Discover a new way to read classics with Quick Read.
This Quick Read edition includes both the full text and a summary for each chapter.
- Reading time of the complete text: about 5 hours
- Reading time of the summarized text: 22 minutes
"The Princess and the Goblin" is a children's fantasy novel by George MacDonald, first published in 1872. The story follows eight-year-old Princess Irene, who lives a lonely life in a castle in a wild, desolate, mountainous kingdom. Unbeknownst to her, the nearby mines are inhabited by a race of goblins, long banished from the kingdom and now anxious to take revenge on their human neighbors. Irene befriends a young miner named Curdie, who overhears the goblins' plans to flood the mine and abduct the princess. Curdie warns the palace guards, but is imprisoned instead. Irene's great-great-grandmother heals Curdie's wound and helps him escape. The goblins break through the palace floor and come to abduct the princess, but Curdie rescues her and restores her to the king. The goblins subsequently drown when they flood the mines. The novel has been adapted into various forms, including an animated film and a ballet. The sequel to the book is "The Princess and Curdie." The novel's depiction of goblins heavily influenced J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium.