Surprisingly, even in the 1880s, you could watch a sequel and say, "Man, the original was better." "The Princess and the Goblin" is the sequel to "The Princess and the Goblin" [link]. It seems more moralistic and authoritarian than the original, and lacks some of its charm. Let's continue with MacDonald's latest adult fantasy, "Lilith" (. 1895). I have come to the conclusion that his genre work took a downward turn after "The Princess and the Goblin" and never really recovered. now 15 and becoming a teenager, with a bit of angst that entails However, after shooting a pigeon and realizing it belonged to the Galadriel/Grandmother character from the first book, he. gets his life back on track with a trip to the kingdom's capital. She grants him some benefits: the ability to tell good people from bad people by holding their hands, and a big, ugly monster, Lina, who is truly a good person. inside. As he travels to the capital, he and Lina recruit more unique and uglier monsters, which will of course come in handy later. Curdie arrives in the capital and is immediately mistreated by the corrupt and mean-spirited townspeople. Only an old woman and her granddaughter are kind to him. He is arrested and taken to prison in a moment that is quite reminiscent of Christ's journey to Gethsemene. Lina finds him and they escape from prison and enter the castle. It turns out that the king is slowly being poisoned by his staff, including the Lord Chancellor and the doctor. Princess Irene from the original book was too naive to see any of this (which I found a little hard to swallow, given how old she was at the time) but I…. .. middle of paper.... ..the kind of group therapy/public humiliation that today's fundamentalist Christians sometimes use to try to "cure" homosexuals. Adam makes her admit that she is evil and in the end she begs him to kill her or cut off her arm to get rid of his own evil. Very allegorical. Very unpleasant. It's a bit of a shame. “Phantastes” may not have been the best written or plotted story of all time, but it contained some fascinating vignettes that brought to mind Kelly Link. “The Princess and the Goblin” was a lot of fun, with great female characters and a simple, fun adventure. Then, “Princess and Curdie” took a turn toward biblical allegory and heavy-handed morality. And “Lilith” is almost nothing more than that, surrounded by an incoherent plot that is never fully understood by the reader or the hero. Honestly, I wish I had stopped reading "The Princess and the Goblin".."