The Princess and Curdie

First published in 1882, this book is a sequel to The Princess and the Goblin, in which the bold young miner Curdie rescues a child princess from the imps which dwell beneath her mountain kingdom. As Curdie grows into a man, he is called upon again by the princess’s goddess-like great-great-grandmother to embark upon a quest to cleanse the capital of the human vermin who are poisoning the king and corrupting the court.  Curdie’s mission is preceded by a purification rite in which he plunges his hands into blazing roses; it is accomplished with the help of a monstrously deformed dog and a host of other mutant creatures, later revealed to be former humans morphed by their own evil ways. Macdonald was a visionary, a romantic and a committed moralist. The book is an allegory of sin and redemption, with frank sermonizing in every chapter. His language is supersaturated with symbol and imagery, a rhapsodic mingling of themes from myth and  gospel. This book should appeal to lovers of fantasy with a tolerance for preaching. Their reward will be an unforgettable journey that may lead them eventually to Phantastes and Lilith, Macdonald’s even stranger books for older readers.