Customer Reviews

The Light Princess (Sunburst Book)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I received this as a gift, I had already read and thoroughly delighted in "At the Back of the North Wind," "The Princess and the Goblin," "The Princess and Curdie," and "The Golden Key." When you read MacDonald, if your heart is right, you feel sheltered--the world he creates for you is as trustworthy and pure as C. S. Lewis's Narnia or Rivendell of Tolkien's Middle Earth. At the same time, you feel challenged to transform your own world and make it more like MacDonald's.

I was expecting another dose of the same awe-inspiring goodness without false piety or preachiness that is MacDonald's literary legacy. In "The Light Princess," however, there was an unexpected ingredient--a sharp wit that pervades the whole book and made me laugh out loud more than once. In a modern world where wit and vulgarity are viewed as conjoined twins, how satisfying a book this is! MacDonald infused delicious humor into his characters without losing the innocence. I fell in love with this book by page three, and it has surpassed "The Princess and the Goblin" as my favorite work of George MacDonald.

The fact that my favorite illustrator of all time, Maurice Sendak, added his talents to this book is icing on the cake. Sendak always grabs the heart and soul of the written work and renders it into drawings too evocative to be believed. The drawing of the prince with only his head above the water took my breath away, and in one fabulous illustration, the hilarious expression on the face of the gravity-deprived infant princess as she floats away reflects the hilarity of the story itself.

If some of MacDonald's other stories have turned you off because they are too long, too "deep" or whatever, don't miss this treasure as a result. It is MacDonald-Light, and by that I mean not only easy to read, but typically illumined with beauty and truth. Plus, it's a love story that pokes fun of its own sentimentality. Anyone not brain-dead and heart-numb ought to adore it.

This is one of the most beautiful stories I have ever read! My friends tire of me recomending it to them -- but those who take my advise fall equally in love with its charm. The princess reminds me of Pearl in _The Scarlet Letter_, she cannot be truly human until she cries. What an idea! We cannot truly expereance real joy in life until we have felt the sting of pain. MacDonald never wrote fluff, his words have meaning even when born on the wings of fairies. Be encouraged and delighted by this beautiful fairy story. They say it's just for children, but the theme of love and the importance of gravity of character are as precious to the adult reader as the pool of water to the princess.

George MacDonald was a Scottish clergyman of the mid-to-late 19th century, now known best for a variety of children`s fantasies, such as The Princess and the Goblin (recently made into a moderately successful animated feature), The Princess and Curdie, and the remarkable At the Back of the North Wind, as well as such adult novels as Lilith. Those are novels, but he also wrote some shorter pieces, perhaps aimed at a slightly younger audience (though very enjoyable for all ages). The Light Princess is one of these. (Another is The Golden Key: both books are available in very attractive Sunburst paperback editions, with illustrations by Maurice Sendak).

It is the tale of a princess who is cursed by a mean, jealous, witch so that she has no gravity. The book is full of puns, so MacDonald makes much both of her weightlessness, and the lack of gravity in her character. Naturally her parents are upset and try to have her cured, but to no avail (although the efforts of a couple of Chinese philosophers to provide a cure are rendered amusingly). However the Princess is quite happy with her "light" state (of course it is in her nature to be always happy). In the way of things, a Prince appears, and falls in love with the Princess. Then the witch realizes that her curse has failed to make the Princess unhappy, so she takes further steps, which are thwarted by the selfless behavior of the Prince, and which result in the Princess recovering her gravity: not an unmixed blessing, but one which her new maturity allows her to realize is best in the long run.

This is a delightful story, told with just the right mixture of whimsy and mildly serious moral comment. The characters are lightly and accurately drawn (the Princess` parents and the Chinese philosophers in particular, are delightful), and the story is predictable but still quite imaginative, with a number of nice touches to do with the Princess` weightlessness. Maurice Sendak`s illustrations are wonderful as usual.

