The Princess and the Goblin is a children's fantasy novel. Jeffrey Holdaway wrote in the New Zealand Art Monthly that this story starts out as "normal fairytales but slowly become stranger", and that they contain layers of symbolism similar to that of Lewis Carroll's work. The story is about a eight-year-old Princess, who lives a lonely life in a castle in a wild, desolate, mountainous kingdom, with only her nursemaid, Lootie, for company. The sequel to this book is The Princess and Curdie.