This new edition of George MacDonald's 1895 afterlife fantasy is presented and introduced as Volume 35 in The Cullen Collection by Michael Phillips.

As the 1890s opened, a final life-culminating book loomed on George MacDonald’s horizon. His writing on it for several years resulted in eight distinct drafts, and the after-life fantasy Lilith was published in 1895. This most all-consuming project of his life so thoroughly taxed his mental and physical energy that he did nothing for several months afterward. MacDonald was also concerned that it would not be well received.

Though much of Lilith’s dark imagery is difficult to penetrate, it powerfully illuminates the free-will conundrum that God is able to compel the free choice of repentance. In Lilith MacDonald probes to the heart of what the final repentance of the unrepentant might look like—the divine compulsion to choose.

Lilith’s essential theme thus reprises much from MacDonald’s earlier work, climaxing the message of Robert Falconer (It will be of use in hell), “The Last Farthing” (There are means of compelling you), and Donal Grant’s powerful: He is compelled to do terrible things sometimes.

This edition for The Cullen Collection is unedited in any way.