The Light Princess and Other Fairy Stories

By George MacDonald

The Light Princess is a Scottish fairy tale by George MacDonald, first published in 1864. Drawing on inspiration from "Sleeping Beauty", it tells the story of a princess afflicted by a constant weightlessness, unable to get her feet on the ground, both literally and metaphorically, until she finds a love that brings her down to earth.

George MacDonald was one of the foremost fantasy writers of the 19th century and influenced just about every writer that came after him. He was a mentor of Lewis Carroll, a friend of Mark Twain's, and a man who helped shape the works of authors like Tolkien.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Krill Press
• Release date: Dec 28, 2015
• ISBN: 9781518352249

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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THE LIGHT PRINCESS AND OTHER FAIRY STORIES

..................

George MacDonald

PITHY PRESS

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This book is a work of fiction; its contents are wholly imagined.

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Copyright © 2015 by George MacDonald

Interior design by Pronoun

Distribution by Pronoun

TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE LIGHT PRINCESS: I. WHAT! NO CHILDREN?

II. WON’T I, JUST?

III. SHE CAN’T BE OURS

IV. WHERE IS SHE?

V. WHAT IS TO BE DONE?

VI. SHE LAUGHS TOO MUCH.

VII. TRY METAPHYSICS.

VIII. TRY A DROP OF WATER.

IX. PUT ME IN AGAIN.

X. LOOK AT THE MOON.

XI. HISS!

XII. WHERE IS THE PRINCE?

XIII. HERE I AM.

XIV. THIS IS VERY KIND OF YOU.

XV. LOOK AT THE RAIN!

The Light Princess and Other Fairy Stories

By

George MacDonald

The Light Princess and Other Fairy Stories

Published by Pithy Press

New York City, NY

First published circa 1905

Copyright © Pithy Press, 2015

All rights reserved

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

About PITHY Press

Edgar Allan Poe once advised would-be writers to never waste a word, and indeed, some of literature’s greatest works are some of the shortest. Pithy Press publishes the greatest short stories ever written, from the realism of Anton Chekhov to the humor of O. Henry.

THE LIGHT PRINCESS: I. 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.

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.

II. WON’T I, JUST?

..................

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