Publisher's Synopsis
The Princess and the Goblin
George MacDonald
Princess Irene lives with her nurse, Lootie, and other servants in a large, old castle/farm house on a mountainside. In the mountains surrounding the house are mines worked by such men as Curdie (12 years old) and his father. There are also subterranean caves and caverns where goblins live, goblins who bear a grudge against the 'sun people' because they took the land above ground from them. The servants in the castle know about the goblins; they are never to let the princess be out after dark. One rainy day Princess Irene explores the house alone and discovers an unknown staircase that leads up several flights to a room where a beautiful old lady is spinning. She is Irene's great, great grandmother, Irene, a lady of undetermined age, who had given her name to the princess and, unknown to anyone in the castle, has come to take care of her. She is spinning a ball of thread for Irene. The princess returns downstairs, eager to tell Lootie about her grandmother. Lootie says she imagined her and, as Irene fails to find her grandmother the next time she looks for the stairs, she wonders if this is true.
