Description: "At the Back of the North Wind," the first of George MacDonald's fairy tales to be published, became a Victorian favorite and stands today as something of a milestone in children's literature. For more than one hundred years children have been enchanted and moved by the story of Nanny the crossing-sweeper, her lame friend Jim, and above all Diamond, the poor coachman's son, who is swept away by the North Wind -- an ethereal, maternal spirit with long, flowing hair -- and whose life is transformed by a brief glimpse of a beautiful country "at the back of the north wind."

It isn't surprising that MacDonald, who had thirteen children clamoring for bedtime stories, discovered he had a gift for composing fairy tales. While owing a debt to Dickens, Hans Andersen, and Charles Kingsley, MacDonald created a distinctive imaginary world existing in parallel with the grim social realities of mid-nineteenth-century England. "A fairy tale is not an allegory, " MacDonald once remarked. It is, of course, but the trick was to disguise it, to entertain as well as to instruct, leaving readers to draw a moral if they pleased, or else simply to enjoy the fantasy. The first edition of "At the Back of the North Wind" (1871) was illustrated by the pre-Raphaelite artist Arthur Hughes, whose romantic and highly individualistic drawings are reproduced in this edition.

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