A review by libra17
The Princess And The Goblin by George MacDonald

5.0

I read The Princess and the Goblin almost purely because I have fond memories of the animated movie, which I spent a decent chunk of my young childhood watching. I didn't come into TPATG expecting something that shared more a basic similarity with the movie - I have too much experience with Peter Pan mythology for that - but wanted to get to know the original story more. I have to say that I am very impressed. TPATG is pretty much the last stop on the old, Grimms Brothers and folklore kind of fantasy road, as well as being the first stop on the path of modern fantasy. Consequently, the story bears many tropes of the older ways of storytelling (too-flawless characters, simplistic plots, very young children off on thier own, etc) as well the first attempts at newer methods (explaining backstories, building action/nonepisodic stories, focus on non-royalty as a main protagonist, etc). In light of its historical context, I found TPATG to be a entertaining and interesting read, although there probably are readers that will have found it boring and even offensive in places (as with many and even most older works, there are parts of TPATG that we would today find unacceptable if proposed for publish as a new novel; for example, there is a reason that the crown prince's name was changed in Froglip in the animated movie).