SOURCE: “George MacDonald's Princess Books: High Seriousness,” in Touchstones: Reflections on the Best in Children's Literature, Vol. I, ChLA Publishers, 1985, pp. 146-62.

In the following essay, McGillis discusses the many ways MacDonald's Princess books can be interpreted.

If influence testified to greatness, then The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie would be assured an honored place in the history of children's literature. These works (and George MacDonald's other tales for children) began a tradition of romantic fantasy for young readers that includes such writers as Mrs. Molesworth, Mrs. Ewing, E. Nesbit, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Madeleine L'Engle, and traces of MacDonald's vision may be seen in writers as disparate as Phillipa Pearce, Alan Garner, and Ursula LeGuin.

But influence does not necessarily reflect what Matthew Arnold called “the really excellent” in literature. Influence may indicate, in Arnold's terms again, “the historic...