Here she is: Princess Irene of The Princess and the Goblin
Over the last week and a half I’ve been reading The Princess and Curdie
It reminded me by turns of Pilgrim’s Progress and Hind’s Feet on High Places, both spiritual allegories. Curdie is an Everyman, a boy who’s proved his mettle once but is rapidly “getting rather stupid — one of the chief signs of which was that he believed less and less in things he had never seen.” When the story begins, he is “gradually changing into a commonplace man.”
A strange turn of events brings him face to face with Irene’s grandmother, who gives him a mission and sends him on a journey. Curdie enlists the aid of an unlikely army of deformed goblin animals, and sets out to find himself involved in a story that reminded me of Prince Rilian’s in The Silver Chair, or King Theoden’s in The Lord of the Rings.
I thought the basic situation was great, and MacDonald’s development of the role of faith was in some respects profound. The princess Irene’s grandmother seems a parallel figure to the Holy Spirit, and this characterization raises some illuminating questions and comparisons. I also liked the way MacDonald stressed that Curdie’s success or failure depends on the unexpected, the humble, the ugly.
There is something so strong and clean about MacDonald’s writing. Some books proceed like a meandering road, some are like a complex web where eventually everything comes together, and some seem to go from one narrative spot of light to the next. But this story is more like a sculpture, full of clean lines struck with force and without apology. I don’t always know where he’s going, but the world conjured up by MacDonald’s writing is so full of meaning. Take this, for instance, a description of a mountain:
A mountain is a strange and awful thing… Now that we have learned to look at them with admiration, perhaps we do not feel quite awe enough of them. To me they are beautiful terrors.
I will try to tell you what they are. They are portions of the heart of the earth that have escaped from the dungeon down below, and rushed up and out…
On it goes for many paragraphs. The description of Irene’s grandmother when she appears to Curdie underground is similarly extravagant: she embodies “all the beauty of the cavern, yes, of all he knew of the whole creation, [which] seemed gathered in one centre of harmony and loveliness in the person of the ancient lady who stood before him in the very summer of beauty and strength.”
I guess I have a love-hate relationship with passages like this. On the one hand they’re very rich, and they radiate multi-faceted meaning. On the other, they can be quite long-winded, and slow down the story. That pretty much sums up the experience of reading this book. It’s full of treasures — I suppose it’s fitting that Curdie is a miner, because these pages seem encrusted with jewels — but you have to be willing to take your time and mull and dig and consider.
George MacDonald was born on December 10, 1824, so it seems fitting to submit this post for the Celebrate the Author Challenge for December. My original plan was to focus on a different author, but with the busyness of these days I’m going to consider the timing of this reading as a serendipitous event, and conclude my participation in this challenge with this post. George MacDonald is an author I can certainly celebrate, given his famous influence on C.S. Lewis, who wrote that Phantastes “baptized his imagination.” Originally a minister, MacDonald made the transition to a full-time literary vocation after meeting with adversity because of his tolerant and not-always-conventional views. He was more at home as a writer, and was well-connected with other men of letters of his day.
I remember reading these stories. The amount of allegory and moralizing (did I spell that right?) got a bit too heavy-handed for me. I much prefer his novel At the Back of the North Wind- have you read that one?
Yes, I know what you mean about the heavy-handedness!
I’ve read Phantastes and Lilith, but not At the Back of the North Wind. Is that one of his novels for adults? I’ll see if I can find a copy.
I think it’s a children’s novel. But I still enjoy reading it as an adult. I wasn’t aware he wrote adult fiction, do you know of any other titles?
‘Lilith’ is for adults, and to me ‘Phantastes’ was. Beyond that I haven’t read enough to say, but the intro to my copy of ‘P&C’ pointed out that MacDonald started by writing adult fiction, and didn’t realize he had a knack for children’s stories beyond storytelling for his own children till later.
