Young Princess Irene's belief in her great-grandmother's powers becomes essential as she and the miner Curdie work to foil the sinister Goblin plot against the king and his palace. Gran lives in a secret room at the top of the castle stairs, and spins a thread so fine as to be invisible and yet strong enough to lead the Princess back home.

La Princesse et le Goblin

THERE was once a little princess who...

"But, Mr. Author, why do you always write about princesses?"

"Because every little girl is a princess."

"You will make them vain if you tell them that."

"Not if they understand what I mean."

"Then what do you mean?"

"What do you mean by a princess?"

"The daughter of a king."

"Very well, then every little girl is a princess, and there would be no need to say anything about it, except that she is always in danger of forgetting her rank, and behaving as if she had grown out of the mud. I have seen little princesses behave like the children of thieves and lying beggars, and that is why they need, to be told they are princesses. And that is why, when I tell a story of this kind, I like to tell it about a princess. Then I can say better what I mean, because I can then give her every beautiful thing I want her to have."

"Please go on."

The Princess and the Goblin

La clef d'or

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 Light Princess

Curdie was the son of Peter the miner. He lived with his father and mother in a cottage built on a mountain, and he worked with his father inside the mountain.

A mountain is a strange and awful thing. In old times, without knowing so much of their strangeness and awfulness as we do, people were yet more afraid of mountains. But then somehow they had not come to see how beautiful they are as well as awful, and they hated them-and what people hate they must fear. Now that we have learned to look at them with admiration, perhaps we do not feel quite awe enough of them. To me they are beautiful terrors.

The Princess and Curdie

Que vous vous rendiez en Belgique pour le plaisir ou pour affaires, ce guide vous permettra de profiter au maximum de votre séjour. Bruxelles : la Grand'Place, les musées royaux des Beaux-Arts, le Manneken-Pis, le parc de Bruxelles, le domaine royal de Laeken, l'Atomium, et des excursions à Waterloo et Louvain. Des trésors culturels : le centre médiéval de Bruges ; Gand, la cité des tours ; et Anvers, la ville de Rubens et du diamant. Des paysages variés : de la mer du Nord aux Flandres, de la Campine aux Hautes-Fagnes, du Hainaut à la vallée de la Meuse et aux forêts des Ardennes. Mais aussi : shopping, sports, culture, gastronomie, hôtels et restaurants.

Belgique

I awoke one morning with the usual perplexity of mind which accompanies the return of consciousness. As I lay and looked through the eastern window of my room, a faint streak of peach-colour, dividing a cloud that just rose above the low swell of the horizon, announced the approach of the sun. As my thoughts, which a deep and apparently dreamless sleep had dissolved, began again to assume crystalline forms, the strange events of the foregoing night presented themselves anew to my wondering consciousness. The day before had been my one-and-twentieth birthday. Among other ceremonies investing me with my legal rights, the keys of an old secretary, in which my father had kept his private papers, had been delivered up to me.

Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women

Nel giorno del suo battesimo, la principessa di Lagobel viene colpita da una maledizione: una strega vendicativa, che per dimenticanza non era stata invitata, la priva della gravità fisica e mentale. Da quel momento la bambina tenderà a volare via al primo soffio di vento e non potrà più piangere. Il re e la regina, preoccupati, cercheranno una soluzione per far tornare la figlia con i piedi per terra, ma invano: neppure con il passare degli anni la principessa sarà capace di provare empatia, di frenare la sua strana risata, di comprendere il lato serio della vita. Cosa riuscirà a spezzare l'incantesimo e far sì che la principessa senta finalmente il peso del mondo? "La principessa leggera", pubblicata per la prima volta nel 1864, è una delle fiabe più celebri dello scrittore scozzese George MacDonald. Un racconto senza tempo, ricco di simboli e significati, che insegna la forza del sacrificio, della compassione e del vero amore.

La principessa leggera

Il était une fois, un roi et une reine qui avaient toutes les peines du monde à avoir un enfant. Puis un jour, l'heureux événement tant espéré arriva. Mais leur bonheur leur fit oublier leur peuple… Le roi et la reine omirent d'inviter les habitants du royaume à la grande fête organisée, et, fâcheux oubli, la sœur même du roi, femme étrange, peut-être même un tantinet sorcière. Le jour du baptême, elle jette un sort à la jeune princesse qui se voit retirée toute sensation de gravité. La voilà qui en plus de flotter dans les airs est incapable de prendre une situation au sérieux… Un livre moins léger qu'il n'y paraît sur le passage de l'enfance à l'âge adulte. Paru en 1864, ce conte est un immense classique dans le monde anglo-saxon.George MacDonald (1824-1905) est un écrivain et pasteur calviniste britannique. Il devient le mentor de Lewis Carroll et lui suggère la publication d'Alice au pays des merveilles. Il est notamment admiré par J. R. R. Tolkien et C. S. Lewis, qui le considéraient comme son «maître».

La Princesse et le Goblin

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