Phantastes

Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women is a fantasy novel by the Scottish writer George MacDonald, published in London in 1858. It takes its manner from German Romanticism, particularly the writing of Novalis, and the name of its protagonist, Anodos, means 'pathless' in Greek.

Anodos inherits a desk and a set of instructions along with it, and following them opens a way into a world of forests, cottages and beings who are sometimes helpful and sometimes dangerous. He wanders through it, repeatedly catching sight of a woman he calls the Marble Lady and never quite reaching her, and the book is made of encounters and temptations rather than a single errand. What he learns in that world is about his own wishes rather than about a task he has been given.

Later fantasy writers drew on the novel directly: C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, G. K. Chesterton and the poet W. H. Auden all acknowledged its influence. It is one of the earliest long works of English prose written specifically as a fantasy for adults.