As an indication of MacDonald’s waning esteem among the literati and academic intelligentsia—a development which annoyed him in light of the overwhelmingly positive response of readers to the spiritual themes in his books—all the reviews of Weighed and Wanting were critical. The Athenaeum called it “ill-balanced.” ¹² The Saturday Review gave a long negative review and called it “one of the worst” of MacDonald’s novels. ¹³ The Spectator thought it “probably the poorest and least pleasant” of his stories. ¹⁴

This is but one more example of a sad fact—that the academic intelligentsia rarely “gets” the true essence of George MacDonald.

Needless to say, the reviewers during MacDonald’s day did not have eyes to see the gold. Indeed, some of the personal transformations that begin to unfold as the book reaches its climax are among the most powerful MacDonald gives us. In working on this new edition, I found myself unexpectedly moved over and over as I was emotionally caught up into the unique character-births taking place before my eyes.

This may well be a book about which you may find yourself saying, “I need to read this again!”

Michael Phillips

Cullen, Morayshire

Scotland, 2017

NOTE ON FOOTNOTES: For the reader’s ease in referencing frequently quoted titles, I have dispensed with the scholarly ciphers, more mystifying than helpful for the average fiction reader. These books will therefore be noted in the footnotes below as follows, rather than with the formal notations of op. cit., loc. cit., ibid., etc.

Bulloch, Bibliography—“A Bibliography of George MacDonald,” by John Malcolm Bulloch, The Aberdeen University Library Bulletin, February, 1925, Vol. V, No. 30.

Greville, Biography—George MacDonald and His Wife by Greville MacDonald, George Allen & Unwin, London, 1924.

Hein, Mythmaker—George MacDonald, Victorian Mythmaker by Rolland Hein, Star Song Publishing, Nashville, TN, 1993.

Raeper, MacDonald—George MacDonald by William Raeper, Lion Publishing, Tring, England, 1987.

1 Such ministry may have been one of the reasons they built such a huge home. In his Footnote # 1 of Chapter 34, Rolland Hein says of Casa Coraggio: “Today, remodeled with a fifth story and terraces added, it is a modern apartment complex containing nearly forty units.” (Hein, Mythmaker, p. 431)

2 The Hope of the Gospel, “Salvation from Sin.”

3 Elizabeth Saintsbury, George MacDonald, A Short Life, 82-83.

4 Hein, Mythmaker, p. 206.

5 This quote-within-a-quote (from Raeper) is from Greville, Biography, p. 384.

6 Raeper, MacDonald, pp. 264-65.

7 Another quote-within-a-quote is this letter from MacDonald to James Fields, August 21, 1879, quoted in Raeper, p. 346.

8 Raeper, MacDonald, p. 346.

9 Raeper, MacDonald, p. 338.

10 Greville, Biography, p. 503.

11 First entry in Table of Contents for March 1882 issue reads: “WEIGHED AND WANTING (illus.), from advance sheets furnished by George MacDonald, LL. D.”

12 The Athenaeum, Nov. 4, 1882, quoted in Bulloch, Bibliography.

13 The Saturday Review, Nov. 25, 1882, quoted in Bulloch, Bibliography.

14 The Spectator, March 24, 1883, quoted in Bulloch, Bibliography.

WEIGHED AND WANTING

1882

The Cullen Collection

Volume 26