Sir Gibbie is an 1879 novel by the Scottish author George MacDonald, including dialogue written in the Doric dialect of Scotland, that presents a narrative rags-to-riches arc for the title character, in the context of the actual emphasis on the integrity of Gibbie as an obedient Christian servant, and indeed as a Christ-like figure, despite his challenges and circumstances.
Created as a means of supplemental income for MacDonald and his family, the characters of this and thematically related other works of his popular fiction also provided a means by which MacDonald's principal devotion—the spread of the Christian message, and of his conception of Christian obedience—could be furthered as well. [1]
The novel made a significant popular and literary impact in the English-speaking world in its day, both in Great Britain and in the United States, and was reintroduced in the early to mid-20th century through mention of MacDonald and his works by academic and popular Christian author C. S. Lewis.
Sir Gibbie replaced a novel of comparable style by MacDonald, entitled Malcolm, in the 1938 (Swinnerton) edition of the influential Arnold Bennett list of notable English language literature, Literary Taste: How to Form It , as an important fictional work in English (alongside Walter Scott, Benjamin Disraeli, Anthony Trollope, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, Samuel Butler, Lewis Carroll, and Robert Louis Stevenson, and others). [2]
Sir Gibbie was one of several popular works that George MacDonald wrote during a period of years where his primary avocation was to serve as a preacher in the dissenting church to which he had been called.[ clarification needed ][ citation needed ] Coincident with the growth in the size and needs of his family, the writing MacDonald did during this time, as a sideline, served to provide very necessary income for their sustenance.[ citation needed ]
Sir Gibbie presents a complex cast of characters from various social levels: a laird;[ who? ][ clarification needed ] a pair of parish priests, a clever one that yields to worldly influences without being wicked[ who? ] and another clearly presented as pompous and self-righteous.[ who? ][ citation needed ]
Gibbie is a destitute, mute boy in Scotland, raised by an alcoholic father. At one point in childhood, he finds himself in murderous company—the "wee Sir Gibbie" is an appellation of affection given the character, by his compatriots, emphasizing the distinctiveness of his character, in particular in relation to his coarse surroundings. He ultimately flies from this, experiencing adventure and misadventure, including tragic punishment meted out for doing good to others.
MacDonald's Christian idealism is reflected in the exceptional saintliness of many of his characters. Gibbie is a completely selfless individual, constantly denying himself for the sake of others. [3]
The character of Gibbie in the novel and in its modern edited production (Wee Sir Gibbie, see below) is presented as a character that the reader is intended to emulate, the character that has rightly discerned the way of the Cross, and so serves as a model for the reader as a contemporary knight-errant, a righter of wrongs.[ citation needed ] At the same time through his inestimable, literal graciousness, he also presents a less attainable figure, a Christ-figure toward which the reader is intended to strive [ citation needed ]
MacDonald met Mark Twain during MacDonald's 1872–73 lecture tour in the United States. Mr. and Mrs. MacDonald, and their son Greville even stayed a few days at the home of Twain's mother-in-law while in New York. Later, MacDonald returned the favour when Twain his wife and daughter, while travelling through Scotland, stayed at his home. Author Ranelda Mack Hunsicker contends that Gibbie provided some of the inspiration for Huckleberry Finn. [4]
Sir Gibbie and other of the MacDonald fictional works are notable for their Doric dialogue.[ citation needed ] They have been criticised, especially by members of the Scottish Renaissance,[ who? ] for being part of the Kailyard school.[ citation needed ]
First publication of Sir Gibbie by MacDonald was in three volumes, in 1879, by Hurst and Blackett of London, and followed likewise styled novels David Elginbrod , Robert Falkoner , Alec Forbes of Howglen , and others. The first of the three original volumes, with MacDonald's name appearing as "MAC DONALD", followed by Legum Doctor (LL.D., Doctor of Laws), is of 320 pages, and ends with the chapter "Refuge", and Gibbie being taken in by Robert and Janet, their discovery of the scars of his upbringing, and his experiencing alongside their six children the normality of a bed, hearth and home. These citations, in full, are:
The entire text was issued by Lippincott in America in a single volume, with the three English volumes appearing separately chaptered, in sequence; set in two columns in smaller font, this volume's presentation of the text was in 210 pages:
The entirety of the text, set in 62 short chapters, on the order of 1000 pages, and is available with a Broad Scots glossary by its digitizer, John Bechard, from Project Gutenberg. [5]
 | This section needs expansionwith: a sourced, encyclopedic description of its literary, critical, and popular reception, in that time, and in subsequent editions. You can help by adding to it. (March 2017) |
MacDonald's editor Elizabeth Yates wrote of Sir Gibbie, "It moved me the way books did when, as a child, the great gates of literature began to open and first encounters with noble thoughts and utterances were unspeakably thrilling."[ This quote needs a citation ]
The series of Scottish popular novels re-emerged in the 20th century from relative obscurity, as a result of mentions by academic and popular author C. S. Lewis, who indicated the influences of MacDonald in his creative work.[ citation needed ] The result, in part by this attention, was the direction of the many followers of Lewis' writings, which include The Chronicles of Narnia , the Space Trilogy , but more relevantly his Till We Have Faces and his poetic work, toward the works of MacDonald.[ citation needed ]
This focus of attention on MacDonald's old works led to their editing and reproduction as a new series from Bethany House, with the editing and modernising of language done by Michael R. Phillips, [6] alongside several other works of MacDonald's Scottish fiction.
