Summary
Summary of The Little Lame Prince and His Travelling Cloak
The Little Lame Prince and His Travelling Cloak at a glance
Summary: 8 min to read
- Reading time
- About 2 h1 h 35 min fast, 2 h 25 min slow
- Length
- 28,600 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1875by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
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Key ideas
Key idea 1
A celebration hides a wound
A beautiful baby is being carried to his own christening when he is dropped on the marble stairs. Nobody speaks about the fall, but its silence hangs over the celebration. An uninvited old woman in gray appears and claims the child as her godson.
Within hours, the palace bell is tolling for his mother. The tale begins with a child surrounded by ceremony yet exposed to harm, and with an unexpected godmother who notices what others leave unspoken.
Key idea 2
The uncle puts himself first
The prince grows pale and thin, and his legs cannot support him.
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Key idea 3
A false funeral conceals a prisoner
The Regent persuades the council to send the young king away for his health.
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Key idea 4
The prince asks to be loved
Inside the tower, the prince grows up without knowing who he is.
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Key idea 5
The cloak opens a way outward
The shabby cloak looks disappointing, and the prince puts it away.
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Key idea 6
Freedom brings sorrow and kindness
Flying lets the prince discover grass, birds and a countryside unlike his bare brick home.
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Key idea 7
Courage means using what can change
The prince cannot choose or cure his lameness.
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Key idea 8
Fairyland opens onto the real world
Craik speaks like a kind friend, making small jokes and admitting what she does not know.
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Key idea 9
Kindness leaves room for choice
The child in the tower is never promised a cure.
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The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who it’s for
You will love this book if you enjoy fairy tales with a gentle teller, magic that is both comic and kind, and a child who learns courage by facing loneliness.
What this book is
What if the most beautiful baby in the kingdom is dropped on the marble stairs on the way to his own christening, and nobody says a word about it? That is where The Little Lame Prince and His Travelling Cloak begins. Within hours a small old woman in gray, whom nobody invited, has claimed the baby as her godson, and the palace bell is tolling for his mother.
Dinah Maria Mulock Craik wrote this fairy tale for children, and she speaks to them directly.
In this summary
- 1A celebration hides a woundFree
- 2The uncle puts himself first
- 3A false funeral conceals a prisoner
- 4The prince asks to be loved
- 5The cloak opens a way outward
- 6Freedom brings sorrow and kindness
- 7Courage means using what can change
- 8Fairyland opens onto the real world
- 9Kindness leaves room for choice
A christening day that ends in sorrow
The story opens in Nomansland, where the new prince is called the most beautiful ever born. His parents, the King and Queen, have waited ten years for him. Only the King's brother, who would have been king without the baby, is not wholly glad.
The christening is to be grand. Twenty-four godfathers and godmothers are chosen, and each gives the baby a name. Meanwhile the Queen lies pale and quiet in her room. Nobody says she is ill, because that would be inconvenient.
On the way to the chapel a fashionable young state nurse, busy with her own long train, lets the baby fall at the foot of the marble stairs. She snatches him up again.
After the ceremony a little old woman dressed in gray appears among the flower girls. She warns the nurse not to let the baby fall again, and she knows that the nurse already has. She kisses the baby three times and names herself his godmother. Then she gives him a new name, Dolor, in memory of his mother.
At that moment the great palace bell begins to toll, once for each year of the Queen's life, and the count reaches twenty-nine.
A bright day can hide a wound, and the one who speaks up about it may be the least expected guest.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
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Check yourself
Why does the Regent feel uneasy about the young king?
Right. “That is exactly what makes the Regent uneasy.”Not quite. “That is exactly what makes the Regent uneasy.”
What does the godmother offer instead of a cure?
Right. “What his godmother gives is a way to live, a cloak that lets him look at the world with his own eyes.”Not quite. “What his godmother gives is a way to live, a cloak that lets him look at the world with his own eyes.”
Why does the prince let the skylark go?
Right. “He lets go of the lark rather than risk its life, and eventually forgives his uncle, though he has wanted to strike him.”Not quite. “He lets go of the lark rather than risk its life, and eventually forgives his uncle, though he has wanted to strike him.”
Go deeper: the whole of The Little Lame Prince and His Travelling Cloak
About 2 h to read.Start freePaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
Who’s who
- Prince Dolor
- A gentle, thoughtful boy who cannot walk, shut away in a tower, who longs for company and learns to face the world bravely.
- The Godmother
- A small old woman dressed in gray who appears when the prince asks for her, speaks plainly and gives him a magic cloak.
- Queen Dolorez
- The prince's gentle, uncomplaining mother, who is too ill to leave her bed on the day of his christening.
- The Regent
- The prince's uncle, clever and sure that whatever he wants is right, who rules in the boy's place and sends him away.
- The Nurse
- A condemned woman, hard at first, who must live in the tower and keep the child alive or lose her own life.
- Mag the Magpie
- A talkative, self-satisfied bird who offers to show the prince the great city and its palace.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 28,600 words
- Reading timeAbout 2 h
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 12 other languages
Questions about The Little Lame Prince and His Travelling Cloak
What is The Little Lame Prince about?
It tells of Prince Dolor, who cannot walk after a fall as a baby. His uncle sends him to live in a lonely tower, where his godmother gives him a magic travelling cloak that carries him over the world.
Who is the godmother in The Little Lame Prince?
She is a small old woman in gray who comes when the prince asks for her, speaks kindly and honestly and can take many shapes. She jokes about her many names, including Stuff and Nonsense.
What does the travelling cloak do?
The shabby green cloak grows large, rises into the air and flies where the prince wishes. He says Abracadabra, dum, dum, dum to go out and Abracadabra, tum, tum, ti to come home.
Is The Little Lame Prince a true story?
No, it is an invented fairy tale set in Nomansland, a country on no map. Dinah Maria Mulock Craik wrote it in the nineteenth century for young readers, speaking to them in a friendly voice.
What is the main message of The Little Lame Prince?
The tale shows that courage means facing what you cannot change, being kind to others and using what you have. It also shows that loneliness and hardship can make a person wiser and gentler.
Cite this edition
Craik, Dinah Maria Mulock. The Little Lame Prince and His Travelling Cloak. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-little-lame-prince-and-his-travelling-cloak.
Craik, D. M. M. (2026). The little lame prince and his travelling cloak. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-little-lame-prince-and-his-travelling-cloak (Original work published 1875)
Craik, Dinah Maria Mulock. The Little Lame Prince and His Travelling Cloak. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-little-lame-prince-and-his-travelling-cloak.
@book{craik2026little,
author = {Craik, Dinah Maria Mulock},
title = {The Little Lame Prince and His Travelling Cloak},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-little-lame-prince-and-his-travelling-cloak},
note = {First published 1875}
}
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