Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women — George MacDonald

A fantasy novel “about the nature of love and the cultivation of it in the soul” by the author of The Princess and the Goblin (Mere Orthodoxy).
 
Anodos, a young man on the verge adulthood, is spirited away to Fairyland where he encounters an array of fantastical creatures on his journey to discover goodness and beauty. As Anodos seduces -- and is seduced by -- the lovely denizens of this new world, he moves from sensual attraction to a more spiritual understanding of love.
 
“Despite the fact that the book is an acknowledged influence on everything from C. S. Lewis' work on down, Phantastes itself remains firmly in the fairy story tradition, a half-step away from allegory and a few steps north of children's literature. MacDonald himself noted that he was not writing for children, but rather for the childlike, striving to invoke a sense of wonder at the marvelous tableaus he revealed instead of attempting to convey a strong, self-supporting linear plot. All that being said, Phantastes is a must-read for any student of fantasy literature precisely because it is such a seminal work.” -- Fantasy Magazine
 
“His fairies dance between archetypes, characters stolen from Grimm's fairy tales or Arthurian knights, and creatures of nature, living in flowers and infusing trees with the ability of independent thought and movement, or creatures of fancy. . . . But Fairyland is also, for MacDonald, a metaphor for the journey of the soul, and its search for beauty and truth. . . . It can be exquisitely beautiful.” -- Tor.com