
JOHN PENNINGTON
11. Liminality as Psychic Stage in Lilith      103
RODERICK MCGILLIS
12. Cosmic and Psychological Redemption in Lilith      111
BONNIE GAARDEN
13. Lilith as the Mystic’s Magnum Opus      128
ELIZABETH ROBINSON
14. Chiasmatic Christianity: Lilith’s Sense of an Ending      143
KELLY SEARSMITH
15. The (As Yet) Endless Ending of Lilith      161
DAVID M. MILLER

About the Contributors      177
Index      179

• Finalist, Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Myth and Fantasy Studies—The Mythopoeic Society
  “a worthy addition”—SFRA Review
• “valuable…any serious scholar attempting to write about Lilith or to approach fantansy literature of the fin de siecle will welcome this volume”—Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts