Lilith, Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood & The Flight of the Shadow

Lilith is a fantasy novel by Scottish writer George MacDonald, first published in 1895. Lilith is considered among the darkest of MacDonald's works, and among the most profound. It is a story concerning the nature of life, death, and salvation. In the story, MacDonald mentions a cosmic sleep that heals tortured souls, preceding the salvation of all. MacDonald was a Christian universalist, believing that all will eventually be saved. However, in this story, divine punishment is not taken lightly, and salvation is hard-won.A work of faith and hope, repentance and redemption, this novel, set in Marshmallows, a rural location in Victorian England, is the story of a young vicar, Harry Walton, beginning work in his first parish. As he wins the confidence and affection of his parishioners he also comes to know the web of entanglements and sorrows that bind many of them, including the lovely and evasive young woman who lives with her mother and niece in stately Oldcastle Hall, the center of some of the neighborhood's longest hidden secrets.