Lady Alice
I really love George MacDonald and am currently lagging on finishing The Portent because I don’t want it to be over yet. G.M. is my new favorite author and I think it’s cool that he has the same first and last initial as my other favorite author, Gerald May. I would love to write more about why I love George MacDonald, but I find myself sounding like a bumbling fool when I do. Instead I’ll offer some fun info about him. He and his beloved wife Louisa had eleven children! It is said that she was a small framed woman whose figure bounced back to it’s original beautiful proportions soon after each birth (Sid thinks this is why they kept having babies! Georgie Mac couldn’t handle staying away from his wife’s cute little body!). Their friends in America, when they traveled here, demanded to see photos of all eleven children because they could not believe that the cute little woman had given birth to so many, based on her petiteness. I hope you’ll check out some of his work! I super highly recommend The Princess and the Goblin, The Portent and The Lost Princess. Maybe you’ll join The Read Less Traveled (some friends’ and my book club) and read Phantastes this month? More info is posted here under the The Read Less Traveled page.
I offer my own rendition of the character Lady Alice from The Portent. Looking at it makes me want to try again, I just love the way he described her! “Her eyes were large, and full of liquid night – a night throbbing with the light of invisible stars. Her hair seemed raven-black, and in quantity profuse.” She appears here after the first night he encounters her in the middle of the night in the ghost chamber of Hilton Hall when, “Her black hair, disordered and entangled, wandered all over her white dress to her knees.”
Posted in art
June 7th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
Great artistic expression by both you and George MacDonald!! Something about the description of lady Alice and the picture seems so familiar, and it intrigued me enough to want to read The Portent, and “yes” I bought it. Despite the fact that it is a fictional story, wouldn’t it be great if all of us women were described in such a beautifully poetic way that would only draw others to read more about us!?
June 9th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
Yes, Salina! It would be wonderful to have a poetic description of ourselves . . . but don’t we all have at least one memory of someone appreciating our beauty and describing it? Either written or spoken? I may not have mine (there are a few I like to piece together) on paper, but they are in my heart and locked in one of my most beautiful, special brain cabinets, in the glass conservatory of my brain mansion, ready for me to call upon them when I need them!
June 9th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
Jennifer, my optimistic friend, I think that it may be rare that women feel that they are completely seen and understood for their beauty. Especially in our times, where women’s beauty is not appreciated for it’s depth, mystery and trueness. I have had poems written about me, beautiful letters given to me, and complements received by me, but nothing has given me the feeling that I have been wholly seen. Something about the master poets and writers, who describe a situation or a feeling that sums up a person’s beauty or a feeling that leaves me wanting more and feeling connected. So, maybe I can change my general statement and say that I myself greatly desire to be described and written about in a way that leaves me feeling that another truly understands me, and can see me in a beautifully poetic way.
June 9th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
PS That was me!!!
PPS Thanks for responding to my comment. I always love our dialogue!!