Fiction · 1871
At the Back of the North Wind
Diamond, a poor London coachman's son, is visited at night by a beautiful, giant woman named North Wind, who carries him on journeys through storms and over the sea, and eventually to the mysterious country at her own back — a place he can reach only by, in some sense, dying.
George MacDonald published the novel in 1871, serialized first in the children's magazine Good Words for the Young; its blend of realistic Victorian poverty and dreamlike fantasy influenced later writers including C. S. Lewis.
Bibliomancer restores the 1871 text exactly as MacDonald wrote it.
Contents
- Chapter I — The Hay-Loft
- Chapter II — The Lawn
- Chapter III — Old Diamond
- Chapter IV — North Wind
- Chapter V — The Summer-House
- Chapter VI — Out in the Storm
- Chapter VII — The Cathedral
- Chapter VIII — The East Window
- Chapter IX — How Diamond Got to the Back of the North Wind
- Chapter X — At the Back of the North Wind
- Chapter XI — How Diamond Got Home Again
- Chapter XII — Who Met Diamond at Sandwich
- Chapter XIII — The Seaside
- Chapter XIV — Old Diamond
- Chapter XV — The Mews
- Chapter XVI — Diamond Makes a Beginning
- Chapter XVII — Diamond Goes on
- Chapter XVIII — The Drunken Cabman
- Chapter XIX — Diamond’s Friends
- Chapter XX — Diamond Learns to Read
- Chapter XXI — Sal’s Nanny
- Chapter XXII — Mr. Raymond’s Riddle
- Chapter XXIII — The Early Bird
- Chapter XXIV — Another Early Bird
- Chapter XXV — Diamond’s Dream
- Chapter XXVI — Diamond Takes a Fare the Wrong Way Right
- Chapter XXVII — The Children’s Hospital
- Chapter XXVIII — Little Daylight
- Chapter XXIX — Ruby
- Chapter XXX — Nanny’s Dream
- Chapter XXXI — The North Wind Doth Blow
- Chapter XXXII — Diamond and Ruby
- Chapter XXXIII — The Prospect Brightens
- Chapter XXXIV — In the Country
- Chapter XXXV — I Make Diamond’s Acquaintance
- Chapter XXXVI — Diamond Questions North Wind
- Chapter XXXVII — Once More
- Chapter XXXVIII — At the Back of the North Wind
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About this edition
The text is free of copyright. This edition was prepared from an authoritative digitisation, processed by Bibliomancer under its own review protocol; every automated correction is recorded in its transformation log. Rights assessed for CA, EU, GB, US.
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