The Light Princess and Other Tales of Fantasy by George MacDonald

Being a good and dutiful C. S. Lewis fan, I have of course read (and totally loved) George MacDonald's Phantastes, and I've also read and been utterly confused by Lilith. I seem to also remember reading At the Back of the North Wind when I was very young and feeling that it was far too weird. I'm sort of divided about this collection of stories, some of them, like 'The Light Princess' and 'Little Daylight' are just retellings of well-known fairy tales that I didn't find particularly original or interesting, but some of them are really amazing. My favourites were 'The Shadows', 'The Carasoyn', and 'The Golden Key'. They are all retellings of various fairy tales, but more obscure ones, and are told in a wonderfully uncanny and absolutely delicious style. The last story, 'The Day Boy and the Night Girl' was really too bizarre for me in terms of style, but is a really extraordinary story, it reads much more like something from the 70s-90s period when it became popular to write creepy fairy tale retellings. At his best, MacDonald can imbue his stories with an atmosphere of mystery and obscurity, which no one can match in terms of richness and fascination. I think he's especially good at telling stories involving long travels in uncertain spaces and time distortions.