The Princess and Curdie by George Macdonald

When I first discovered that the sequel to The Princess and the Goblin was called The Princess and Curdie, I half-hoped that it would take place at least 5 years after the first book and involve a romance between the title characters. I was disappointed, however, when the first chapter of P&C placed it only a year after P&G. Oh well, I should have known better :-p In retrospect, it's hard to imagine MacDonald switching genres on this set of characters, especially since the theme of childhood is so important to both stories.

Overview
The title of this story is slightly ambiguous, because there are actually two princesses involved--the young princess Irene who left for her father's court at the end of the last book, and her great-great grandmother, also named Irene, who is fondly referred to as "the old Princess" by Curdie and his family. For at least the first half of the book, it seems that the old princess is actually the title character, for Irene the younger does not make her appearance for quite awhile. The first half of the story focuses on Curdie, who has settled down to life as a miner after turning down the King's offer to join him at court in the first book. The old Princess, however, has other plans. She sends Curdie off on a mysterious quest, with one of the goblins' monster-animals for company. This strange beast, named Lina, at first disgusts Curdie, but eventually manages to earn his love and loyalty.

Upon reaching the capital of the kingdom, Curdie discovers that the inhabitants of the city are not only unwelcoming, but dishonest and outright hostile. After a little more digging, he finds that the King is suffering from a mysterious illness, and the country is completely under the control of his cabinet, all of whom are less than savory characters. Curdie joins forces with the young Princess Irene, and with a little help from Lina and the old Princess, they save the day.

Recommended for: Anyone who liked the first book.

Parental Worries: Still a children's book, but P&C is a little darker than the first one. Some of the judgements handed out to evildoers are a bit harsh, and the sheer number of bad characters is a somewhat depressing.

Audiobook Comments: Read by Ian Whitcomb, who also read P&G. Its nice to have all the old voices back, it's really weird when they switch between books.

Ramblings
Overall, I'd say this book isn't as good as its predecessor, but still very good. The darkness that sets it apart from the first book is not quite the same as the darkness that slowly grows with, say, each Harry Potter book. There's almost two different conflicts--one between Curdie and the King's evil ministers, and one between the King and his people. The first half of the story belongs to Curdie, and it is excellent, possibly even better than the first book, both in terms of adventure and in its allegorical messages.

However, once the kingdom is reached and the king is returned to his rightful position, things get strange. I can appreciate on one level that the people without their king symbolize the people who have turned away from God, but on another level it's not only depressing but downright insulting to the people to suggest that one year without a good, strong human ruler is enough to turn every one of them into little better than beasts. Of course, we have no idea what they were like when the king was in control, but the assumption is that the good king would not have allowed such bad behavior in his subjects. This conflict between the king and his people reaches the point where they welcome an invading power into the land, and when the king marches to battle with a ridiculously small force, the people actually fight on the side of the invader! Well, obviously the good guys win, and the traitors are either wounded or killed. Again, we get the two levels of meaning here: there's the allegory of a people turning against their God and the necessity of a harsh rebuke to save them from an even worse fate, but in a political, worldly view, the thought of a good king taking arms against his evil subjects and vice versa is just . . . wrong. And then to top it all off, the story only has a temporarily happy ending. The ultimate ending, in an attempt to explain why the kingdom does not appear in history, is completely bleak, with no last note of hope. Definetly a case of allegory gone wrong.

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 ^_^

The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang

I have very fond memories of reading the Blue, Violet, Orange, Green, etc Fairy Books at my very first school library. I'd love to eventually collect all of these books (12, I think?), but preferably not the particular edition that my Blue Fairy Book came in. It's very good quality, but I wasn't impressed by the cover design. Yes, I am that shallow :-p if my books are old, the cover design is allowed to be slightly unimpressive, (styles and trends were different in the past, that's part of the charm) but if it's a new book I'm a bit more picky.

Overview
Not too much to tell in this section. The book is a collection of about 30 fairy tales from many different traditions--English, French, German, Arabian, and Scottish. Some of the stories are credited to other 'collectors' like the Brothers Grimm or Charles Perrault, while others have no such citation. I don't know whether this means Lang dug them up himself or not, but I think all of the non-cited stories are from England, so maybe he felt that he could claim partial ownership.
The book's greatest weakness is that Lang saw fit to include an excerpt from Gulliver's Travels. Horrible idea. It may have several fantastic elements, but Gulliver's Travels is satire and political commentary! It's no more a fairy tale than A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. But even if we ignore its pedigree, the excerpt really breaks the rhythm of the book and bogs it down; the tone is too pompous and formal. Gulliver's Travels was a fine book on its own, but it doesn't fit here. On the whole though, the stories are excellent.

Recommended for: Everyone, why not?

Parental Worries: The book was designed for children, and there's not much I'd object to. Having said that, these are not morality tales. The heroes are not sterling examples of behavior, but I don't think that's too much of a problem. (see below)

Ramblings
The best thing about these books is the random, obscure fairy tales that haven't been made into Disney movies or otherwise re-told a million times. "Snow White and Rose Red" is one of my favorites in this category, but other good ones from this volume are "The Goose Girl" "Prince Darling" and "The Story of Pretty Goldilocks" (different Goldilocks). Some of the tales are pretty strange, and occasionally morbid or shocking. I was surprised to realize this, because I'd heard Lang was of the school that freely edited tales to make them more acceptable for children. However, I don't remember being traumatized by any of these stories as a child, so I think my 'shock' is merely a sign that I've grown up and forgotten that kids love that kind of thing. They can enjoy a fun story with a hero that doesn't always act like a perfect gentleman (or gentlewoman) without completely accepting and condoning his or her actions.

