The Shepherd's Castle is a companion volume to MacDonald's The Baronet's Song. A classic love story in the gothic style.

Donal Grant accepts a position as tutor in a wealthy family where, in addition to imparting knowledge and Godly principles to the young son, Davie, he finds himself caught in a web of mystery and madness... and falling in love.

Princess Irene lives in a castle in a wild and lonely mountainous region. One day she discovers a steep and winding stairway leading to a bewildering labyrinth of unused passages with closed doors - and a further stairway. What lies at the top? Can the ring the princess is given protect her against the lurking menace of the boglins from under the mountain?

Princess Irene’s great-great-grandmother has a testing task for Curdie. Curdie will not go alone though; she provides him with a companion, the oddest and ugliest creature Curdie has ever seen, but one who turns out to be the most loyal friend he could have hoped for.

For over 150 years, the childlike of all ages have delighted in this classic story by George MacDonald (1824-1905), the grandfather of modern fantasy fiction. He was revered by G.K. Chesterton and J.R.R. Tolkien in the last century, and by Andrew Peterson, author of The Wingfeather Saga, in our own--to name just a few of many! MacDonald was the single greatest influence on C.S. Lewis (author of The Chronicles of Narnia), who wrote "I have never concealed the fact that I regarded him as my master; indeed, I fancy I have never written a book in which I did not quote from him." Indeed, The Lost Princess-or-The Wise Woman was one of Lewis’ very favorite books.

This edition of The Lost Princess-or-The Wise Woman is based on a wonderful version published in 1895, with twenty-two illustrations by artist and sculptor A.G. Walker, all of which have been faithfully reproduced. To the contents of the original we have added a preface by Christopher MacDonald, the author's great-great-grandson; an introduction by George MacDonald himself—his timeless essay on the mythmaking art, “The Fantastic Imagination”—and the author’s eerily atmospheric short story, “The Gray Wolf.”

George MacDonald (1824-1905), the great nineteenth-century innovator of modern fantasy, influenced not only C. S. Lewis but also such literary masters as Charles Williams and J. R. R. Tolkien. Though his longer fairy tales Lilith and Phantastes are particularly famous, much of MacDonald's best fantasy writing is found in his shorter stories. In this volume editor Glenn Sadler has compiled some of MacDonald's finest short works--marvelous fairy tales and stories certain to delight readers familiar with MacDonald and those about to meet him for the first time.