Fantasy · Children
The Princess and the Goblin
A princess, a miner's son and a magic thread against the goblins plotting beneath the mountain.
Five levels, about 80 languages
- A2ElementaryShort sentences and everyday words.
- B1IntermediateYou follow clear stories about familiar things.
- B2Upper intermediateLonger sentences, richer vocabulary.
- C1AdvancedClose to the original, lightly condensed.
- C2ProficientThe complete novel.
One purchase is one book, in one language, at one level: $4.99. Another level of a book you own is $1.99. Editions nobody has asked for yet are written on request: chapter 1 in a few minutes, the rest while you read. How the levels work.
About the book
Under the mountain
Princess Irene is eight and lives in a large house halfway up a mountain, with her nurse and a household of servants, while her father the king rides about his kingdom. Under the mountain, in the caves and tunnels left by the miners, live the goblins, who were once people and have long hated the people above. One rainy day, exploring the house, Irene climbs a stair she has never seen and finds a beautiful old lady spinning in a tower, who says she is Irene’s great-great-grandmother. Meanwhile Curdie, a miner’s son, overhears the goblins plotting. George MacDonald, a Scottish writer and former minister, published it in 1872.
Why it works for learners
The story is gentle, clear and steadily exciting. Each chapter adds one discovery or one danger, and the two halves of the plot (Irene above ground, Curdie below) come together neatly. The goblins have a weakness learners will enjoy: they can’t bear songs, so Curdie drives them off by making up rhymes. The vocabulary is a small, repeating world: mountain, mine, cave, tunnel, tower, stairs, thread, ring, lamp, king. MacDonald also asks a question children and adults both understand: will you trust what you can’t see? Writers such as C. S. Lewis counted him a major influence.
Which level to start at
A2 is a good start, and B1 is ideal. From B2 you’ll notice how much MacDonald says about faith and trust in very simple scenes. Curdie’s rhymes are fun to hear aloud, so try the narration with the text highlighted as it’s read.
Read next
- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, another brave girl and a magic road
- Five Children and It, magic with a sense of humor
- Grimms’ Fairy Tales, the older tales MacDonald grew from