Perhaps George MacDonald’s most well-known novel and which details the life story of his most memorable character. The character of “Robert Falconer” had been with MacDonald a long time, first from the unpublished Seekers and Finders (1859-60), then briefly appearing in David Elginbrod, and later in a much abbreviated serialized story (1866-67) called “The History of Robert Falconer.”

Robert Falconer, like Alec Forbes of Howglen, is a highly autobiographical work, with this difference: in the character of young Robert Falconer, the reader gains a rare glimpse into MacDonald’s own boyhood, with his internal struggles, his relationship with his grandmother (who largely raised him after the death of his mother) and his spiritual search as a young man attempting to discover God’s love amid the hellfire Calvinism of his upbringing.

Robert Falconer’s wonderful resolution of this conflict reveals the roots and development of MacDonald’s own faith which would inspire future generations to come toward the Fatherhood of a loving God.

[Original Print: 1868, Hurst & Blackett]