George MacDonald 18241905 is the acknowledged forefather of later fantasy writers such as C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien however his place in his own time is seldom examined. This omission does MacDonald a grave disservice. By ignoring a fundamental aspect of what made MacDonald the man he was the critical habit of viewing MacDonalds work only in terms of his followers reinforces the longentrenched assessment that it has a limited value one only for religious enthusiasts and fantasy lovers. The essays in this anthology seek to correct that omission by looking directly at MacDonald the Victorian at his place in the Victorian literary scene at his engagement with the works of his literary contemporaries and at his interest in the social political and theological movements of his age. The resulting portrait reveals a MacDonald who deserves a more prominent place in the rich literary history of the nineteenth century than he has hitherto been given.