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet, was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels Ivanhoe (1819), Rob Roy (1817), Waverley (1814), Old Mortality (1816), The Heart of Mid-Lothian (1818), and The Bride of Lammermoor (1819), along with the narrative poems Marmion (1808) and The Lady of the Lake (1810). He had a major impact on European and American literature.
George MacDonald was a Scottish author, poet and Christian Congregational minister. He became a pioneering figure in the field of modern fantasy literature and the mentor of fellow-writer Lewis Carroll. In addition to his fairy tales, MacDonald wrote several works of Christian theology, including several collections of sermons.
The English novel is an important part of English literature. This article mainly concerns novels, written in English, by novelists who were born or have spent a significant part of their lives in England, Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland. However, given the nature of the subject, this guideline has been applied with common sense, and reference is made to novels in other languages or novelists who are not primarily British, where appropriate.
Genre fiction, also known as formula fiction or popular fiction, is a term used in the book-trade for fictional works written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre.
Tobias George Smollett was a Scottish writer and surgeon. He was best known for writing picaresque novels such as The Adventures of Roderick Random (1748), The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle (1751) and The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1771), which influenced later generations of British novelists, including Charles Dickens. His novels were liberally altered by contemporary printers; an authoritative edition of each was edited by Dr O. M. Brack Jr and others.
George Robert Gissing was an English novelist, who published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. In the 1890s he was considered one of the three greatest novelists in England, and by the 1940s he had been recognised as a literary genius. Gissing's best-known works have reappeared in modern editions. They include The Nether World (1889), New Grub Street (1891) and The Odd Women (1893). He retains a small but devoted group of followers.
British literature is from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands. This article covers British literature in the English language. Anglo-Saxon literature is included, and there is some discussion of Latin and Anglo-Norman literature, where literature in these languages relate to the early development of the English language and literature. There is also some brief discussion of major figures who wrote in Scots, but the main discussion is in the various Scottish literature articles.
George MacDonald Fraser was a Scottish author and screenwriter. He is best known for a series of works that featured the character Flashman. Over the course of his career he wrote eleven novels and one short-story collection in the Flashman series of novels, as well as non-fiction, short stories, novels and screenplays—including those for the James Bond film Octopussy, The Three Musketeers and an adaptation of his own novel Royal Flash.
A comic novel is a novel-length work of humorous fiction. Many well-known authors have written comic novels, including P. G. Wodehouse, Henry Fielding, Mark Twain, and John Kennedy Toole. Comic novels are often defined by the author's literary choice to make the thrust of the work—in its narration or plot—funny or satirical in orientation, regardless of the putative seriousness of the topics addressed.
Fantasy literature is literature set in an imaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. Magic, the supernatural and magical creatures are common in many of these imaginary worlds. Fantasy literature may be directed at both children and adults.
Elements of the supernatural and the fantastic were an element of literature from its beginning. The modern fantasy genre is distinguished from tales and folklore which contain fantastic elements, first by the acknowledged fictitious nature of the work, and second by the naming of an author. Authors like George MacDonald (1824–1905) created the first explicitly fantastic works.
Kathryn Ann "Kay" Lindskoog was a C. S. Lewis scholar known partly for her theory that some works attributed to Lewis are forgeries, including The Dark Tower.
Gibby or Gibbie may refer to:
Princess Amélie Rives Troubetzkoy was an American author of novels, poetry, and plays. The Quick or the Dead? (1888), her first novel, which sold 300,000 copies, created more of a sensation than any of her later work. Her 1914 novel, World's End was reputed to be "the best seller in New York City". Described as a genius who was morbidly sensitive, she was a woman of moods and fancies, but in manner, as simple as a child.
English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the fifth century, are called Old English. Beowulf is the most famous work in Old English. Despite being set in Scandinavia, it has achieved national epic status in England. However, following the Norman conquest of England in 1066, the written form of the Anglo-Saxon language became less common. Under the influence of the new aristocracy, French became the standard language of courts, parliament, and polite society. The English spoken after the Normans came is known as Middle English. This form of English lasted until the 1470s, when the Chancery Standard, a London-based form of English, became widespread. Geoffrey Chaucer (1343–1400), author of The Canterbury Tales, was a significant figure developing the legitimacy of vernacular Middle English at a time when the dominant literary languages in England were still French and Latin. The invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1439 also helped to standardise the language, as did the King James Bible (1611), and the Great Vowel Shift.
Elizabeth Caroline Grey (1798–1869), aka Mrs. Colonel Grey or Mrs. Grey, was a prolific English author of over 30 romance novels, silver fork novels, Gothic novels, sensation fiction and Penny Dreadfuls, active between the 1820s and 1867. There is some controversy about the details of her life story, and if she actually authored any penny dreadfuls.
The novel in Scotland includes all long prose fiction published in Scotland and by Scottish authors since the development of the literary format in the eighteenth century. The novel was soon a major element of Scottish literary and critical life. Tobias Smollett's picaresque novels, such as The Adventures of Roderick Random and The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle mean that he is often seen as Scotland's first novelist. Other Scots who contributed to the development of the novel in the eighteenth century include Henry Mackenzie and John Moore.
Literature in modern Scotland is literature written in Scotland, or by Scottish writers, since the beginning of the twentieth century. It includes literature written in English, Scottish Gaelic and Scots in forms including poetry, novels, drama and the short story.
Iza Duffus Hardy was a prolific English novelist and travel writer, associated with the pre-Raphaelite artistic community.
Michael Phillips is an author, and editor of Christian fiction. and a scholar of George MacDonald.
Sir Gibbie public domain audiobook at LibriVox