Its also interesting to compare the ethnic backgrounds of the tales. The stories with French sources tend to be lavish and glamorous, whereas the tales from Grimm are characteristically dark and down-to-earth. There's two tales from Scotland at the end of the book that are written with full dialect intact. (dotchter = daughter, sae = say, etc) I can't decide whether the overall result is charming or annoying--there's a fine line there somewhere.

The Brothers Grimm and Their Critics by Christa Kamenetsky

I'm a big fan of fairy tales, so I picked this book up hoping to get an overview of the Brothers Grimm. I wanted to find out more about their lives, the sources for their stories, and their theory on the significance of fairy tales. (I think the technical term is comparative mythology and folklore?) I got all three, and I was surprised to find most of the book fairly readable for someone like me with almost no knowledge of the subject matter. There's a few chapters that go pretty deep into the history of literary criticism and the study of mythology, and I skimmed the thicker parts of those without feeling like I'd lost too much.

Overview
It turns out that the Brothers Grimm were first and foremost philologists, and would probably be slightly chagrined to discover that, except for select academic circles, they are globally and exclusively famous for their children's stories--stories that they collected almost as a hobby. The first chapter of the book covers their childhood and the course of their careers. Later chapters go over the brothers' sources, collection methods and theories, while the last bit of the book covers alternative theories on fairy tales and their place in society. The last bit was what I skimmed the most, since I was interested in the BG themselves. I was struck by the extreme closeness of the brother's relationship--except for a short period early in their careers, the two lived and worked together for their entire lives. (Then again, this may not be as extraordinary for the time frame, I dunno.) Although William was more interested in the study of mythology and folk lore than his brother, it sounds as if he largely sacrificed this interest in order to help Jacob on his more 'serious' philological work. (irony, anyone?) Another interesting tidbit about the Brothers: they spent some time as political martyrs for their support of the German constitution when the reigning monarch of the time abolished it. (or attempted to abolish it . . . I've returned the book to the library, so I can't check my facts >_< ) Recommended for: Fans of fairy tales who aren't afraid of a scholarly work, especially if you liked Tolkien's On Fairy Stories



Extended Summary
It turns out that the BG's main source of fairy tales was from local middle-class women: innkeepers, grocers, and anyone else they happened to run across. Apparently they never actually traveled around interviewing peasant women, which is a popular myth, but merely picked up stories here and there over the years. Their sister helped out quite a bit by holding social 'fairy tale parties' the way women of the time would have poetry readings, or more recently, tupperware parties. They also had several friends who collected tales, and these were passed on to the Brothers. The author credits them for being more 'scientific' in their collection methods than other folk and fairy tale publishers of the time, but I'm skeptical as to how scientific you can actually be when everything has been word-of-mouth for so long.


The book also spent some time contesting several unsavory claims that had been made about the BG and their work. One of the big ones was that they were fanatically nationalistic, and considered only German fairy and folk tales worthy of interest. This claim probably came from the Nazi era, when Hitler used the BG's work to foster a sense of national pride and superiority. The brothers were definitely patriotic and loved their fatherland, but they were not afraid to be critical of the government of said country. They also considered the fairy and folk tales of all lands to be a valuable resource, and encouraged people to study the tales of other lands. The BG focused on German folklore, both because it was readily available and because they had a particular fondness for it, but that does not imply a scorn of any other nations and their oral traditions.


Another claim was that many of the brother's tales were actually French in origin, because one of their sources had French ancestry. The author disputes this claim, pointing out that although the woman in question did have a Huguenot parent, she grew up in Germany, surrounded by German tradition. More importantly, she was the daughter of an inn-keeper, and probably learned all her tales from the local visitors.


There was also some discussion of gender-bias and so forth in their stories, but the bottom line was that sexist claims had been vastly exaggerated. I was proud of the author for not donating much time to this topic; modern feminism bores and aggravates me. (insofar as it's possible to be bored and aggravated at the same time :-p )



Ramblings
One of the first things that intrigued me about the BG was that they were primarily philoligists. This is an interesting distinction to me, because so was Tolkien, one of my favorite authors and a staunch defender of the fairy story genre. (Although Tolkien's definition of a fairy story and the BG's differed greatly) Turns out Andrew Lang, also of fairy-tale fame (the Blue Fairy Book, Red Fairy Book, etc) was also a philologist. (And so was one of my favorite characters from C.S. Lewis' writings, but he was modeled after Tolkien himself, so I don't think that counts)

So, what is it about philology and fairy tales? Probably something to do with the evolution of oral stories along with the evolution of a language. I've actually heard someone suggest that myths originally developed because of the limitations of language, and fairy and folktales followed from there. I don't personally agree with the theory, but it shows how closely language and storytelling are connected. I tend to agree with both Tolkien and the BG, that fairy tales, myths, and similar stories are tool in mankind's search for truth, and often an expression of that truth.

One concept from this book that I really liked was the Brother's distinction between naturpoesie (nature stories, or 'natural' stories) and kunstpoesie (art stories). To quote: "As Wilhelm saw it, naturpoesie derived its powerful vision and "eternal quality" from its quest for truth. In that sense, it was not a mere form of entertainment but a significant expression of the humanity of man". This struck me as a beautiful designation, and still appropriate for literature today. Many of the stories I dearly love are not remarkable for their contribution to bright and shiny truth, but merely fun. I love a good mystery series, Star Wars novel or fantasy tale, but no amount of lightsabers or sparkly magic can rival the 'beauty and truth' of books like Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Ender's Game, or Frankenstein. (Maybe I'll eventually give my reasons for these particular titles, but now is not the time :-p) Even if you disagree with my specific choices, there is definitely a distinction between mere fun reading, and a book that leaves you stunned. I'd never found quite the right words for this distinction, and I was thrilled to find it in this book.