The History of Gutta-Percha Willie & Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women

When he had been at school for about three weeks, the boys called him Six-fingered Jack; but his real name was Willie, for his father and mother gave it him – not William, but Willie, after a brother of his father, who died young, and had always been called Willie.

Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women is a fantasy novel by Scottish writer George MacDonald, first published in London in 1858. It was later reprinted in paperback by Ballantine Books as the fourteenth volume of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in April 1970.

The story centres on the character Anodos ( pathless , or ascent in Greek) and takes its inspiration from German Romanticism, particularly Novalis. The story concerns a young man who is pulled into a dreamlike world and there hunts for his ideal of female beauty, embodied by the Marble Lady . Anodos lives through many adventures and temptations while in the other world, until he is finally ready to give up his ideals.