The eight-year-old Princess Irene is lonely in her castle that sits on a mountain. She has only her nursemaid, Lootie, for company. She discovers a a secret, and soon she overhears a fiendish plot by some goblins. Can she foil their plans? George MacDonald’s fairy tale "The Princess and the Goblin" is one of the first books in the modern fantasy genre. George MacDonald (1824-1905) was a Scottish author, poet and Christian minister. A pioneer of fantasy literature, he was the mentor of Lewis Carroll. Among his notable works are "Phantastes" (1858), "David Elginbrod" (1863), "At the Back of the North Wind" (1871), "The Princess and the Goblin" (1872), and "Lilith" (1895).

"The Princess and the Goblin is a children's fantasy novel by George MacDonald. It was published in 1872 by Strahan & Co.Anne Thaxter Eaton writes in A Critical History of Children's Literature that The Princess and the Goblin and its sequel ""quietly suggest in every incident ideas of courage and honor.""[1] Jeffrey Hold away, in the New Zealand Art Monthly, said that both books start out as ""normal fairy tales but slowly become stranger"", and that they contain layers of symbolism similar to that of Lewis Carroll's work"

Princess Irene and her newfound friend Curdie battle the goblin king and queen, along with their foul son Prince Froglip, and save the kingdom with old mining knowledge, some thread, and the help of Irene's magical great-great grandmother.George MacDonald (10 December 1824 - 18 September 1905) was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister. Though no longer well known, his works (particularly his fairy tales and fantasy novels) have inspired admiration in such notables as W. H. Auden, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Madeleine L'Engle. For instance C. S. Lewis wrote that he regarded MacDonald as his "master". Picking up a copy of Phantastes one day at a train-station bookstall, he began to read: "A few hours later," said Lewis, "I knew that I had crossed a great frontier." G. K. Chesterton cited The Princess and the Goblin as a book that had "made a difference to my whole existence." Elizabeth Yates wrote of Sir Gibbie, "It moved me the way books did when, as a child, the great gates of literature began to open and first encounters with noble thoughts and utterances were unspeakably thrilling." Even Mark Twain, who initially disliked MacDonald, became friends with him, and there is some evidence that Twain was influenced by MacDonald.