1911 Rare Edition - The PRINCESS and the GOBLIN by George MacDonald. Illustrated.

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(Description) 

 

Author: George MacDonald.
Title: The Princess and the Goblin. With twelve full-page illustrations in colour and thirty text illustrations in black-and-white.
Publisher: London and Glasgow, Blackie and Son Limited, 1911. New Edition.
Language: Text in English.  
Size: 8 " X 6 ". 
Pages: 308 pages.
Binding: Attractive and very good original decorated full cloth-covered boards with gold stamped lettering and a pictorial pastedown on front cover (hinges fine, overall slightly worn and scuffed - as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover. The Art Nouveau binding is typical of Blackie in this period, complete with stylized Glasgow roses.
Content: Very good content (bright, tight, some light foxing and staining - as shown, toning of endpaper - as shown, ex-libris of a previous owner on the last endpaper - as shown).
Illustrations: Beautifully illustrated with the complete 12 full-page color illustrations by Helen Isobel Mansfield Ramsey Stratton.

Estimate : (USD 200 - USD 300)

The book: Scarce and attractive edition of The Princess and the Goblin -- a children's fantasy novel by George MacDonald. It was published in 1872 by Strahan & Co., with black-and-white illustrations by Arthur Hughes. ... Summary: Eight-year-old Princess Irene lives a lonely life in a castle in a wild, desolate, mountainous kingdom, with only her nursemaid, Lootie, for company. Her father, the king, is normally absent, and her mother is dead. Unknown to her, the nearby mines are inhabited by a race of goblins, long banished from the kingdom and now anxious to take revenge on their human neighbours. One rainy day, the princess explores the castle and discovers a beautiful, mysterious lady, who identifies herself as Irene's namesake and great-great-grandmother. The next day, Princess Irene persuades her nursemaid to take her outside. After dark they are chased by goblins and rescued by a young miner, Curdie, whom Irene befriends. At work with the rest of the miners, Curdie overhears the goblins talking, and their conversation reveals to Curdie the secret weakness of goblin anatomy: they have very soft, vulnerable feet. Curdie sneaks into the Great Hall of the goblin palace to eavesdrop on their general meeting, and hears that the goblins intend to flood the mine if a certain other part of their plan should fail. He later conveys this news to his father. In the palace, Princess Irene injures her hand, which her great-great-grandmother heals. A week later Irene is about to see her great-great-grandmother again, but is frightened by a long-legged cat and escapes up the mountain; whereupon the light from her great-great-grandmother's tower leads her home, where her great-great-grandmother gives Irene a ring attached to a thread invisible except to herself, which thereafter connects her constantly to home.

The author: George MacDonald (10 December 1824 – 18 September 1905) was a Scottish author, poet and Christian minister. He was a pioneering figure in the field of fantasy literature and the mentor of fellow writer Lewis Carroll. His writings have been cited as a major literary influence by many notable authors, including W. H. Auden, J. M. Barrie, Lord Dunsany, Hope Mirrlees, Robert E. Howard, L. Frank Baum, T.H. White, Lloyd Alexander, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Walter de la Mare, E. Nesbit, Peter S. Beagle, Neil Gaiman and Madeleine L'Engle. C. S. Lewis wrote that he regarded MacDonald as his "master": "Picking up a copy of Phantastes one day at a train-station bookstall, I 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".