This new edition of George MacDonald's 1865 classic is updated and introduced as Volume 5 in The Cullen Collection by Michael Phillips. Alec Forbes of Howglen has been considered by many as George MacDonald's most skillfully crafted "pure novel," perhaps because it contains fewer digressive discussionary asides for which MacDonald's originals are well-known. Neither does MacDonald delve so deeply into Alec's spiritual psyche as he does with Robert Falconer and Thomas Wingfold. No complex spiritual quandary drives his growth. Alec simply grows up, slowly and gradually, with ups and downs along the way, into mature manhood. Set in MacDonald's hometown of Huntly, this story of Alec Forbes and Annie Anderson contains many autobiographical glimpses of MacDonald's own boyhood, capturing the delights of youth and the anguish of first loves. Released in 1865 as the second of his major Scottish novels, many read Alec Forbes of Howglen as one of MacDonald's most cohesive work of fiction. Intensely Scottish in flavor, like its predecessor David Elginbrod, the thick Doric dialect of much of the novel was relished by Victorians. While preserving the flavor of MacDonald's original, this updated edition translates into readable English the heaviest portions of the Scots dialect in which most of MacDonald's Scottish stories are written.