Originally published in 1893 by Chatto & Windus, London.
This wonderful Scottish tale, not so expansive of theme and scope as some of MacDonald’s lengthier Scottish stories, is yet poignantly moving in its own way. The descriptions of the highlands and the lives of its people are the equal of those in Castle Warlock and What’s Mine’s Mine. Who, after reading the story of Kirsty Barclay in Heather and Snow, will forget her brother Steenie’s cry after “the bonny man!” Indeed, Kirsty is one of MacDonald’s most memorable women, whose lifelong friendship with neighbor Francis Gordon is the unifying thread through the story, as both mature from youth into adulthood.
(Source: The Cullen Collection)
Extensive Scots dialogue
“True love is an awful thing, not to the untrue only, but sometimes to the growing-true, for to everything that can be burned it is a consuming fire.”
Recommended Editions and Adaptations
The Cullen Collection Edition (abridged): paperback and kindle
Hardcover Editions (unabridged):
From Johannesen Printing & Publishing
Articles about Heather and Snow
Various Sources
“Faerie romance and divine comedy: God marries his people in George MacDonald's Heather & Snow”, by Bonnie Gaarden
WINGFOLD
Wingfold is a quarterly magazine that restores material by and about George MacDonald, in print since 1993. To subscribe, click here. To request any of the following articles that appear in back issues of Wingfold, contact Barbara Amell at b_amell@q.com.
Winter 2003
“1893 Review”, by W. Robertson Nicoll