Lilith: A Romance
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Lilith is a romance novel by George MacDonald. MacDonald was a Scottish author and poet widely known for his fantasy novels. Excerpt: "Making a circuit of the castle, I came again to the open gates, crossed the ravine-like moat, and found myself in a paved court, planted at regular intervals with towering trees like poplars. In the centre was one taller than the rest, whose branches, near the top, spread a little and gave it some resemblance to a palm. Between their great stems I got glimpses of the palace, which was of a style strange to me, but suggested Indian origin. It was long and low, with lofty towers at the corners, and one huge dome in the middle, rising from the roof to half the height of the towers. The main entrance was in the centre of the front—a low arch that seemed half an ellipse. No one was visible, the doors stood wide open, and I went unchallenged into a large hall, in the form of a longish ellipse. Toward one side stood a cage, in which couched, its head on its paws, a huge leopardess, chained by a steel collar, with its mouth muzzled and its paws muffled. It was white with dark oval spots, and lay staring out of wide-open eyes, with canoe-shaped pupils, and great green irids. It appeared to watch me, but not an eyeball, not a foot, not a whisker moved, and its tail stretched out behind it rigid as an iron bar. I could not tell whether it was a live thing or not."
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I read this book many years ago as a teenager or in my twenties, because I had loved MacDonald's books as a child. But Lilith was something else again, and I think it must have put me off with its mostly dark and inscrutable images, and philosophical talk about death being the only way to true life. I don't have a strong memory of my response at the time; interested but puzzled, I think.
Since then I've read and learned more about esoteric Christianity, spiritual development, and paths of initiation, and gone through a kind of death-rebirth process of my own through an extreme personal crisis at midlife. Now, picking this book up is like reading a textbook written in fairy-tale images about such a process of initiation. Extraordinary, and marred only by the twee sayings of the “Little Ones” who are far too cutesy (but that is a nineteenth century literary disease), and the sometimes murky prose. I will be reading it again, I'm sure, and there are lots of passages I want to copy and ponder at length.
Contains spoilers
I read this at the recommendation of a friend who likes it so much that he buys copies to give away to friends. However, MacDonald's language is to archaic for me to really appreciate his style of literature.
Lilith was a mythical figure and Adam's first wife, created from dust as was Adam, but she wouldn't submit to him and was banished so God then made Eve from Adam's rib.
Lilith continues in some mythical stories as a rebellious temptress. But MacDonald asks, can Lilith find redemption? Long story short, she does in the end. And that's it from me.
