Publisher's Synopsis
Published by Strahan & Co in 1872, George MacDonald's fantasy, The Princess and the Goblin, details the adventures of Princess Irene and miner Curdie as they outwit a horde of goblins.When her mother fell ill, Princess Irene was sent to be brought up by country people in a large, castle-like house on the side of a mountain. Now eight, she lives with her nursemaid Lootie, and her father visits occasionally.Irene is not allowed outside at night because of the goblins that live inside the mountains. The goblins are night creatures and have hidden themselves away because of some unknown political disagreement with a previous king. The goblins' life underground has altered their appearance to look unusually grotesque, but they've become more intelligent. They are resentful toward humans, especially those of the royal line. The goblins torture anyone with the misfortune of meeting them. One day the princess gets lost in the castle. She climbs a tall tower and follows a humming sound into a room. There, she sees an old woman with long white hair sitting at a spinning wheel. The woman tells Irene that she is her great-great-grandmother and that Irene is her namesake. She lives off of pigeons' eggs and spins spiderwebs brought by the pigeons. Irene tells Lootie about her grandmother, but Lootie doesn't believe her. The next day, Irene goes in search of her grandmother but isn't able to find her and assumes she was dreaming.A few days after she meets her grandmother, Irene and Lootie go for a walk. The two wander too far, and darkness begins to fall. Just as a group of goblins begins harassing them from the shadows, Curdie, a young miner, comes upon the pair. He scares the goblins away by singing loudly, and Irene promises him a kiss at a later date.The next night, Curdie decides to stay in the mines, earning extra wages to buy a red petticoat for his mother. Curdie overhears a family of goblins talking about how they have very sensitive feet. He follows them to the goblin palace where he learns about the goblins' plan to flood the mine and drown the miners.A season or so passes, and the princess gets a prick on her thumb from an old brooch. Her sore quickly becomes infected, and Lootie puts her to bed. Irene wakes up in the night and wanders again to her grandmother's tower. Her grandmother heals her with an ointment and Irene falls asleep in her grandmother's bed. Irene wakes in her own bed, having promised to go back to the tower Friday night.That Friday night, a goblin creature climbs into Irene's window, and she runs out of the house into the night. No longer pursued, she turns and sees her grandmother's light in the tower window and follows it home. Irene's grandmother gives her a ring with an invisible thread made from a spider's web.The goblins catch Curdie sneaking into their cavern, and Curdie is successful at warding most of them off by stomping on their feet. The goblin queen, however, is wearing stone shoes and manages to capture and imprison him. Curdie is left to starve in the goblin prison, but Irene is led to him by her magic thread, and she rescues him. Curdie manages to steal one of the goblin queen's shoes on their way out.Following the thread, Curdie and Irene head up to the grandmother's room. Curdie can't see Irene's grandmother and is cross with Irene for what he thinks is a cruel joke. The grandmother explains that Curdie isn't able to believe yet and therefore can't see her.When Curdie arrives home, he tells the whole story to his parents. His mother relates a story from her childhood when a great white pigeon rescued her from a group of goblins. She implies that the royal line has some magical powers and that Irene may have been telling the truth.On another fact-finding mission, Curdie learns that the goblins plan to dig a tunnel into the castle to capture Princess Irene. Upon her capture, they plan to marry her to Harelip, the goblin prince...
