The Goblin Woman

A rediscovered masterpiece of Gothic romance from Rose O’Neill, the visionary artist behind the Kewpies. Blending poetic intensity, dark mystery, and psychological drama, The Goblin Woman re-emerges for the first time in nearly a century—restored and ready to haunt a new generation.

About the Story

The Goblin Woman is not a fairy tale, but a story of the "barbarous" colliding with the "civilized." Helga Tredegar—a woman of wild beauty and tragic secrets—returns to the gloomy River House in a staid New England village. To the town's refined inhabitants, she is a "Goblin," a creature of strange speech and scandalous behavior who sleeps on stoves and speaks in blank verse.

But to Windsor, the cynical and fastidious "lame angel" of the town, she becomes a dangerous obsession. Drawn together by a violent and "valid joy," they must navigate a romance shadowed by a macabre past involving madness, a forbidden marriage, and a cliffside murder. From the gossip-filled terraces of the river town to the storm-swept heights of the Italian Dolomites, The Goblin Woman is a lyrical exploration of love, trauma, and the "scalding truth" of the human heart.

This new edition brings Rose O’Neill’s sophisticated literary voice back into the light.

Why You’ll Love This Edition

The Taney County Republican

"The Goblin Woman is a more complex work of art. Parts of the picture seem almost ready to explode from pent up power and other parts have a snapping, crackling force while upon the background is a scene of a complex but never restful beauty. The very landscape even in a peaceful mood, seems only to conceal a storm."

The Springfield Weekly Republican

"The Goblin Woman presents a sequence of pictures in scene and character, but placed between these pictures are such ideas and conversations that most of the book becomes extravagant, bewildering, yet poetical display of language."

The Star-Journal

"The story concerns a sophisticated group of New England villagers and the effect "the goblin woman" has on their lives. It is a charming book written in Miss O'Neill's usual inimitable manner."

Pre-Order Details

Reserve your copy today to be among the first to receive The Goblin Woman when it ships.

Pre-Order at Barnes & Noble Coming Soon to Amazon

Release date: January 2026

About Rose O’Neill

Rose Cecil O’Neill (1874–1944) was a pioneering American illustrator, author, and sculptor whose whimsical imagination brought the Kewpies — and a generation of stories — to life. A trailblazer for women in the arts, O’Neill’s work blended humor, compassion, and an otherworldly sense of fantasy.

The Goblin Woman showcases her lesser-known, more introspective storytelling — a bridge between the light-hearted world of her Kewpies and the deeper mythic symbolism that defined her later art.