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Virginia Tech

George MacDonald's Lilith A: A Transcription

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

George MacDonald's last major work of fiction, Lilith, was published in 1895, but the first version of the romance was written in March of 1890. Lilith is an account of the unintentional journey of the protagonist into another world populated by both mythological figures drawn from the Judeo-Christian tradition and by horrific personifications of the psychological horrors of the protagonist's own mind. The story of Lilith describes the protagonist's experiences in this other world which bring him to the point of repentance. The manuscript of the first version, known now as Lilith A, is housed in the British Library along with seven other typed revisions and printer's proofs. Taken together, the A-H manuscripts of Lilith represent the complete production history textual evolution of what is arguably MacDonald's greatest literary work. The body of this paper contains the 161 page transcription of Lilith A produced from the original manuscript and a microfilm photographic reproduction provided by the British Library. The introduction of this paper outlines the history of Lilith A, describes it's similarities and differences with the published version, provides a bibliographic description of the manuscript, and outlines the editorial principles used in producing the transcript of the text. The introduction is followed by a transcription of the title page created for the manuscripts of Lilith by Winifred Louisa, Lady Troup, who was MacDonald's daughter and amanuensis. This title page is followed by the transcription of Lilith A.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Arts
Level thesis:degree_level
masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
English
Department dc:contributor.department
English
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2001

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Griffith, David LaMond
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Colaianne, Anthony J.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Hatfield, Leonard L.
  • Graham, Peter W.

Subjects

dc:subject × 4

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
etd-04252001-104904
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/31892

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Griffith, David LaMond. George MacDonald's Lilith A: A Transcription. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/31892