David Elginbrod, featuring an appearance of the eponymous hero of Robert Falconer, was originally published in 1863 by Hurst and Blackett.

Partially set in MacDonald’s homeland of northern Scotland, the story of Hugh Sutherland and Margaret Elginbrod is replete with the dialect and thorough “Scottishness” that became MacDonald’s trademark. The story takes the characters into the eerie world of the occult and spiritualism that so fascinated Victorian readers.

David Elginbrod was George MacDonald’s first realistic novel. Unable to get his poetry and fantasy published, one of MacDonald’s publishers remarked, “I tell you, Mr. MacDonald, if you would but write novels, you would find all the publishers saving up to buy them of you. Nothing but fiction pays.” Eventually MacDonald decided to try his hand at realistic fiction, and his publisher’s words proved prophetic—within a few years publishers indeed were lining up to buy his books. The immediate success of David Elginbrod launched MacDonald’s career as one of the preeminent Victorian novelists of his day.