• Phantastes

  • A Faerie Romance for Men and Women
  • By: George Macdonald
  • Narrated by: Joel Allen
  • Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (11 ratings)

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Phantastes  By  cover art

Phantastes

By: George Macdonald
Narrated by: Joel Allen
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Publisher's summary

Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women is a fantasy novel by the Scottish author George MacDonald, first published in 1858. It is the story of a young man, Anodos, who enters a dreamlike realm where he experiences breathtaking adventures, while encountering a host of entities like tree spirits, gnomes, monsters, and giants as well as his own shadow. All the time, he searches for his ideal of female beauty, in the form of the "Marble Lady". After having been killed in Fairy Land, Anodos wakes up on Earth, retaining the memory of his adventures in the realm of dreams. His family informs him that he had only been gone 21 days. C. S. Lewis is among the many fans of this amazing allegorical tale.

Public Domain (P)2019 Museum Audiobooks

What listeners say about Phantastes

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable Book, Underwhelming Narrator

This volume is charming; I don’t know why it took me so late in life to find it. To me, the story was a bit rambling and vague in places, but when I finished and went back through to extract my favorite excerpts, I was pleasantly surprised at their abundance. There are lovely bits of poetry and poignant insights into life and suffering and growth. (The story within a story of the man who can only see the woman he loves by looking in the mirror was especially, beautifully haunting.)

* A note on Joel Allen as narrator: I found this narrator’s voice, cadence, inflections, etc. extremely out of sync with the history, setting, and genre of the book. This is a fantasy story written by a Scot in the mid-19th century. The narrator sounds like a modern news reporter. I was so off-put by the narration that I ordered the book and finished it myself in paper and ink, which, while not as convenient, was far preferable.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars

couldn't keep going

I had heard great things about this story but about 2 minutes in I could no longer take the narrators voice. I'll be trading in for a different voice

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great book horrid reader

I loved the book and the story. U fortunately the reader sounds like a news anchorman through the entire thing. A scotch accent would have been preferable for a McDonald

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5 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Avoid this recording

Avoid this recording!!! It is awful!!! I don’t know why but the sound is off and the monotone nature of the narrator is mind numbing

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