At the Back of the North Wind by George MacDonald

While Diamond learns much about life through his travels with North Wind, his visit to the country at her âbackâ proves to be transformative. Standard EbooksĪt the Back of the North Wind George MacDonaldĩ0,847 words (5 hours 31 minutes) with a reading ease of 89.48 (very easy)Īs a poor cabbie and his wife eke out a meager existence in Victorian London, their little boy, Diamondânamed after his fatherâs horseâis befriended by the North Wind. Edited by Roderick McGillis and John Pennington, Broadview, 2011.At the Back of the North Wind, by George MacDonald - Free ebook download - Standard Ebooks: Free and liberated ebooks, carefully produced for the true book lover. In At the Back of the North Wind, George MacDonald appreciates both the world at the back of North Wind and the world in front of her. She herself is the door between this life and the afterlife. As North Wind says to Diamond, when he wants to go to that country: “you must walk on as if I were an open door and go right through me” (121). Besides, since she must “consent to be nobody ” (115) in order to take people to the country at her back, the land after death, Diamond’s earnest desire for her to be his “own real beautiful North Wind” (287), namely, a corporeal lady, can be considered his will to live this life. Through their bodies, we can “know” North Wind. However, at the same time, I believe that this work tells us the importance of this life because body is the testimony of our life and we can see the physical intimacy between North Wind and Diamond: the boy feels blissful when he is in contact with her as a bodily being. At the Back of the North Wind can be seen as the book in which MacDonald most earnestly grappled with the theme of death, and by reading it (and going through North Wind’s body) we can reduce our fear of death and have hope for the fuller life after death. I’m especially impressed by North Wind’s quoted words to Diamond and the fact that North Wind, who is invisible and intangible to ordinary people as a literal north wind, becomes a beautiful corporeal lady only in the presence of the boy. “No creature can know another without the help of a body.” (295)*

At the Back of the North Wind by George MacDonald