The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald

I'm really, really surprised that I made it through childhood without reading this book. I'm a complete sucker for fairy tales and fantasy--growing up I read just about anything that promised royalty, brave young peasant kids, dragons, magic, et. cetera. This book may lack dragons, but goblins and assorted beasties come in a close second. So where was it? I haunted the children's fantasy sections of at least six different libraries while I was growing up, and I am stymied that not only this wonderful tale but all of George MacDonald's books managed to fall through the cracks. MacDonald needs to find a publisher that will actually deliver his stories to their intended audience; being dead for over a hundred years is no excuse.

Overview
The Princess and the Goblin is a beautiful story, full of adventure and magic. It's easy to see that MacDonald's work heavily influenced Lewis as he was writing the Narnia series; the themes of faith and charity are as central to P&G as the more traditional fairy tale virtues of courage, honor and duty. (charity here refers to the Christian virtue, not necessarily almsgiving) It can be bit preachy at times, but that's a side effect of the target age group.
The plot follows the adventures of the eight year old Princess Irene, who is being raised in the country away from her father's court, and Curdie, a young boy from the local mining town. Curdie discovers that the goblins who inhabit his mine are hatching a devious plot of some kind or other, and makes it his business to find them out and stop them. Meanwhile, Princess Irene discovers a beautiful lady living in the most remote and abandoned rooms of the manor, a lady who claims to be her great-great grandmother and cannot be seen by anyone else.

Recommended for: Anyone, but especially kids and fans of C.S. Lewis. (I'd also recommend At the Back of the North Wind and The Light Princess, two more of MacDonald's books)

Parental Worries: I'm only including this line to preserve format between posts :-p Nothing but a mild battle or two, if you're worried about violence (I don't usually bother commenting on violence unless it's particularly graphic, but I've got to have something here ^_~ )

Audiobook Comments: Read by Ian Whitcomb, who does a good job, but not particularly amazing.

Ramblings
I never would have heard of George MacDonald if he hadn't been highly praised multiple times in Lewis' works. When Lewis' alter ego arrives at Heaven in The Great Divorce, he is met by the shade of MacDonald, much as Dante is met by Virgil in his Divine Comedy. In particular, MacDonald's book Phantastes was supposedly very influential in Lewis' conversion from atheism to Christianity. Knowing this, I was very excited to finally get my hands on it. Probably too excited, 'cause after reading it I was rather underwhelmed. Its a good book, but I get the feeling that I was too quick to read through and missed an important message or subtle plot point somewhere. Definitely worth a reread though.

Anyway, this post isn't about Phantastes :-p The point of that little sideline was that although it was slightly disappointing, the rest of MacDonald's books have more than made up for it. I can see why he captured the minds and hearts of not only C.S. Lewis, but also Tolkien, Lewis Carrol, and even Mark Twain.

The character of the great-great grandmother in P&G is very similar to the North Wind in At The Back of the North Wind, and it's interesting that MacDonald uses female characters for his divine figures, unlike Lewis and Tolkien. It might have something to do with the characters being young children, although the female figures are not surrogate mothers; both Curdie and Diamond from North Wind have wonderful mothers. It's merely that these figures are primarily nurturing and protective; the terrible power that is so central to Aslan and Gandalf is only briefly hinted at.

I also like the characterization and treatment of the goblins. There is not a particularly strong condemnation of them in the introduction of the story, they are described as resentful of the 'Sun people' and not unwilling to do harm or mischief where the chance presents itself. Its their actions throughout the book that are damning, as we see that their physical deformities are only a shadow of their twisted morality. The treatment they receive from Curdie is also interesting. For the majority of the book, the only weapons he uses against them are rhyme and song, which they cannot stand, and an occasional stomp on their tender feet. This gave me a sense that any battles and confrontations would be 'soft', the kind where the hero never really dirties his hands with any great violence. However, when the goblins' plot finally takes form and Curdie is no longer the only one in danger, he switches from rhyme to his deadly mining tools with nary a qualm. I'm not impressed by this because it shows callousness, but because it shows decisiveness. There's no moral quandry about whether the poor goblins don't know what they're doing, and whether Curdie's being to harsh on them. The lack of gray area is refreshing. It also shows (without any self-righteous back-patting) that although Curdie had the power to do serious harm all along, it never entered his head to use more force than was absolutely necessary.

I'd better stop before I try to outline any of the more beautiful spiritual messages that MacDonald manages to work into his story, messages that adults can appreciate as much as children. Its more fun to come across them fresh ^_^