George MacDonald 3 hr 24 min read

Little Princess Irene discovers a magical grandmother spinning in a hidden tower, and the brave miner boy Curdie overhears the goblins plotting deep beneath the mountain against the world above.

George MacDonald's 1872 novel is a foundational classic of children's fantasy. Enchanting, wise, profoundly influential. Read it for one of the great fairy tales, a princess, a courageous miner boy, and a plot of the goblins beneath the mountain, a luminous book that shaped Tolkien, Lewis, and all of modern fantasy.

In its time

Published in 1872, during the 1870s, under the sea and around the moon.

Reading it

3 hr 24 min read (a novel-length work, settle in).

Illustrated by

Jessie Willcox Smith