George MacDonald Fantasy Classics Collection: Phantastes, The Light Princess, The Princess and the Goblin, Lilith

Not recommended for reading to young children. I got this book from the library with hopes of reading it to my 8 year old granddaughter. I found it used a lot of words that I know would be too hard for her to understand. There is also a lot of poetry, which I found tedious to read and I know would have little appeal to children. The story itself is about a princess who cannot feel gravity and floats in the air like a balloon after being cursed by an evil aunt who had not been invited to her christening. The princess has a strange, off-putting personality and laughs at inappropriate situations. There is nothing princess-like about her. It is a wonder that the wandering prince met and found her. How he could fall in love with her is hard to imagine. She loves the sensation of floating in water which gives her a sense of normalcy, but when the lake suddenly drains, she is bereft. The prince is willing to die by plugging himself in the hole at the bottom of the lake and letting the water rise over him. She does save him at the very last second (barely alive) but that did not redeem her in my eyes. I read a few online reviews and references to allegories. I guess some people were able to find messages within the story that I could not. It was written in 1864 and like many original fairy tales (before the Disney version was introduced) was quite grim. As a former children's librarian, I could not imagine children liking this book, especially due to the word usage and length of the story. I wonder if there is a "lighter" version of the story (pun intended).