#118 in Children’s books
The Princess and the Goblin
- 156
- Pages
- about 3 h
- Reading time
- Film 1991
- On screen
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Our view
“The Princess and the Goblin” is an 1872 children’s fantasy that still reads as lively and good-hearted. George MacDonald sets a young princess and a miner’s boy against a horde of goblins, and the book opens a window on the early history of the genre. Some readers are struck by how modern it feels and how active its heroine is, and by its gentle wisdom on belief and kindness.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Princess and the Goblin is a children's fantasy novel by George MacDonald. It was published in 1872 by Strahan & Co., with black-and-white illustrations by Arthur Hughes. Strahan had published the story and illustrations as a serial in the monthly magazine Good Words for the Young, beginning November 1870.
On screen
This book has been adapted for the screen once.
- FilmThe Princess and the GoblinIMDb
Adaptation data: Wikidata · On screen →
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.7 across 103 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 41% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Children’s books average of 7.9. That is how 7.9 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.5 | 8 | 8% |
| Google Books | 8.0 | 6 | 6% |
| Hardcover | 7.7 | 89 | 86% |
Frequently asked
What age is The Princess and the Goblin for?
The Princess and the Goblin sits on the Children shelf in the sources we use, which by convention means roughly ages 5–10. This is a guide from the book’s category, not a publisher’s age rating. It has 156 pages — shorter than 98% of the ranked books in Children’s books.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Children’s books — with scores between 7.8 and 7.9, closest to this book.
