C. S. Lewis’ description of George MacDonald from his introduction to Phantastes:
His resignation to poverty was at the opposite pole from that of the stoic. He appears to have been a sunny, playful man, deeply appreciative of all really beautiful and delicious things that money can buy, and no less deeply content to do without them.
I tried to read Phantastes (in the Project Gutenberg version) on my phone, and just slowly ground to a halt. I finally realized I was passing up a lot of good opportunities to read on my phone because I didn’t particularly want to read more of the MacDonald, and moved on to something else.
Lewis says in his introduction that the strength of the book is it’s events, not it’s prose. It’s probably easier to listen to than to read. I listened to a recording of it a few years ago, but I haven’t read it on paper.
Libravox has a free recording of it that I intend to try out.
It was definitely interesting; it just wasn’t in any way gripping.