The Princess & The Goblin

Chapter 12 Next morning when Irene got up, she went straight up to her father, with her right hand stretched out a little sideways, and her forefinger, as her father and Curdie understood, feeling its way along the invisible thread. The king took her on his knee, and she said in his ear:‘King-papa, do you […]

Chapter 11 The next morning the sun rose so bright that Irene said the rain had washed her face and let the light out clean. The torrents were still roaring down the side of the mountain, but they were so much smaller as not to be dangerous in the daylight. After an early breakfast, Peter

Chapter 10 On the other hand, Curdie was in search of goblins. He had been spending restless nights for some days. One day he resolved to find them out. So he followed the goblins into their hole. Something touched his hand. It was the slightest touch, and when he looked he could see nothing. Feeling

Chapter 9 When the princess awoke from the sweetest of sleeps, she found her nurse bending over her, the housekeeper looking over the nurse’s shoulder, and the laundry-maid looking over the housekeeper’s. The room was full of women-servants; and the gentlemen-at-arms, with a long column of servants behind them, were peeping, or trying to peep

Chapter 8 Somehow Irene managed to get up and was on her way back home. She came across Curdie. When she told Curdie about what happened to her, Curdie didn’t believe her. So, Irene took him along to make him believe her words.Up the stair then they went, and the next and the next, and

Chapter 7 Some days went by. One early morning, Irene the princess woke in a terrible fright. There was a hideous noise in her room—creatures snarling and hissing and rocketing about as if they were fighting. The moment she came to herself, she remembered something she had never thought of again—what her grandmother told her

Chapter 6 ‘Come in, Irene,’ said the silvery voice of her grandmother.The princess opened the door and peeped in. But the room was quite dark and there was no sound of the spinning-wheel. She grew frightened once more, thinking that, although the room was there, the old lady might be a dream after all. Every

Chapter 5 The gentlemen whom the king had left behind him to watch over the princess had each occasion to doubt the testimony of his own eyes, for more than strange were the objects to which they would bear witness. They were of one sort—creatures—but so grotesque and misshapen as to be more like a

Chapter 4 One morning the nurse left Irene with the housekeeper for a while. To amuse her she turned out the contents of an old cabinet upon the table. The little princess found her treasures, queer ancient ornaments, and many things the use of which she could not imagine, far more interesting than her own

Chapter 3 One splendid sunny day, about an hour after noon, Irene, who was playing on a lawn in the garden, heard the distant blast of a bugle. She jumped up with a cry of joy, for she knew by that particular blast that her father was on his way to see her. This part

Chapter 2 One morning, Irene along with the nurse went out. There in the market, they saw a boy.The boy was dressed in a miner’s dress, with a curious cap on his head. He was a very nice-looking boy, with eyes as dark as the mines in which he worked and as sparkling as the

Chapter 1 Once upon a time, a little princess named Irene lived with her father who was a king of a large kingdom. The princess’s house was quite big, surrounded by mountains and valleys. As her mother died just after her birth, the princess was brought up by country people in a large house, half