Summary
Summary of Davy and the Goblin
Davy and the Goblin at a glance
Summary: 8 min to read
- Reading time
- About 1 h 40 min1 h 20 min fast, 2 h slow
- Length
- 23,700 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1884by Charles E. Carryl
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
Free for 3 months
Get the full summary of Davy and the Goblin, free
- 200,000+ classics as eBooks, audiobooks and 15-minute summaries, and print and large print at cost
- Up to 5 readers in your home on one plan
Key ideas
Key idea 1
Wonder comes looking for Davy
On a snowy Christmas Eve, Davy sits indoors at his grandmother’s house, bored after the storm has ended his sledding. Then a tiny scarlet stranger appears on an andiron. The Goblin accuses him of refusing to believe in anything storybooks say and offers him a Believing Voyage.
Davy worries about permission, but a lead soldier approves the trip. A Dutch clock becomes a boat, complete with sponge-cake cushions. Before Davy can settle his doubts, familiar household things are carrying him into wonder.
Key idea 2
Solomon has his own complaint
Outside the house, familiar shapes and rules begin to slip.
Start free to read
Key idea 3
Candy rulers lose their power
Davy lands in a plum tree, but the promised sweetness turns into a trick: the fruit tastes of soap, and the leaves announce April Fool.
Start free to read
Key idea 4
Storybook figures tell their own stories
At the farm of Jack’s beanstalk, Davy discovers that familiar stories sound different when their characters speak for themselves.
Start free to read
Key idea 5
Impossible creatures take themselves seriously
After Sindbad and the Goblin vanish into a moving shell house, Davy is alone again.
Start free to read
Key idea 6
Belief leaves room for questions
The Believing Voyage does not ask Davy to accept every claim without thinking.
Start free to read
Key idea 7
Words make the impossible happen
Language does more than describe Davy’s surroundings: it helps create their strange rules.
Start free to read
Key idea 8
Curiosity makes things look more alive
Davy’s Christmas Eve voyage brings him face to face with people he has doubted: Mother Hubbard, Robin Hood, Sindbad, and Robinson Crusoe.
Start free to read
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest free
Who it’s for
This book suits lovers of wordplay, nursery rhymes and nonsense verse, readers who enjoy Alice in Wonderland, and families who like a funny, fast-moving Christmas story.
What this book is
What would you do if a tiny man in scarlet appeared on an andiron, ate hot coals like peanuts, and told you that you believe in nothing? That is how Davy, an eight-year-old boy stuck indoors on Christmas Eve, meets the Goblin.
Davy and the Goblin was written by Charles E. Carryl for his young son Guy. It follows the dreamlike logic of Alice in Wonderland, which Davy is reading when the story begins.
In this summary
- 1Wonder comes looking for DavyFree
- 2Solomon has his own complaint
- 3Candy rulers lose their power
- 4Storybook figures tell their own stories
- 5Impossible creatures take themselves seriously
- 6Belief leaves room for questions
- 7Words make the impossible happen
- 8Curiosity makes things look more alive
A scarlet stranger steps out of the fire
The story opens on a snowy Christmas Eve in the country house of Davy's grandmother. The storm drives Davy in from his sled. Bored, he teases the cat, Solomon, and curls up in a big chair with his book about Alice.
Then the smell of dinner climbs the stairs. Davy stares at a brass knob on the andirons while he plans his feast. Suddenly a little man is sitting on that very knob, smiling so wide that the smile seems to reach behind his ears.
The stranger says Davy does not believe in fairies, giants, goblins or anything storybooks say, and he calls this foolish. He is a hobgoblin, and he has come to take Davy on a Believing Voyage. Davy says he has no permission. The Goblin tells him to ask the Colonel, a lead soldier on the mantelpiece, who nods and says certainly. The tall Dutch clock tips over and proves to be a little boat, with a warm sponge cake on each seat as a cushion. Davy climbs in, and the clock carries them out through the window and into the night.
A boy who has stopped believing in wonders is exactly the boy that wonders come to find.
That’s 1 of 8 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
- Nothing to pay today · Renews every year
- We email you before you pay
- Cancel online in two clicks
Take this summary with you
Send to Kindle downloads the file and opens Amazon's page: drop the file there.
Check yourself
Why does the Goblin take Davy on a Believing Voyage?
Right. “The Goblin names the trip early.”Not quite. “The Goblin names the trip early.”
What does belief mean in Davy’s voyage?
Right. “Believing, in this book, means staying curious about what you thought you had already figured out.”Not quite. “Believing, in this book, means staying curious about what you thought you had already figured out.”
What drives much of the book’s humor?
Right. “People take figures of speech literally and the world obliges.”Not quite. “People take figures of speech literally and the world obliges.”
Go deeper: the whole of Davy and the Goblin
About 1 h 40 min to read.Start freePaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 23,700 words
- Reading timeAbout 1 h 40 min
Questions about Davy and the Goblin
What is Davy and the Goblin about?
On Christmas Eve, a boy named Davy is taken by a small scarlet goblin on a Believing Voyage in a flying clock. They visit storybook folk such as Mother Hubbard, Robin Hood, Sindbad and Robinson Crusoe.
Is Davy and the Goblin like Alice in Wonderland?
Davy is reading Alice in Wonderland at the start, and the book shares its dream logic, talking creatures and wordplay. Carryl adds songs, a Christmas frame and a guide, the Goblin, who keeps the adventure moving.
Who is the Hole-keeper in Davy and the Goblin?
He is a flat man of clear lemon candy who guards a hole in a wall. He carries a book of blank pages, which he calls the most complete system ever invented, and keeps giving Davy new names.
Is Davy and the Goblin hard to read?
It is told in plain, lively language with short chapters, each a self-contained scene. Jokes, riddles and rhymed songs turn up on nearly every page, so it reads aloud very well to children and grown-ups.
What is the Believing Voyage?
It is the journey the Goblin offers Davy because he does not believe in fairies, giants or goblins. The voyage lets him meet such characters face to face and find out how lively the imaginary world is.
Cite this edition
Carryl, Charles E. Davy and the Goblin. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/davy-and-the-goblin.
Carryl, C. E. (2026). Davy and the goblin. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/davy-and-the-goblin (Original work published 1884)
Carryl, Charles E. Davy and the Goblin. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/davy-and-the-goblin.
@book{carryl2026davy,
author = {Carryl, Charles E.},
title = {Davy and the Goblin},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/davy-and-the-goblin},
note = {First published 1884}
}
Free for 3 months
Get the full summary of Davy and the Goblin, free
- 200,000+ classics as eBooks, audiobooks and 15-minute summaries, and print and large print at cost
- Up to 5 readers in your home on one plan
