This 1895 book was recommended in A Reader's Guide to Fantasy's "Seven-League Bookshelf"--a list of 30-odd books considered the "cream" of the genre. Dante's Divine Comedy is mentioned in the book and I can see similarities with not just Dante but works of Carroll and Lewis. Macdonald was a close friend of Lewis Carroll and saw Alice in Wonderland in manuscript; C.S. Lewis greatly admired Macdonald and named him as one of his most important influences. As with Carroll's Through the Looking Glass and Lewis' Narnia, the narrator of this story steps into another world through an ordinary piece of furniture--in this case a mirror--and there are animal characters, notably a talking raven and a leopard. As with Narnia and the Divine Comedy, this is essentially a work of Christian Fiction, even more allegorical than Narnia as dealing like Dante with the landscape of the afterlife. Although given Macdonald's Universalist beliefs, there is no eternal hell--someday all will find salvation, though in Macdonald's conception it won't be easy.
I can't quite say I really liked this. I'd say this hovers between a two and a three star. On one hand, I made it through to the end, it has interesting ideas and historical importance in the fantasy genre. On the other hand, I often found this dull, no characters captured my sympathy or imagination and this just didn't strike me as an outstanding example of the kind of book it exemplifies. This doesn't have the humor, whimsy, wit or charm of Through the Looking Glass or Narnia or the prodigious imagination, unity, beautiful language and architecture of The Divine Comedy. I can't imagine I'll ever reread this, and I just can't see this as being in the same league as Dante, Carroll or Lewis.
