Audiobook · read by volunteers
Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood
George MacDonald (1824–1905)
Read by Bookworm, Matthew Walton, Ophelia Darcy, Cyril Law, Jr., Heather Lambert, Lucy Burgoyne (1950-2014), Kevin McAsh, Kirsten Ferreri, Christine Blachford, Cindy Steib · 36 chapters · 7 h 04
About the book
Ranald Bannerman is a motherless boy growing up with his brothers in a Scottish manse, in a world of small adventures and large feelings. Around him gather memorable characters: Kirsty, a Highland storyteller who enchants the children, Turkey, the fearless cowherd, and the lovely Elsie Duff. Through lessons, escapades and a few hard knocks, Ranald learns from his father what courage and integrity mean, and the first awkward discoveries of what is right and what is merely convenient.
George MacDonald is mainly known for fantasy and fairy tales such as At the Back of the North Wind and The Princess and the Goblin, yet in his own lifetime he was far more famous for his realistic novels. Ranald Bannerman’s Boyhood, partly autobiographical, is one of the most appealing. In thirty-six short chapters and about seven hours, it offers a gentle, thoughtful portrait of childhood in the Scotland of long ago.
Introduction
George MacDonald (1824–1905) was a Scottish author, poet and minister. Today he is mainly remembered for his fantasy works and fairy tales, such as At the Back of the North Wind and The Princess and the Goblin, which influenced later writers including C. S. Lewis, who acknowledged his debt to him. During his lifetime, however, MacDonald was better known for a wider range of novels, many of them realistic, set in Scotland and often concerned with questions of faith and character.
Ranald Bannerman’s Boyhood was published in 1871 and is somewhat autobiographical. MacDonald drew on his own Scottish boyhood, and the book has the feeling of a remembered world: the landscape, the manse, the people of the neighbourhood and the child’s slowly growing sense of moral responsibility. The story is told in the first person by Ranald himself, looking back, and the voice has the gentle, reflective tone of an older man recalling the lessons of his youth. Like most of MacDonald’s work, it carries a religious outlook, but it does so without harshness.
The recording has 36 sections and lasts just over seven hours. It is read by LibriVox volunteers. A story built from many small episodes is well suited to listening in short sessions, and the voices add variety.
Why listen now? It is a good way to meet MacDonald through a side of his work that is less often discussed, and it offers a quiet, humane picture of childhood that is a pleasure in itself. Readers who enjoy the Victorian novel of youth, or who are curious about how a major fantasy author wrote realistic fiction, will find much to enjoy.
Public domain
George MacDonald died in 1905: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text