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'''''Sir Gibbie''''' is an 1879 novel by the Scottish author [[George MacDonald]], including dialogue written in the [[Doric dialect (Scotland)|Doric]] dialect of [[Scotland]], that  presents a narrative rags-to-riches arc for the title character, in the context of the actual emphasis on the integrity of Gibbie as an obedient Christian servant, and indeed as a Christ-like figure, despite his challenges and circumstances.

Created as a means of supplemental income for MacDonald and his family, the characters of this and thematically related other works of his popular fiction also provided a means by which MacDonald's principal devotion—the spread of the Christian message, and of his conception of Christian obedience—could be furthered as well.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.online-literature.com/george-macdonald/|title=George MacDonald—Biography and Works|work=online-literature.com|access-date=15 March 2017}}</ref>

The novel made a significant popular and literary impact in the English-speaking world in its day, both in Great Britain and in the United States, and was reintroduced in the early to  mid-20th century through mention of MacDonald and his works by academic and popular Christian author [[Clive Staples Lewis|C. S. Lewis]].

''Sir Gibbie'' replaced a novel of comparable style by MacDonald, entitled ''Malcolm,'' in the 1938 (Swinnerton) edition of the influential [[Arnold Bennett]] list of notable English language literature, ''[[Literary Taste: How to Form It]]'', as an important fictional work in English (alongside [[Walter Scott]], [[Benjamin Disraeli]], [[Anthony Trollope]], [[Charlotte Brontë]], [[George Eliot]], [[Samuel Butler (novelist)|Samuel Butler]], [[Lewis Carroll]], and [[Robert Louis Stevenson]], and others).<ref>{{cite book |last=Bennett |first=Arnold | editor-last = Swinnerton |editor-first=Frank | editor-link = Frank Swinnerton | date = 1938 | title = Literary Taste: How to Form It, with Detailed Instructions for Collecting a Complete Library of English Literature | page = 143 | series = Penguin Special Editions |volume=S11 |issue=2, The New library | location = Harmondsworth, England | publisher =[[Penguin Books|Penguin]]  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ugN5D_MGomAC | access-date = March 15, 2017 }} Compare to {{cite book | last = Bennett |first=Arnold | author-link = Arnold Bennett | year = 1914 | orig-date = 1909 | title = Literary Taste: How to Form It, with Detailed Instructions for Collecting a Complete Library of English Literature | page = [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.55196/page/n127 117] | location = London, England | publisher =[[Hodder and Stoughton]]  | url = https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.55196 | access-date = March 15, 2017 }} Also available in a PDF form of the [https://archive.org/details/literarytastehow00bennuoft 1911 edition], where the mention of ''Malcolm'' is on page 104.</ref>

==General history==
''Sir Gibbie'' was one of several popular works that George MacDonald wrote during a period of years where his primary avocation was to serve as a preacher in the dissenting church to which he had been called.{{clarify|date=March 2017}}{{citation needed|date=March 2017}} Coincident with the growth in the size and needs of his family, the writing MacDonald did during this time, as a sideline, served to provide very necessary income for their sustenance.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

==Plot summary==
''Sir Gibbie'' presents a complex cast of characters from various social levels: a laird;{{who|date=March 2017}}{{clarify|date=March 2017}} a pair of parish priests, a clever one that yields to worldly influences without being wicked{{who|date=March 2017}} and another clearly presented as pompous and self-righteous.{{who|date=March 2017}}{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

Gibbie is a destitute, mute boy in Scotland, raised by an alcoholic father. At one point in childhood, he finds himself in murderous company—the "wee Sir Gibbie" is an appellation of affection given the character, by his compatriots, emphasizing the distinctiveness of his character, in particular in relation to his coarse surroundings. He ultimately flies from this, experiencing adventure and misadventure, including tragic punishment meted out for doing good to others.

==Character==
MacDonald's Christian idealism is reflected in the exceptional saintliness of many of his characters. Gibbie is a completely selfless individual, constantly denying himself for the sake of others.<ref>Grano, Robert W., [https://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=12-04-015-v "An Orthodox Appreciation of George MacDonald"], ''Touchstone'', July/August 1999</ref>

The character of Gibbie in the novel and in its modern edited production (''Wee Sir Gibbie'', see below) is presented as a character that the reader is intended to emulate, the character that has rightly discerned the [[way of the Cross]], and so serves as a model for the reader as a contemporary knight-errant, a righter of wrongs.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}} At the same time through his inestimable, literal graciousness, he also presents a less attainable figure, a Christ-figure toward which the reader is intended to strive {{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

==Literary critical perspectives==
MacDonald met [[Mark Twain]] during MacDonald's 1872–73 lecture tour in the United States. Mr. and Mrs. MacDonald, and their son Greville even stayed a few days at the home of Twain's mother-in-law while in New York.  Later, MacDonald returned the favour when Twain his wife and daughter, while travelling through Scotland, stayed at his home. Author Ranelda Mack Hunsicker contends that Gibbie provided some of the inspiration for Huckleberry Finn.<ref>[https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-87552-730-7 Review of Ranelda Mack Hunsicker's "Sir Gibbie: A Guide for Teachers and Students"], ''Publishers Weekly'', 1 July 2001</ref>

