Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    At the Back of the North Wind
    Unavailable
    At the Back of the North Wind
    Unavailable
    At the Back of the North Wind
    Ebook98 pages1 hour

    At the Back of the North Wind

    By George MacDonald

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    Listen to the audiobook instead

    About this ebook

    Will update

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSheba Blake Publishing
    Release dateJun 7, 2014
    ISBN9781312235977
    Author

    George MacDonald

    George MacDonald (1824-1905) was a popular Scottish lecturer and writer of novels, poetry, and fairy tales. Born in Aberdeenshire, he was briefly a clergyman, then a professor of English literature at Bedford and King's College in London. W. H. Auden called him "one of the most remarkable writers of the nineteenth century."

    Read more from George Mac Donald

    Related to At the Back of the North Wind

    Related ebooks

    Children's For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Tomorrows

      Mar 15, 2022

      The night, as most nights, was like a dream. At ten, once I’d fed the dog the last scraps off the stove. Once I’d cursed the cat for scratching up my mama’s antique furniture, then welcomed him back into my arms. Once I’d slicked my hair into a ponyt

      26 min read

    • Article

      The Tale of Paddy Ahern

      Oct 1, 2019

      THERE ONCE WAS a lad named Paddy Ahern who trod the green hills of Limerick, Ireland, offering to help farmers with their chores in return for food and lodging. Trudging uphill and down over the country roads, day after day, wore Paddy’s shoes so thi

      4 min read

    • Article

      Excerpts From The Works Of The 2024 Whiting Award Winners

      Apr 10, 2024

      The 2024 Whiting Award winners were announced Wednesday night. Below are excerpts from their work.

      19 min read

    • Article

      Timber

      Jan 27, 2022

      Timber
      4 min read

    • Article

      Yule be SO BUSY

      Dec 9, 2020

      “The scene I am about to describe is one of such domestic bliss that we could have been advertising Oxo cubes, or one of those useful gadgets that beats as it sweeps as it cleans (or possibly kills 99% of household germs, I forget which). Picture m

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Sacrifice of the Rainbow Bird

      Jan 1, 2021

      The Sacrifice of the Rainbow Bird
      4 min read

    • Article

      Sydney’s Visitor

      Oct 1, 2021

      Sydney’s Visitor
      3 min read

    • Article

      Lost In Time

      Oct 5, 2022

      Lost In Time
      5 min read

    • Article

      Me & Davey Waters

      Jan 15, 2023

      Me & Davey Waters
      4 min read

    • Article

      Cranky Nanna COMES GOOD

      Dec 7, 2022

      Cranky Nanna COMES GOOD
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Old Man and the Boy

      Dec 16, 2019

      The Old Man and the Boy
      3 min read

    • Article

      Daddy Bear's Hair

      Mar 4, 2020

      Daddy Bear's Hair
      2 min read

    • Article

      Last Christmas

      Oct 6, 2022

      Last Christmas
      6 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      May 1, 2022

      —after Gerrit van Honthorst’s “Samson and Delilah,” c. 1621 They’ve made a monster of me, marring my namefor eternity. I’m not Delilah,but Laila. I loved him. Each night, in bed, after our bodies became one body, he would succumb to sleep, resting hi

      3 min read

    • Article

      Merry Christmas: A Reading Of Holiday Classics By Monitor Staff (audio)

      Dec 17, 2019

      A dive into venerable old writings can add to the warmth of the holiday hearth. Even more so when they’re read aloud.

      12 min read

    • Article

      John Jeremiah Sullivan

      Mar 9, 2021

      John Jeremiah Sullivan
      27 min read

    • Article

      Tornado!

