Escape from Reality with Classic Fantasy

Guest Post by Chang Shih Yen

Perhaps you need a little bit of an escape from reality at the moment. This is a good book to do that. The Princess and the Goblin is a classic fantasy novel written by Scottish writer George MacDonald (1824-1905). It first appeared in 1871, before being published in book form in 1872.

The Princess and the Goblin tells the story of Princess Irene who is rescued from a goblin attack by a miner boy called Curdie. The book tells of a battle between goblins who live underground and humans. With her new friend Curdie and some magical help, Princess Irene must find a way to defeat the goblins and save her father’s kingdom.

Despite being written in the Victorian era, the language in this book is very easy to follow. You can’t tell that it was written almost 150 years ago. This was a very enjoyable book. It’s the type of book where illustrations are not necessary because it’s better to use your own imagination to picture all the goblins and other creatures. This classic fantasy novel inspired Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. George MacDonald wrote at least 50 books, but most of his work is not remembered now, which is a shame. George MacDonald deserves more recognition.

The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald. 1872.

Reviewer bio: Chang Shih Yen is a writer from Malaysia, seeing through the pandemic in New Zealand. She writes a blog at https://shihyenshoes.wordpress.com/.

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