Mr. Simon and Cosmo

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November 17, 2017

The image below is page 55 of the new Scots-English edition of George MacDonald's Castle Warlock. The original Scots dialog is on the left, Scotsman David Jack's translation on the right. Scroll down to listen to Scotsman David Jack's recitation of the long middle paragraph!

Context: Young Cosmo Warlock is afraid that his pet horse is going to die and he'll never see her again...

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The Works Bookstore: Castle Warlock

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Castle Warlock

By George MacDonald

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Praise for this new edition of CASTLE WARLOCK:

“George MacDonald was one of the very finest writers of the Nineteenth Century and yet also one of the most ignored in today’s foolish world. My stepfather, C. S. Lewis, once told me that he had never written a word that was not influenced by George MacDonald, and he encouraged me to read [his] works. I re-read him almost every year. However, where suited, he uses the old Scottish language and dialects and that can make some of his work a touch opaque to those restricted to the modern English usage. David Jack has here nobly addressed that problem with the tale of Castle Warlock, rendering the Scots Doric which sadly, few enough today would fully or easily comprehend, into language that we can all enjoy. If you have not yet plunged into, and been entranced by, the works of George MacDonald, this book may well be the place to begin.”
-Douglas Gresham, stepson of C. S. Lewis, and series producer, The Chronicles of Narnia

“When Castle Warlock was published in 1882, novels with heroic characters, a glorified national history, and mystical descriptions of nature were not in vogue. The ideals of Romanticism had given way to Realism. However, MacDonald favored the older theories and traditions of Romanticism to carry his message – including the choice to use Scots dialogue in his Scottish novels. This unabridged text, with a side-by-side translation of the Scots, allows modern readers to fully enter into the rich atmosphere of MacDonald’s novel as the author intended.”
--Robert Trexler, publisher specializing in Inklings scholarship (Winged Lion Press)