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    The Light Princess
    The Light Princess
    The Light Princess

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    Ebook97 pages1 hour

    The Light Princess

    By George MacDonald

    4/5

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateJan 1, 1962
    Author

    George MacDonald

    George MacDonald (1824-1905) was a popular Scottish lecturer and writer of novels, poetry, and fairy tales. Born in Aberdeenshire, he was briefly a clergyman, then a professor of English literature at Bedford and King's College in London. W. H. Auden called him "one of the most remarkable writers of the nineteenth century."

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    Reviews for The Light Princess

    4/5

    216 ratings12 reviews

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    • 5/5

      Apr 21, 2017

      This is my favorite fairy tale of ALL TIME. It is only worth owning, however, in the Maurice-Sendak-illustrated printing, so don't bother with anything less!
    • 3/5

      Dec 11, 2023

      One thing I love about British literature---and just British culture, in general---is the quirky sense of humor we often see in their books and entertainment. Those in the British Empire have a way with words, and it often takes some deeper thinking about words to understand their puns and symbolism. I'll test the waters here a bit by saying that I think they've got "proper" English down, and reading something written by a British writer always challenges my vocabulary.

      George MacDonald's, The Light Princess, is such a fun little book to read because it's just full of puns and nonsensical things and wonderful plays on words that make all the nonsensical things ok because the whole thing is brilliantly written. MacDonald seems to me to be a fantastic mixture of his contemporary and student, Lewis Carroll, and our more modern Roald Dahl.

      MacDonald was a Scottish writer and Christian minister who lived from 1824-1905. He was a major literary influence on some of our favorite authors like J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Madeleine L'Engle. He was the author of over 60 published works, including poetry, fantasy, realistic fiction and nonfiction.

      Inspired by the tale of Sleeping Beauty, The Light Princess tells the story of a princess who was cursed at birth and lost her "gravity". Throughout the story, she deals with issues of gravity---both as a state of being and in the sense of physics. When someone is willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for her comfort, good overcomes evil and she learns lessons in true love.

      There are so many fun literary elements in, The Light Princess. Readers will encounter allusions to nursery rhymes, as well as laugh-out-loud jokes that only an adult would understand. "The King told stories and the Queen listened to them," is one of my favorite lines! Symbolism and witticisms abound. It's such a great story because it's obvious how much fun MacDonald had writing it.

      Whether you are a youth, studying the book as an assignment, or an adult, reading and researching for fun, there's neat things to be found for everyone in this short story that's long on character.
    • 3/5

      Jun 29, 2016

      This is a very standard fairy tale book. This would be a good book to use for a lesson on fairy tales and folklore to act as an example and to compare to other works. I like that the princess has some spunk, but I find the gender roles to be problematic.
    • 4/5

      Apr 13, 2015

      There are actually three stories in this ebook. "The Light Princess" is surprisingly charming; it reads like a Victorianization of a Grimm story. "The Giant's Heart" is pretty saccharine, although it does have a couple of good moments. "The Golden Key" is probably saturated in symbolism from some kind of secret society or another, but I loved it anyway.
    • 5/5

      Feb 27, 2015

      This is my favorite fairy tale of ALL TIME. It is only worth owning, however, in the Maurice-Sendak-illustrated printing, so don't bother with anything less!
    • 5/5

      Sep 4, 2013

      Enchanting story about a princess who is cursed at her christening so that she is light as air -- gravity does not affect her. This would be a good read-aloud.
    • 5/5

      Jun 24, 2011

      What a fun story this was! We enjoyed reading it aloud because the characters and dialogue were so humorous. Lovely illustrations in this edition, too.
    • 4/5

      May 3, 2011

      A great story about a princess who couldn't fall! ...in more than one way. Neither gravity in body, nor gravity in heart seem to affect this girl!In due course, the princess' hapless condition and curse is mended by the simple, giving love of one heroic prince. Seeing in her who she truly is (and not who she appears to all to be), he falls madly and unexpectedly in love with this strange young woman and tries to teach her what love is--"this beehive of honey and stings," as MacDonald puts it.The prince would but give his beloved what makes her--even in her sad, enchanted stupidity and infant-like self-interest--the happiest, and to let that be all the good he needs for himself: hers. In the end, his giving of himself, because of his love, displacing what was amiss in her heart, heals the "light" princess......and the girl who once couldn't fall, has suddenly fallen in love!"The Light Princess" is delightful, imaginative, and inspiring, though I can't say that I'm at all surprised--George MacDonald is the author. MacDonald always has a way of sparking wonder, creativity, and thought. Deep, unique, mystical, and endlessly insightful, MacDonald is my, and C.S. Lewis', favorite author for good reason. G.K. Chesterton once said that he counted George MacDonald as one of the three or four greatest men of the 19th century. Read him.
    • 2/5

      Mar 21, 2009

      For a young audience, full of puns and word plays on light and gravity.
    • 5/5

      Jul 28, 2008

      I have a badly illustrated edition; want a better one.
    • 4/5

      Jun 14, 2007

      Puns ahoy!I have read (and listened to an audio recording of) this book many times since I was younger, and this is the first time I bothered to look up George MacDonald, who turns out to have been a major influence on C.S. Lewis, and a friend of Lewis Carroll.The Light Princess is a standard princess/evil older woman relative fairy tale, with some metaphysics thrown in. The story makes much of the double meaning of gravity (mind and body), and the transformative power of the mind on the world. It reads like a fractured fairy tale, but with a more thoughtful moral.I assume this edition is unabridged, since there are no notes to the contrary.
    • 4/5

      Jun 14, 2007

      Puns ahoy!

