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Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if a princess and a shepherd’s daughter need the same cure for getting their own way?
In George MacDonald’s A Double Story, Rosamond grows up at the centre of a king’s household. Agnes lives far from the palace, in a shepherd’s home. Their lives look different, but both girls receive too much praise and too little correction. Each is sure of her own importance.
Then the Wise Woman takes charge. Mysterious, patient and often funny, she offers something harder than flattery: firm kindness. No magic spell can do the girls’ work for them. They must learn through plain tasks and face the results of their actions, with their pride standing in the way.
What you’ll discover
- Two lives, one fault See how selfishness takes root in a palace and a humble shepherd’s home alike.
- A guide with resolve Meet the Wise Woman, whose patience leaves room for neither flattery nor easy excuses.
- Lessons learned by doing Follow the girls as hard work challenges habits that praise has helped them build.
- Warmth with a sharp edge Enjoy a friendly narrator who speaks directly to you, teasing and inviting thought.
- Love beyond being served Explore the difference between getting your own way and learning what care asks of you.
Who will love it
You will love this tale if you enjoy fairy stories with a wise, teasing narrator, magical houses full of pictures, and quiet questions about pride, temper and kindness.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Each girl thinks only she matters
- Love does not always give in
- Small duties expose the spoiled self
- Seeing a fault cannot cure it
- Good behavior needs an inward choice
- Ambition puts Agnes's parents at risk
- Feelings need not decide your actions
- Possession is not the same as care
- Real change goes beyond a mood
Who’s who
- RosamondA spoiled princess who wants everything and is taken from the palace by the Wise Woman to learn to rule herself.
- AgnesA shepherd's daughter whose parents have praised her until she is certain she is Somebody, and who dreams of a palace.
- The Wise WomanA tall woman in a dark cloak who takes both girls into her care, appearing in many forms to teach them.
- PrinceA fine, intelligent sheepdog who guards and tutors the princess in the shepherd's cottage.
- The ShepherdA tall, gentle, thoughtful man who is kind to Rosamond and sees more than he says.
- The ShepherdessAgnes's mother, who is wiser about other people's children than her own and takes Rosamond in when she is starving.
- The King and QueenRosamond's foolish parents, who give her all she asks and then search the country for her.
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A Double Story in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
A Double Story
by George MacDonald · 1875
A Wise Woman carries off a princess whose toy moon cannot shine in darkness and a shepherd girl who meets her ugly Self.
Medium level2–5 hours to read20 languages
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“If you have to kill them to call them yours, then they aren’t yours, and they never, ever can be yours.”
In short
What happens to a child who has been told all her life that she is Somebody? In A Double Story, George MacDonald gives that question to two girls.
A Double Story at a glance
- Reading time
- About 2 h 15 min1 h 45 min fast, 2 h 40 min slow
- Length
- 32,200 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1875by George MacDonald
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A Country Where Everyone Is Somebody
The story opens in a country where things go strangely. On one day, a golden shower falls on a palace city and a princess is born. On the same day, hail falls on a northern hill, and a shepherd's daughter is born in a cottage.
Both girls grow up hearing that they are Somebody. The princess is named Rosamond, which means Rose of the World. The shepherd's girl, Agnes, has cousins who are farm laborers and grocers, but her parents think just as highly of her. Each girl believes there can only be one Somebody in the world, and that it is herself.
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Details
- First published
- 1875
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 2 h 30 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
MacDonald, George. A Double Story. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-double-story.
MacDonald, G. (2026). A double story. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-double-story (Original work published 1875)
MacDonald, George. A Double Story. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-double-story.
@book{macdonald2026double,
author = {MacDonald, George},
title = {A Double Story},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-double-story},
note = {First published 1875}
}
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What is A Double Story about?
It is about two girls, a spoiled princess and a conceited shepherd's daughter, whom a Wise Woman carries away to teach. Each must face her own faults, and the two stories cross as they go.
Who is the Wise Woman in A Double Story?
She is a tall woman in a dark cloak who lives in a cottage on a heath. She is much more than she seems, appearing as a beggar, a sheep and a glowing lady, and she loves both girls.
What does the word Somebody mean in the book?
Somebody is the girls' name for their own proud Self. Each is taught that she is Somebody and forgets that others are too. The story shows what it costs to worship that Self.
The author
George MacDonald
1824–1905 · Scottish fantasy novelist and minister
George MacDonald (1824–1905) was a Scottish writer and Christian minister. Born in Huntly, Scotland, he later lived in England and Italy. He wrote novels, fairy tales, poetry and sermons. His books include Phantastes (1858), At the Back of the North Wind (1871), The Princess and the Goblin (1872) and Lilith (1895).
“If you have to kill them to call them yours, then they aren’t yours, and they never, ever can be yours.”
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