      Jul 16, 2020

      Tornado!
      4 min read

    • Article

      Noises In The NIGHT

      Aug 18, 2021

      Noises In The NIGHT
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Kobold in the Corner PART 1

      Oct 1, 2022

      THE CARVING HAD stood off to the side of the chimney for years upon years, so long, in fact, that Friedrich had forgotten when it was put there, or why. It was a curious thing, fashioned from elm wood in a crude yet appealing style. It looked like a

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Silence of Witches

      Dec 10, 2019

      The Silence of Witches
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Joke

      Sep 1, 2020

      Although best known for his 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury was also a prolific writer of short stories, having published his first while still a teenager. This previously unpublished story likely dates to 1950, the year The Martian Chronicle

      5 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Jan 1, 2019

      Seven I’ll be. Then eight. Then nine. Ten is where I ends, ten is all, comes last. Ten is old enough to start my own, ten is when I leave. Start my home, find my mama, kai shi. I make a map. Inside my qi. The place the colors how soon the trees. How

      3 min read

    • Article

      Haunted

      Sep 27, 2023

      Haunted
      6 min read

    • Article

      Do Not Drop

      Jan 1, 2020

      Do Not Drop
      2 min read

    • Article

      Running Away

      Feb 22, 2021

      Leaving London behind her, Millie drove faster, picturing thousands of crazed fans in pursuit, desperate for what – a lock of her hair? Or Julian; except after the last gig, somehow she knew he wouldn’t follow. She knew from bitter experience that di

      5 min read

    • Article

      A Buzz In THE DARK

      Sep 16, 2020

      “When I say there was a lot going on in the master bedroom at Dear Towers one night recently, please don’t get the wrong impression. For a start, Mr D was snoring for most of the time. Perhaps that’s not fair. Mr Dear doesn’t snore as most people wo

      3 min read

    • Article

      Four Things You Hear

      Jan 1, 2023

      THE HOLLOW OF the oak tree wasn’t dark enough. Zoia squeezed her head between her knees, letting her wool dress mute the sunlight, the sounds of the forest, and the angry knife of grief that found her heart every time she thought about last night. Zo