      I have read (and listened to an audio recording of) this book many times since I was younger, and this is the first time I bothered to look up George MacDonald, who turns out to have been a major influence on C.S. Lewis, and a friend of Lewis Carroll.

      The Light Princess is a standard princess/evil older woman relative fairy tale, with some metaphysics thrown in. The story makes much of the double meaning of gravity (mind and body), and the transformative power of the mind on the world. It reads like a fractured fairy tale, but with a more thoughtful moral.

      I assume this edition is unabridged, since there are no notes to the contrary.

    Book preview

    The Light Princess - George MacDonald

    The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Light Princess, by George MacDonald

    This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

    almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

    re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

    with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

    Title: The Light Princess

    Author: George MacDonald

    Posting Date: July 26, 2008 [EBook #697]

    Release Date: October, 1996

    Language: English

    *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIGHT PRINCESS ***

    Produced by Jo Churcher. HTML version by Al Haines.

    THE LIGHT PRINCESS

    by

    GEORGE MACDONALD

    Contents

    1. What! No Children?

    2. Won't I, Just?

    3. She Can't Be Ours.

    4. Where Is She?

    5. What Is to Be Done?

    6. She Laughs Too Much.

    7. Try Metaphysics.

    8. Try a Drop of Water.

    9. Put Me in Again.

    10. Look at the Moon.

    11. Hiss!

    12. Where Is the Prince?

    13. Here I Am.

    14. This Is Very Kind of You.

    15. Look at the Rain!

    1. What! No Children?

    Once upon a time, so long ago that I have quite forgotten the date, there lived a king and queen who had no children.

    And the king said to himself, All the queens of my acquaintance have children, some three, some seven, and some as many as twelve; and my queen has not one. I feel ill-used. So he made up his mind to be cross with his wife about it. But she bore it all like a good patient queen as she was. Then the king grew very cross indeed. But the queen pretended to take it all as a joke, and a very good one too.

    Why don't you have any daughters, at least? said he. I don't say sons; that might be too much to expect.

    I am sure, dear king, I am very sorry, said the queen.

    So you ought to be, retorted the king; you are not going to make a virtue of that, surely.

    But he was not an ill-tempered king, and in any matter of less moment would have let the queen have her own way with all his heart. This, however, was an affair of state.

    The queen smiled.

    You must have patience with a lady, you know, dear king, said she.

    She was, indeed, a very nice queen, and heartily sorry that she could not oblige the king immediately.

    2. Won't I, Just?

    The king tried to have patience, but he succeeded very badly. It was more than he deserved, therefore, when, at last, the queen gave him a daughter—as lovely a little princess as ever cried.

    The day drew near when the infant must be christened. The king wrote all the invitations with his own hand. Of course somebody was forgotten. Now it does not generally matter if somebody is forgotten, only you must mind who. Unfortunately, the king forgot without intending to forget; and so the chance fell upon the Princess Makemnoit, which was awkward. For the princess was the king's own sister; and he ought not to have forgotten her. But she had made herself so disagreeable to the old king, their father, that he had forgotten her in making his will; and so it was no wonder that her brother forgot her in writing his invitations. But poor relations don't do anything to keep you in mind of them. Why don't they? The king could not see into the garret she lived in, could he?

    She was a sour, spiteful creature. The wrinkles of contempt crossed the wrinkles of peevishness, and made her face as full of wrinkles as a pat of butter. If ever a king could be justified in forgetting anybody, this king was justified in forgetting his sister, even at a christening. She looked very odd, too. Her forehead was as large as all the rest of her face, and projected over it like a precipice. When she was angry, her little eyes flashed blue. When she hated anybody, they shone yellow and green. What they looked like when she loved anybody, I do not know; for I never heard of her loving anybody but herself, and I do not think she could have managed that if she had not somehow got used to herself. But what made it highly imprudent in the king to forget her was that she was awfully clever. In fact, she was a witch; and when she bewitched anybody, he very soon had enough of it; for she beat all the wicked fairies in wickedness, and all the clever ones in cleverness. She despised all the modes we read of in history, in which offended fairies and witches have taken their revenges; and therefore, after waiting and waiting in vain for an invitation, she made up her mind at last to go without one, and make the whole family miserable, like a princess as she was.

    So she put on her best gown, went to the palace, was kindly received by the happy monarch, who forgot that he had forgotten her, and took her place in the procession to the royal chapel. When they were all gathered about the font, she contrived to get next to it, and throw something into the water; after which she maintained a very respectful demeanour till the water was applied to the child's face. But at that moment she turned

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