The Golden Key

Just in case I haven't already talked your ear off about it....

As long as I can remember, my family has owned a set of George MacDonald paperbacks. It used to be a boxed set, but the box died, leaving behind The Princess and the Goblin, The Princess and Curdie, The Lost Princess, and The Golden Key and Other Stories. Since this was at least twelve years ago and my eight-year-old self wasn't exactly taking notes, I can't say for sure, but I that the first book that I read of the set was The Golden Key and Other Stories, and since The Golden Key is (naturally) the first story in the book, I can more or less say that it was the first thing I ever read by George MacDonald, although I went on to thoroughly enjoy the rest of the unboxed set.

Now I've gotten the chance to translate fairy tales into Latin for academic credit (because my school is amazing like that.) Over the course of the last four weeks, I've been melting down The Golden Key and remolding it into new words, which is pretty addictive and always manages to mess up my sleep schedule. It's a terrific story, one of those stories that I dearly wish were true in fact and have to content myself with knowing to be true in meaning. You should read it. The last two sentences give me goosebumps every time.