      7 min read

    • Article

      Part 2 SOCKS

      Apr 1, 2022

      Part 2 SOCKS
      7 min read

    Reviews for At the Back of the North Wind

    4/5

    292 ratings14 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      At the Back of the North Wind is a morality tale for young children and their parents. Did Macdonald seriously believe real children could in any way behave like Little Diamond? Hopefully not but I suppose he was providing a model for children to emulate. And for parents the lessons are simple, love your children, listen to them, guide them and set a good example. If you are in a position to help other children don't hesitate to do so. While I enjoyed the old-fashioned quality of this novel, I don't know if I would read it to any of my young relatives as it was obvious how it will end. At the Back of the North Wind is not nearly as devastating as Andersen's The Little Match Girl. (I read that many years ago in a store, tearing up, and wondering who would read this to a child.) Thankfully Little Diamond has loving parents and friends.
    • 3/5
      Diamond, the coachman's son, is awaken by the North wind. Many adventures are awaiting him there.
    • 5/5
      This has all the lyrical prose of a Victorian Children’s Fairy Tale, whimsical and wholesome. It dangerously approached saccharine sermonizing – if not for the North Wind. Sometimes a Tall Woman with Dark Hair, sometimes a Wolf, or a Fairy, or an Unseen Breath, she is the most intriguing character in a fairy tale I have encountered in some time. Biden by her unnamed Master, she often does what seems cruel, causing pain, suffering, and even death. And yet, in the end, is it revealed that all she does is for the healing, the betterment, and the good fortune of people. She is neither callous nor wanton in her destruction, but precise and obedient, doing her duty with a single-minded service to her master. A the Back of the North Wind is a place, a place she cannot see or visit, but a place she often takes those she is bidden to carry there. It seems a place where neither time nor illness nor hungry nor suffering dwell. Daylight is a bit too cherubic for my taste, but I related to his constant out-of-place nature. He doesn’t fit in but doesn’t seem to notice. It is thought Daylight was modeled after MacDonald’s own son, as a tribute to the boy. His angelic goodness is off-set by the secondary characters, rough-and-tumble crowd, cabbies and street urchins, drunks and benevolent gentlemen. They seem real in a way Daylight does not. But perhaps that is the point. This is a fantastic fairy tale, whimsical and imaginative, but with a somber ending that makes this far more than just a gossamer tale of nonsense for children. To understand that pain and death are important teachers, vital to our life and growth, is a lesson worth teaching our children. MacDonald’s story helps explain this concept to children in a way that makes sense to them. And may help adults understand a concept that seems so contrary to our minds.
    • 2/5
      I came to MacDonald because of Lewis who loved him. I do not. I read this fairly recently, within the last 5 years, and, frankly, I did not like it. It's very Victorian, a mix of schmaltz and real tragedy.
    • 5/5
      At the start, for the first half of it, I struggled to push my way through "At the Back of the North Wind." I thought it tedious and drawn out. But by the time I had waded into the middle, I found I was swimming.I just finished this book, and I have to tell you, I have no way of using my tongue to convey how I feel and what this book has done in me. I sit without words, but without the ability to contain the rush of thought and emotion that crowd me on all sides. I look about and the only thing that can settle me and quiet me is a morning sunbeam passing through the curtains to the floor. Ach, that sounds so rhapsodic and romaunt. I'm caught up, and enjoying every minute of it, like a man in love. But though my worldly assessment of masculinity wants me to say no more and erase all this, how could I hide from you that bit of "mysticism" which I am presently enjoying?Well, let me try to do some justice to this thing we call a "review" and actually talk about the book. I have one thing to tell you primarily: complete the story. I read the last chapter twice. Mull it over. Let thoughts on the whole story come and give yourself time to think about them, to philosophize and wonder. And then digest your thoughts. This is one of the greatest stories of any kind I have ever known (of course, this is only my estimation), and it is thus no surprise to me that C.S. Lewis wrote what he did of MacDonald's story-making:"What he does best is fantasy—fantasy that hovers between the allegorical and the mythopoeic. And this, in my opinion, he does better than any man.... Most myths were made in prehistoric times, and, I suppose, not consciously made by individuals at all. But every now and then there occurs in the modern world a genius—a Kafka or a Novalis—who can make such a story. MacDonald is the greatest genius of this kind whom I know."—This from a professor of literature, at Cambridge.I felt like I had experienced a holy moment when I finished the very last sentence of the last chapter—though I wonder if later, my words here will seem surfeit, but I know they can't, because, as Diamond and the North Wind explain in the latter portion of the book: whether the dream is true or not, the thing it has done and the thing it stands for is true; and if the thing is true, mightn't we also say that the dream is "true"?"At the Back of the North Wind" did nothing less to me than to make me aware of the wondrous ordinary—that the ordinary is never actually ordinary, but full of wonders, for those willing to perceive them. It also made me ever more conscious of a different way of being, as I fell in love with the character of Diamond: one that is so contented in trust, and fulfilled in love, that it cannot but live for the good of others (finding not that its own pleasure and good is overlooked, but that the good of others becomes its own pleasure and good) and that it cannot even feign to fear anything (finding that it is always watched and always loved by capable hands and full heart).I will leave you to decide for yourself whether you will read the book. You will or you won't—there are other ways to come to these things yourself and other places to find great stories (though not many will be so transcendent). But I don't feel any embarrassment in admitting the influence this book and George MacDonald's other works, each in their own kind, have made on me.
