This new edition of George MacDonald's 1864 classic is updated and introduced as Volume 3 in The Cullen Collection by Michael Phillips.

In The Portent, first person narrator Duncan Campbell is engaged as tutor in a large mansion. There he falls under the spell of somnambulist Lady Alice, who is trapped between the worlds of wakefulness and sleep. This spooky tale of the Scottish “second sight” is a thorough spine-tingling ghost story worthy of The Twilight Zone. MacDonald’s love of mysterious old castles and libraries plays a significant role in the story.

Because of its mystical flavor, The Portent is often linked with MacDonald’s earlier Phantastes. Though the books are completely different, The Portent yet contains elements that appeal to readers of MacDonald’s fantasy writings, and thus spans the genres of both fantasy and realistic fiction. It is decidedly not a children’s story, and is sure to raise the hair on the back of the neck for even the most intrepid of readers.

Shorter than most of MacDonald’s novels, The Portent presents an anomaly, being perhaps the most unspiritual of MacDonald’s novels. That fact may be explained in that it was actually his first written realistic novel, originally written for magazine serialization form three years prior to David Elginbrod.

“The story is different from almost any other of his books. It is weird, yet strangely convincing, and has no touch of the didactic.”
- Greville MacDonald

 

155 pages