Cover2Cover: The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald Illustrated by Jessie Wilcox Smith

I learned about George MacDonald like most people – through the testimonies of the people he influenced. He was friends with Lewis Carroll and Mark Twain, reviewing early drafts of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Life on the Mississippi. And he was a major influence on authors like C. S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, and Madeline L’Engle.

Lewis called MacDonald “my master,” and said that reading MacDonald’s book Phantastes was a turning point in his conversion to Christianity. Chesterton called MacDonald “one of the three or four greatest men of the 19th century,” and said that MacDonald’s The Princess and the Goblin “has made a difference to my whole existence.”

I read The Princess and the Goblin as an adult.  I can’t say that it has “made a difference to my whole existence,” but it was a unique experience. There is a distinct wholesomeness suffused throughout MacDonald’s simple stories, which left me feeling happy and light-hearted.  His lands feel a lot like Narnia and The Shire.

We recently got a 1920 edition of The Princess and the Goblin with illustrations by Jessie Wilcox Smith, who is one of the best known illustrators from the “Golden Age” of American illustration (late 1800s to early 1900s). What struck me about Smith’s illustrations is how well they capture that wholesomeness.

Here they are in their entirety:

"She ran for some distance, turned several times, and then began to be afraid."

 

"She clapped her hands with delight, and up rose such a flapping of wings"

 

"'Never mind, Princess Irene,' he said. 'You mustn't kiss me tonight. But you sha'n't break your word. I will come another time.'"

 

"In an instant she was on the saddle, and clasped in his great strong arms."

 

"'Come,' and she still held out her arms."

 

"The goblins fell back a little when he began, and made horrible grimaces all through the rhyme."

 

"Curdie went on after her, flashing his torch about."

 

"There sat his mother by the fire, and in her arms lay the princess fast asleep."

 

The endpapers

P.S. *MacDonald’s works have seen something of a revival in recent times. If you’d like to learn more about him, I’d recommend The Rabbit Room and The George MacDonald Society.