    • 3/5
      I never came across this book as a child and can't imagine what I'd have made of it if I had. The main character, a little cherub of a boy called Diamond, after the horse who sleeps in the stable below him, meets the North Wind, personified as a woman with long flowing hair, who blows in through a chink in the wall next to his bed. Returning time after time, she sweeps him off on various adventures around London and elsewhere, on her various missions that include punishing a drunken nurse and sinking a ship. At one point Diamond is taken to the Far North and goes through North Wind to a land of... well, I won't say, but he comes back most poetical and even sweeter than before. This is only about halfway through the book, and from that moment he takes to driving his father's cab and delighting everyone he meets, spreading goodness all around. This is only one aspect of the tale, which also includes a separate fairy story, dreams, several poems and songs, and what I liked most about it, a picture of life in London in Victorian times: the horse-drawn cabs, children sweeping street crossings to make a little money, family life in different realms of society, a gruesome glimpse of poverty wrapped in a moralizing blanket. It is a cake of sweet Victoria sponge sandwiched with jam and butter icing and topped with honey and marzipan - many layers, but you can only manage a small slice.
    • 4/5
      I had an unusually difficult time rating this one. This is really a 3.5 for me, but I'm feeling positive today, so it gets a four. I think the trouble came from the fact that while I enjoyed this book and recognize it as a classic, I don't love it enough to rave about it. There wasn't much that I disliked about it. Sometimes the North Wind, and even Diamond at times, got on my nerves, but that was the only thing I disliked. Other than that, I really enjoyed this book for the images that MacDonald created. George MacDonald is credited as one of the forefathers of the fantasy genre (specifically for children), and his originality shined through this story. The only way I can describe it is that at various points, it felt like a really awesome and vivid dream that I just didn't want to wake up from. One of my favorite scenes was the dream Diamond had about the little angels digging for stars. I just had this really clear and impressive picture in my head as he was describing his dream. So cool! Another aspect that I particularly liked about this book was that, going into this, I knew that C.S. Lewis counted MacDonald as one of his biggest inspirations for the Narnia series, and as I was reading this, I would catch myself thinking, "Hmm...this feels awfully familiar." This was primarily evident through the usage of Christian allegory. He did it just right--it wasn't too preachy, but it was still obvious enough for the reader to catch it and understand it. It was definitely an interesting experience to read a story by an author that one of my favorite authors looked up to. The language is a bit dated, but this would definitely be a good book to read to kids for a bedtime story. I'm telling you, it will lead to some pretty sweet dreams!
    • 4/5
      Far from my favorite book of MacDonald's but it grows on you with time. At least, it did for me.
    • 5/5
      I read a great deal as a child, and this was almost my favorite book. I remember reading it on a winter night, sitting in my outside sand box and feeling the cold, along with Diamond. (Of course we lived in Los Angeles, so it wasn't really all that cold.) But this book was part of the reason I grew up loving to read.
    • 2/5
      "At the Back of the North Wind" was, at times, mildly entertaining. At least... I think it was. Having finished the book, I can't actually remember those parts. That is, unfortunately, the best I can say for it. Past that, the main character is a complete Mary Sue, the didacticism is heavy-handed, and the storyline is thin. The fantasy element is absent from the bulk of the narrative, and when it is present, it is not particularly fantastic. Near the beginning I thought that this book might be a good one to read aloud to one's children. Now I think that it may be better to simply skip it.
    • 2/5
      Moralizing fluff. It's unfortunate - the first part of the book, in Diamond's voice, is quite interesting. Totally weird (who said surrealism?) but good - Diamond accepts what he sees and deals with it on its own terms. But after he goes to the back of the North Wind, the author's voice starts intruding more and more - every time Diamond accepts and deals, the author reminds us "after all, this was a child who had been to the Back of the North Wind" (yes, I know that, thank you. I read the book. Shut up). He also (because we move out of his head and into a wider world) gets much more portrayed as a "God's Baby" - innocent and not quite right in the head. And by the last chapters, in which the author portrays himself and how he met Diamond, I was - OK, spoiler coming.I was expecting him to die - the holy innocents never survive in these moral tales. And got what I expected. It actually reads rather like Peter Pan (the original, not the Disney or similar versions), or even Black Beauty (the horse Diamond is also an important character). But both of those have much better stories and writing to back up their moralizing. A Victorian children's moral tale, that doesn't manage to surpass its basis and turn into a good story. I suppose I'm glad I read it, but it's not worth rereading.
    • 4/5
      I remember this as being rather hard going for a child. MacDonald was a major influence on C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams and deserves reading, but modern children might find him a bit wordy.
    • 5/5
      I don't normally read books twice, but this book I've read 4 or 5 times! Such a well-written story that speaks to people of all ages.
    • 5/5
      "At the Back of the North Wind" is something wholly different than most of what I've read. It is a book of peace rather than conflict, which goes against the nature of plot as we know it. The only thing I can really compare it to is the slow windings of "Goodbye to a River" by John Graves, though the peace in that book is tinged with regret, while there is none of that here. I have rarely come across a character for whom I care so much as I do little Diamond. His simple, innocent, and true manner touches me deeply. This is one of those books that changes you, and for the better. I will treasure it always.