George MacDonald
A Double Story
"A Double Story" by George MacDonald is a fairy tale novel first published in 1875. Two girls born on the same day—Princess Rosamond and shepherd's daughter Agnes—are ruined by their parents' poor parenting, growing into insufferable tyrants. A mysterious Wise Woman intervenes, stealing each girl away to teach them difficult lessons about their true selves through magical mirrors, trials, and discipline. But while one child learns humility and transformation, the other conceals her faults beneath obedience, leading to vastly different fates in this parable about wisdom and self-knowledge.