MacDonald wrote the sequel eleven years after the original, and he did not write the same book twice. The Princess and the Goblin is a bedtime fairy tale with a warm floor under it even when it goes underground. The Princess and Curdie sends its hero into a corrupt human city where the monsters are councillors and courtiers, and it closes on one of the most abrupt endings in children’s literature — readers have argued about that last page since 1883. Both are worth a family’s time; they are simply different seasons. Read the first young, and save the second for the same reader a little later.
The Princess Irene and Curdie books
MacDonald wrote two books about Princess Irene and the miner boy Curdie, eleven years apart — a fairy tale and then its strange, darker sequel. Most families only ever hear of the first.
All 2 books, in order
1
The Princess and the Goblin1872
Irene, Curdie, the grandmother's thread, and the goblin kingdom under the mountain. Complete in itself — the ending leaves nothing owed — and the right starting point by every measure.
2
The Princess and Curdie1883
Curdie, a year or two older, is sent to the capital to save Irene and her father from human corruption rather than goblins — with a gift that lets him feel what a person is becoming when he takes their hand. Stranger, more serious, and it ends with a famously abrupt final page. Worth telling a kid the sequel is a different kind of book before they open it.
Darker in key than the first — court intrigue, real violence, and a stark ending. It lands best a year or two after book one.Every book in this series is in the public domain — all 2 can be read free. Amazon links are affiliate links.
The whole set, on paper
Some families want the row of spines on the shelf, and we get it. The pair is sold together in several two-in-one and boxed editions.See box sets →
Quick answers
Do you need to read The Princess and the Goblin first?
Yes — the sequel assumes you know Irene, Curdie, and the grandmother, and its opening chapters build directly on the first book's tower. The first book, by contrast, ends complete and never needs the second.
Is The Princess and Curdie as good for young kids?
It is a different kind of book: the goblins are gone, the villains are human, and the tone is graver — closer to a moral fable about a kingdom rotting from the inside. Families who loved book one at six or seven often hold the sequel until nine or ten.
Are both books free?
Both are long out of copyright — 1872 and 1883. The Princess and the Goblin is free on this site now; The Princess and Curdie is on our list.
Start here, free
The Princess and the Goblin
George MacDonald