The Princess and the Goblin

The Princess and the Goblin is a children's fantasy novel by the Scottish writer George MacDonald, published in 1872 by Strahan and Co. with illustrations by Arthur Hughes, after appearing as a serial in Good Words for the Young from November 1870.

Irene is the daughter of a king whose palace is built into a mountain, and she is raised at a distance from him in a house full of servants. Exploring the building she comes upon a great-grandmother she did not know she had, who keeps a fire of roses, spins thread that Irene cannot always see, and who cannot be visited at will. Beneath the kingdom live the goblins, a people who were driven underground and who intend to take their revenge on the surface, and their schemes bring Irene together with the miner's son Curdie. MacDonald tells the story as a fairy tale for children and lets the supernatural stand without explaining its rules, which is one reason the book was read so closely by the writers who followed him.

The sequel, The Princess and Curdie, appeared in 1883, and the novel was one of the books that shaped English-language fantasy for children.