Customer Reviews

The Princess and Curdie (Found in the Attic, 12)

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

 

 

One of the most memorable characters from George MacDonald's "The Princess and the Goblin" was the miner boy Curdie, who rescues Princess Irene and infiltrates the goblin kingdom. But the princess was the real focus on the book, not her miner boy.

However, the sequel "The Princess and Curdie" shifts the focus from Irene to Curdie. MacDonald's otherworldly writing elevates what could have been a simple morality tale, and makes it both horrifying and beautiful. This is one book that doesn't suffer as a sequel.

Time has passed since the events of the first book, and now Curdie is back in the mines, and has come to believe that Irene's great-great-grandmother is "nothing but ridiculous nonsense." Then one day he thoughtlessly shoots a pigeon -- a pigeon that happens to belong to that lady. Overcome with remorse, he carries the pigeon to the tower where she lives.

The lady forgives Curdie, but gives him a mission to fulfil, to make up for it: He and a repulsive creature called Lina must find a way to save the king from his malignant advisors. To do that, she gives him the power to tell whether a man is good at heart -- or is turning into a beast.

About ninety-nine percent of the time, it would be a rotten idea to make a sequel to a book like "The Princess and the Goblin." It was charming, magical and optimistic. So why mess with something that is already perfect?

But "The Princess and Curdie" has the success of being a more mature, darker book, with a surprisingly palatable moral lesson. The skeptical Curdie learns that "whoever does not mean good is always in danger of harm," and MacDonald provides a small glimpse at the darker side of human nature.

MacDonald's writing stays dreamy and vaguely otherworldly, even with such ordinary things as a family sitting down to dinner, or children running out to see a dog. The only problem is the ending, a few paragraphs that could have been easily left out, which seem needlessly pessimistic after the book's triumphant events.

MacDonald continues wotj the mysterious, goddess-like presence of the old princess, hinting that she is everywhere under different names. And Lina is an especially poignant addition, a woman who did something, and ended up being turned into a grotesque creature as a punishment.

While "The Princess and Curdie" is very different from its predecessor, it is also a rich, enchanting fantasy story that builds on the strengths of MacDonald's first "Princess" book.

I won't comment much on the story which is an interesting mix of great fantasy ideas and much inspiration, combined with a pessimistic view of humanity, in general. However, this specific version of the book from Quiet Vision Publishing, came to me with the binding completely dried out. Reading it for the second time, in the year since I got it, brand new, from Amazon, leaves me holding a bunch of loose pages -- almost all of the pages are broken out.