I did find this site that gives an annotated bibliography of his writings: http://www.johannesen.com/summaries.htm
I enjoyed reading the Princess and Curdie books as read-alouds to my boys. His short stories are nice too. The Light Princess is packed with meaning. Sadly, my kids disliked At the Back of the North Wind, but I’ve read it three times (to myself) because of the amazing imagery. The second half drags quite a bit, but I still think it’s worth a try.
It’s been many years since I read his many novels that were edited by Michael Phillips. (The originals are apparently in very archaic language). Those were lovely! The Laird’s Inheritance was my favorite. An absolutley amazing picture of grace.
These two books were some of my favorites growing up. I read the Princess and the Goblin–a wonderful, illustrated copy–to my oldest child years ago but haven’t read it yet to my younger ones. Thanks for the reminder!
Some of the allegory I really liked–like Curdie being able to tell what kind of animal each person had inside of them. This was a harder, darker book than Princess and the Goblin.
In one of CS Lewis’s books, The Great Divorce, he imagines meeting, or at least seeing, MacDonald.
I agree — I liked that part about Curdie “seeing into” people too.
The Great Divorce is one of my favorites!
I read his children’s books as a child and liked them, and my oldest daughter read them when she was between the ages of 11 and 12 and liked them. Neither of us have re-read them as adults. I’m thinking from your comments that they might not wear as well.
Thanks for the review!
I have considered reading through all of MacDonald’s works to my family in the evenings. We’ve recently read through the Narnia series for the fourth time and are big fans so I think MacDonald would be a hit too. Thanks for the review.
MacDonald wrote quite a few sort of romance novels mostly set in Scotland. They’re preachy by today’s standards, and some of them have been abridged and rewritten and published by some one, I forget which publisher. I much prefer his fantasies and allegories.
[...] Amazing Undersea Adventure)43. Josette (The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie)44. Josette (Eclipse)45. Janet (The Princess and Curdie)46. Shonda (The Gift)47. Shonda (Frenemies)48. Beth F (This Rock)49. Nicole (The Uncommon Reader)50. [...]
Thanks for the review on this book. I am reading ir for my Grade 11 English cumulative and am almost done. I was searching for christianity parralels to the book as I had noticed many. It helped me understand the book a bit better.
I’m trying to come up with a Thesis for my Essay, and anyone has any suggestions please feel free to let me know
There is a slight biographical error in the statement that MacDonald was “Originally a minister [but] made the transition to a full-time literary vocation after meeting with adversity . . .”
Although MacDonald was no longer employed by a church after his first, controversial stint as a rector, preaching continued to be one of his main sources of income until he died. His written works in this line are collected in the (to my mind) superb books _Unspoken Sermons_ Vols. 1-3.
I have read most of his religious novels, by the way, and like them very much, despite their literary limitations. Strangely, most of his abridgers and modernizers focus on purging the Scots dialect bits. I think they are the best parts: the places where his characters’ voices comes most fully alive. I am as American as a Ford SUV yet rarely have trouble understanding what is said. I earnestly recommend all persons interested in MacDonald to shun abridgements and other dumbed-down versions. Dig only the real deal!
Regards,
Larry Gilman
I’ve not read any abridged versions, so I’ll take your word on that.
That’s an interesting question you raise about MacDonald’s vocation. I didn’t realize he continued preaching. I was going by the intro to my copy of the book, which states that “at the same time as pursuing a literary career, he had tried to be a Congregationalist minister; but his unconventional and tolerant views caused so many complaints from members of his parish that he became disillusioned and gave it up.” So although he may have continued to earn income through preaching, it sounds (to me) like his vocation as a minister was over.
Thanks for the tip on the ‘Unspoken Sermons.’ I’ve run across quotations from them in other works, and I’m curious about them.
Can you tell me who the publisher is and who the illustrator is or the illustrated Princess and the Goblin book shown above
The illustrator is Jessie Willcox Smith, publisher originally (1920) was David McKay Co. You can view a newer version of the book here: http://www.amazon.com/Princess-Goblin-Books-Wonder/dp/0688066046/ref=si3_rdr_bb_product
Some of the illustrations, and all of the text, are online here: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Princess_and_the_Goblin (It mixes samples from several illustrators)