# At the Back of the North Wind

> George MacDonald's tender Victorian fantasy. A poor coachman's son befriends the mysterious, beautiful North Wind, who carries him on journeys between our world and a country beyond, in a fairy tale about love and mortality.

Price: 7.50 USD · in stock

## About
A gentle boy living in poverty is visited one night by a tall, dark-haired woman who is the North Wind herself, and she carries him away on the air toward a strange and lovely country that lies at her very back.What it's aboutLittle Diamond, the kind-hearted son of a coachman, sleeps in a drafty loft where the wind steals through the wall, and there he meets North Wind, a being at once tender and terrible who takes him flying over the city and out to sea. She does hard and mysterious things in the world, yet cares for Diamond with deep love, and beyond her lies a serene country from which he returns changed. George MacDonald blends everyday scenes of hardship among the London poor with luminous passages of dream and vision.ThemesThe book is a gentle meditation on death, faith and the goodness that can flow from suffering, with North Wind herself an ambiguous figure of both destruction and grace. MacDonald explores innocence, love and the mystery of what lies beyond life, treating a child's spiritual imagination with rare seriousness and beauty.Why it still mattersA pioneering work of literary fantasy, it deeply influenced later masters of the form, including the writers who created Narnia and Middle-earth. Its blend of social realism and mystical vision, and its unflinching yet consoling approach to mortality, keep it treasured by readers of all ages.Who it's forFamilies and readers who love classic fairy tales with real emotional and spiritual depth, and anyone drawn to the roots of modern fantasy. A moving, gentle book for those unafraid of a story that touches on loss as well as wonder.

Sources and references
Verified references for this edition: Open Library, WorldCat.

## Specifications
- author: George MacDonald
- publisher: DotBooks
- imprint: DotBooks
- synopsis: George MacDonald’s Victorian fantasy pairs a cabman’s son with the mysterious North Wind in a luminous children’s classic about wonder, hardship, and grace.
- language: en
- binding: Perfect Bound
- pages: 264
- format: paperback
- oclc: 7590907
- openlibrary: OL15451W