George MacDonald's story of the princess who lost her gravity (through an evil curse, of course), is the most pithy, humorous, lovely fairy tale on earth. Besides being weightless, she has no *inner* gravity--she has never cried. So her joy isn't real joy and her laughter is empty. The self-sacrificing love of the prince opens her eyes...and we see what wholeness means. Maurice Sendak's whimsically wonderful illustrations only serve to heighten the book's qualities...sheer delight is the result. A must for lovers of Lewis Carroll, A. A. Milne, J. M. Barrie, Pamela Travers, C. S. Lewis, Charles Kingsley or anyone with even a passing interest in children's literature.

The Light Princess has no flaws. I have never read a fairy tale that made me laugh so hard--my wife and I could hardly catch our breaths at the beginning of the story. And then we cried at the end; the symbolism is strikingly powerful. As good as this book is, however, I like one George MacDonald book better: The Lost Princess, although that book is hard to find outside of an anthology. If you can ever find The Lost Princess, however, you find another masterpiece. For the record, my -wife- likes The Light Princess better: I guess there's no accounting for taste! ;)

As a connoiseur of fairy tales, I consume en masse, but this George MacDonald classic stands out in my collection. Witty and sweet, this book was as appealing to me as an adult as it would be to any juvenile consumers with a glimmer of pixie dust in their eyes. Any child who loves C.S. Lewis's classic Chronicles of Narnia will delight in the author who fascinated and influenced Lewis in his own writing. MacDonald never writes to condescend, and thus he entertains all who read. The humor and twists in the story excite and enrapture, while the force of honest spirituality give it a lasting impetus and impact. The Light Princess is truly a nugget from the Golden age of children's literature.

I think this is one of the best books that I have ever read. It was amazing how into this book I got, I read it twice in one day. I guess that I just still couldn't believe that, this prince or anyone could love a princess so much, that he would demonstarate his love to her, by giving her the altimate gift that he could give. Her gravity was not the altimate gift that was given... I cryed and cryed after and while I read this book, and I still cry when I read it. It touches you in some way, that I can not explain, you have to read the book, to know what I am writting about. I recomend this book to every single livivng person on the planet, no matter what there age.

This review will only cover the basics:
I have loved this story since I was a child. Still, this edition is not quite what I remember.

1) This edition does not feature illustrations by Maurice Sendak. Instead, it features a few (about 4) colored etching-type illustrations by Arthur Hughes.

2) The cover page says "unabridged". As I do not have the one I read as a child, I cannot say this is false, but I remember it to be a full-size novel. This edition is about the size of a pocket calculator: 3"X4.5". The font size is about a 10. Yet, each chapter is only a few pages long and the total page count is 131.

This edition claims to be unabridged from MacDonald's 1867 edition of the story included in a collection of fairy tales. As fairly tale collections are frequently abridged stories, I wonder if this edition is claiming to be unabridged from an edition that itself was shortened.

I purchased this copy cheap, knowing there must be a reason for it. Therefore, I was not disappointed. Still, I have now also purchased the edition with Sendak as illustrator.

For a pocket book, I find this to be very nice. Still, if you are unfamiliar with the story, I would recommend a different edition.

This is a fun read and a GREAT Read-aloud to your kids. It can also spark some good conversations - as all of his books do!

The Light Princess has every element that a good fairy tale should have: tragedy, love, good, evil, magic, charm and a happy ending. I'm sure there's more. The book does seem to be a bit more geared towards girls than boys since the premise of the book seems to be more or less that love conquers all, and the book lacks the bravado that boys seem to enjoy. Nonetheless, the book is well written, original in my opinion and well worth the effort to read even if you're an adult.

The book is about a princess who has a curse placed on her at birth; a curse that renders her weightless and hence, not prone to the laws of gravity. Another side effect of this curse is her tendency to laugh towards anything, no matter how serious or unfunny the circumstance may be. And so, the curse goes on into adulthood with the princess pleasantly adapting to her circumstances, and her parents not so pleasantly adapting to her circumstances as they do learn to cope, but try everything to break the curse. Along her journeys, the princess meets a prince who falls deeply in love with her. I won't say how, but his love of her, and then, her love of him ends up breaking the princess' curse. The prince also ends up being the remedy to the princess' incessant laughing.

The ending is very typical of fairy tales, but the road to it is very uniquely carved out and deserving of praise. I hope you give this book a try.

Darien Summers, author of The Mischievous Hare, a children's book.