''Sir Gibbie'' and other of the MacDonald fictional works are notable for their [[Doric dialect (Scotland)|Doric]] dialogue.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}} They have been criticised, especially by members of the [[Scottish Renaissance]],{{who|date=March 2017}} for being part of the [[Kailyard school]].{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

==Publication history==
First publication of ''Sir Gibbie'' by MacDonald was in three volumes, in 1879, by [[Hurst and Blackett]] of London, and followed likewise styled novels ''[[David Elginbrod]]'', ''[[Robert Falkoner]]'', ''[[Alec Forbes of Howglen]]'', and others. The first of the three original volumes, with MacDonald's name appearing as <small>"MAC DONALD"</small>, followed by ''Legum Doctor'' ([[LL.D.]], Doctor of Laws), is of 320 pages, and ends with the chapter "Refuge", and Gibbie being taken in by Robert and Janet, their discovery of the scars of his upbringing, and his experiencing alongside their six children the normality of a bed, hearth and home.
These citations, in full, are:
* {{cite book | last = MacDonald |first=George | author-link = George MacDonald | date = 1879 | title = Sir Gibbie |volume=1 | series = Collection of British Authors | location = London, England | publisher =[[Hurst and Blackett]]  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=weUBAAAAQAAJ | access-date = March 15, 2017 }}
* {{cite book | last = MacDonald |first=George | author-link = George MacDonald | author-mask = 2 | date = 1879 | title = Sir Gibbie |volume=2 | series = Collection of British Authors | location = London, England | publisher =[[Hurst and Blackett]]  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=1uUBAAAAQAAJ | access-date = March 15, 2017 }}
* {{cite book | last = MacDonald |first=George | author-link = George MacDonald | author-mask = 2 | date = 1879 | title = Sir Gibbie |volume=3 | series = Collection of British Authors | location = London, England | publisher =[[Hurst and Blackett]]  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=6uUBAAAAQAAJ | access-date = March 15, 2017 }}

The entire text was issued by Lippincott in America in a single volume, with the three English volumes appearing separately chaptered, in sequence; set in two columns in smaller font, this volume's presentation of the text was in 210 pages:
* {{cite book | last = MacDonald |first=George | author-link = George MacDonald | date = 1879 | title = Sir Gibbie: A Novel | location = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | publisher = [[J. B. Lippincott]]  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=o8gUAAAAYAAJ | access-date = March 15, 2017 }}
The entirety of the text, set in 62 short chapters, on the order of 1000 pages, and is available with a Broad Scots glossary by its digitizer, John Bechard, from [[Project Gutenberg]].<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2370?msg=welcome_stranger|title=Sir Gibbie |first=George |last=MacDonald|access-date=15 March 2017 |via=Project Gutenberg}}</ref>

==Reception==
{{expand section|a sourced, encyclopedic description of its literary, critical, and popular reception, in that time, and in subsequent editions | small = no|date=March 2017}}
MacDonald's editor [[Elizabeth Yates (author)|Elizabeth Yates]] wrote of ''Sir Gibbie'', "It moved me the way books did when, as a child, the great gates of literature began to open and first encounters with noble thoughts and utterances were unspeakably thrilling."{{cite quote|date=March 2017}}

==Legacy==
The series of Scottish popular novels re-emerged in the 20th century from relative obscurity, as a result of mentions by academic and popular author [[C. S. Lewis]], who indicated the influences of MacDonald in his creative work.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}} The result, in part by this attention, was the direction of the many followers of Lewis' writings, which include ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]'', the ''[[Space Trilogy]]'', but more relevantly his ''[[Till We Have Faces]]'' and his poetic work, toward the works of MacDonald.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

This focus of attention on MacDonald's old works led to their editing and reproduction as a new series from [[Bethany House]], with the editing and modernising of language done by [[Michael R. Phillips]],<ref>{{cite book | last = MacDonald |first=George | date = 1990 | editor-last = Phillipsv|editor-first=Michael R. | title = Wee Sir Gibbie of the Highlands | series = George MacDonald Classics | publisher =Bethany House  | isbn = 1-55661-139-0 | url = https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1556611390 | access-date = March 15, 2017 }}</ref> alongside several other works of MacDonald's Scottish fiction.

==See also==
* [[C. S. Lewis]]
* ''[[Phantastes]]''
* ''[[Till We Have Faces]]''

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book | author = Phillips, Michael R. | year = 1987 | title = George MacDonald: Scotland's Beloved Storyteller | publisher = Baker/Bethany House | isbn = 0-87123-944-2 }}

==External links==
* [http://www.george-macdonald.com George Macdonald webpages]
* {{Gutenberg|no=2370|name=Sir Gibbie}}
* {{librivox book | title=Sir Gibbie| author=MacDonald}}

{{George MacDonald}}

[[Category:1879 British novels]]
[[Category:Novels by George MacDonald]]
[[Category:Kailyard school]]