George MacDonald 
The Princess and Curdie 

The Princess and Curdie – George Mac Donald – Princess Irene’s discovery of a secret stair leads to a wonderful revelation.The Princess and Curdie is a children’s classic fantasy novel by George Mac Donald from late 1883.The book is the sequel to The Princess and the Goblin. The adventure continues with Princess Irene and Curdie a year or two older. They must overthrow a set of corrupt ministers who are poisoning Irene’s father, the king. Irene’s grandmother also reappears and gives Curdie a strange gift. A monster called Lina aids his quest.

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George Mac Donald was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister.He was educated at Aberdeen University and after a short and stormy career as a minister at Arundel, where his unorthodox views led to his dismissal, he turned to fiction as a means of earning a living. He wrote over 50 books.Known particularly for his poignant fairy tales and fantasy novels, Mac Donald inspired many authors, such as G.K. Chesterton, W. H. Auden, J.R.R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Madeleine L’Engle. Lewis wrote that he regarded Mac Donald 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.’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.’