At the Back of the North Wind (George Macdonald Classics for Young Readers) - Hardcover

MacDonald, George; Phillips, Michael R.

4

7,660 ratings by Goodreads

9781556611964: At the Back of the North Wind (George Macdonald Classics for Young Readers)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 155661196X ISBN 13: 9781556611964

Publisher: Bethany House Pub, 1991

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Diamond, a young boy living in nineteenth-century London, has many adventures as he travels with the beautiful Lady North Wind and comes to know the many facets of her protective and violent temper

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Review:

This is a story of a poor stable boy living in Victorian London in which everyday lives are mysteriously enveloped by a power and a glory, personified here as a beautiful woman known as the North Wind. She visits the small boy, Diamond, and takes him with her on her journeys, teaching him about herself. Through the eyes of an innocent and yet perceptive child, MacDonald explores North Wind as a way of exploring the place of death in our lives. He looks squarely at social injustice--he knew poverty and the poor first hand--and yet also sees that the deepest need we have is for love and forgiveness, which are rooted in eternity.

This is a book for children--I've read it to my own daughter more than once--even though they may not understand just who North Wind is until years later. Adults on the other hand will learn that while they thought they knew something about death, there is much to relearn--and probably the most important part. --Doug Thorpe

From the Inside Flap:

A Victorian fairy tale that has enchanted readers for more than a hundred years: the magical story of Diamond, the son of a poor coachman, who is swept away by the North Wind?a radiant, maternal spirit with long, flowing hair?and whose life is transformed by a brief glimpse of the beautiful country ?at the back of the north wind.? It combines a Dickensian regard for the working class of mid-19th-century England with the invention of an ethereal landscape, and is published here alongside Arthur Hughes?s handsome illustrations from the original 1871 edition.

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