The Princess and Curdie
The Princess and Curdie
Two years have passed since Curdie slayed the goblins, but his real trial has only begun. When the miners son learns that corrupt ministers are poisoning the king, he faces a danger far subtler than underground monsters: human greed dressed in fine clothes. The old princess returns with one final test, gifting Curdie the strangest companion he has ever seen a creature called Lina, so ugly that even her own mother would not own her. What follows is a story about learning to see what is real. Lina becomes the most faithful friend Curdie could ask for, and together they must do what the grown-ups in the kingdom cannot: save the king, defeat the traitors, and prove that courage and kindness matter more than strength or beauty. George MacDonald writes with the gentle darkness of Victorian fairy tales, where children are not saved by magic but by their own growing hearts.
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“There is this difference between the growth of some human beings and that of others: in the one case it is a continuous dying, in the other a continuous resurrection.””
— George MacDonald
“I don't know how to thank you.'Then I will tell you. There is only one way I care for. Do better, and grow better, and be better.””
— George MacDonald
“The boy should enclose and keep, as his life, the old child at the heart of him, and never let it go. He must still, to be a right man, be his mother's darling, and more, his father's pride, and more. The child is not meant to die, but to be forever fresh born.””
— George MacDonald
“Could you not give me some sign, or tell me something about you that never changes, or some other way to know you, or thing to know you by?"”
— George MacDonald
“Remember, then, that whoever does not mean good is always in danger of harm. But I try to give everybody fair play, and those that are in the wrong are in far more need of it always than those who are in the right: they can afford to do without it.””
— George MacDonald
“Then the great old, young, beautiful princess turned to Curdie.'Now, Curdie, are you ready?' she said.'Yes ma'am,' answered Curdie.'You do not know what for.''You do, ma'am. That is enough.””
— George MacDonald
“But it was little to Curdie that men who did not know what he was about should not approve of his proceedings.””
— George MacDonald
“I was doing the wrong of never wanting or trying to better. And now I see that I have been letting things go as the would for a long time. Whatever came into my head I did and whatever didn’t come into my head I didn’t do.””
— George MacDonald
“A mountain is a strange and awful thing. In old times, without knowing so much of their strangeness and awfulness as we do, people were yet more afraid of mountains. But then somehow they had not come to see how beautiful they are as well as awful, and they hated them--and what people hate they must fear. Now that we have learned to look at them with admiration, perhaps we do not feel quite awe enough of them. To me they are beautiful terrors.””
— George MacDonald
