This new edition of George MacDonald's 1881 novel is updated and introduced by Michael Phillips as Volume 23 in The Cullen Collection.

One of MacDonald's lengthy and powerful, but not widely studied, novels, Mary Marston is the only book in the MacDonald corpus with a woman featured in the title role. As one of MacDonald’s many strong and memorable leading ladies, Mary exemplifies a life of dedication to Christ, self-sacrifice, and obedience to parents. We encounter here a touching portrayal of that earthly relationship so dear to MacDonald's heart, because it so embodied man’s relationship with God—the relationship between fathers and their sons and daughters.

Taken together, the individual lives of the characters makes fascinating reading. They are so diverse, sometimes so petty and foolish, their intertwining relationships so humorous at times. We observe human growth at work, always progressing in one direction or the other—sometimes straight, sometimes crooked. It is a variable mix of personalities, each with his or her own foibles, in many shades of gray, containing diverse individual flaws without easy resolutions. Mary Marston presents one of the most real arrays of characters in the MacDonald corpus.

 

409 pages