The Light Princess
Classic Fiction · No. 20 — The princess who lost her gravity — until love taught her to fall.
- Classic Fiction
- 29 min
- Ages 15–99
- 6 chapters
About this audiobook
When the king and queen forget to invite the wicked Princess Makemnoit to the christening, she curses their daughter to have no gravity: the baby drifts up off every lap, and worse, she can feel no sorrow — she only laughs, at everything, forever. The one place the Light Princess feels almost whole is in the lake, where she swims weightless and happy. So the jealous witch secretly drains the lake dry, and the princess begins to fade with it. A prince who loves her offers the only remedy: to stop the magic leak with his own body and let the lake refill, though the rising water will drown him. As it closes over his head, the princess — for the very first time — weeps for someone other than herself, and in those tears her gravity, and her heart, come home.
Why it's worth a listen
A spiteful witch-aunt, snubbed at the christening, curses the baby princess to lose her gravity — so she floats to the ceiling like a balloon and can never, ever be sad. It is a sparkling, punning fairy tale about the double meaning of 'gravity': the princess weighs nothing and feels nothing, laughing at everything, until a prince willing to give his life to save her lake finally teaches her the heavy, wonderful ache of loving someone. And it turns on the question this telling leaves you with: what is a life worth without the weight of caring for someone enough to cry?
A question to keep
What is a life worth without the weight of caring for someone enough to cry?
Chapters
- 1. The Christening and the Curse
- 2. A Princess in the Air
- 3. The Deep, Blue Lake
- 4. The Prince and the Water-Lily
- 5. The Dry Bed and the Golden Plate
- 6. A Question to Keep