The Princess and the Goblin (Princess Irene and Curdie #1) by George MacDonald

 

Summary:

 

Princess Irene's discovery of a secret stair to the top turret of the castle leads to a wonderful revelation. At the same time, the miner's son Curdle overhears a fiendish plot by the goblins who live below the mountain. It will take all of their wit and courage, plus the help of Irene's magic ring, to make sense of their separate knowledge and foil the goblins' schemes.

Summary & Photo taken from Goodreads.com

Length: 241 pages (Paperback)

Source: Kobo Freebie

Publication Date: 1872 by Strahan & Co.

 

When I was a wee little thing I happened to come across the 1994 animated film adaptation of this believed children's classic and fell in love with it. It wasn't until recently (this year) that I realized that it was based on a classic piece of children's literature so when I found out I did some investigating and downloaded the kobo e-book version onto my BlackBerry and before I knew it I was reading it every chance I got.

 

Right away though I noticed that there were of course some key differences. Since the movie I watched was a 1994 film there were some changes made to the story line. It was made to be more accessible to the modern audience but for what it was I enjoyed the book version as well.

 

The story was a fun one and normally I'm not one for the classics but this was a good one. It was enjoyable though I sometimes felt that the story lacked the flow of a more modern novel but that is in part due to the audience it was written for back in 1872.

 

For me, while my tastes are lean towards the more modern I did enjoy the book. I though Irene was a cute character. Her curiosity while it almost lead to her ruin was adorable to see play out on the pages, though I didn't like the demeaning way she treated Curdie the local boy who saved hers and her nursemaid's skin one night. Then again she was a princess and a very young one at that so I suppose I could excuse her attitude.

 

Curdie though had to be my favourite character because of how smart, self reliant and courageous manner. He was the main character for me because much of the book centered around his activities in finding the goblins, and figuring out their master plan.

 

The writing was good, it intrigued me but as I stated before the flow put me off a bit. I think that it was a lovely little children's classic and it deserves a spot on every kid's bookshelf because their a princess for the girls to admire and a hero for the boys.

 

Overall, I would recommend this book to everyone young and old. This would be a good book for a night time read aloud book for kids or to be read by teachers to their classes. I'm a strong believer that though a book is older it should not lose its place on out bookshelves. I plan on reading the sequel to this book in 2013.

 

Liked It!
★ ★ ★

 

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