One of the most successful and beloved of Victorian fairy tales George Macdonald s The Princess and the Goblin tells the story of young Princess Irene and her friend Curdie who must outwit the threatening goblins who live in caves beneath her mountain home. Macdonald s pioneering use of fanstasy as a literary medium had a great influence on Lewis Carroll J. R. R. Tolkien and Madeleine L Engle all great admirers of his work which has remained popular to this day. I write not for children he wrote but for the child-like whether they be of five or fifty or seventy-five. This edition includes illustrations by Arthur Hughes.