The Princess and the Goblin
core novel 1872 The Princess and the Goblin
Record
| First published | 1872 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.03 (42,932 ratings, collected 2026-10-02) |
| Page count | 241 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780140367461 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
Eight-year-old Princess Irene lives in a great house on a mountainside, far from her father's court, in the care of a nurse. Beneath the mountain, in the mines, live the goblins: once human, driven underground centuries ago by the king's ancestors and grown strange, misshapen and vengeful in the dark. Exploring the house's upper floors one rainy day, Irene climbs a stair she has never seen and finds a beautiful old lady spinning in a tower room, who tells the princess she is her great-great-grandmother, and whom no one else can see. Outside, Curdie, a miner's son who keeps the goblins at bay with rhymes they cannot bear, overhears their plot against the royal house and is captured beneath the mountain. Guided by a thread from her grandmother's spinning wheel, which only she can feel, Irene must find her way down into the dark to rescue him.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Princess and the Goblin
- Series: Princess Irene and Curdie core; position 1 of 2 in the series' recorded order
- Author: George MacDonald
Notes
- From the series record (Princess Irene and Curdie): George MacDonald's two novels of Princess Irene, the miner's son Curdie and the mysterious great-great-grandmother in the tower: a founding work of children's fantasy, acknowledged by Tolkien, Lewis and Chesterton. Serialised 1870-1871 and 1877; book publication 1872 and 1883.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series Princess Irene and Curdie: position 1 of 2: next The Princess and Curdie (1883)
Sources
← The Princess and the Goblin dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.