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Classic children's fantasy
Feb. 11th, 2007 11:39 am
Re-read Edith Nesbit's The House of Arden for the first time in over twenty years. (I had quite a long stint reading Nesbit's books as a kid, though I think The Enchanted Castle was the only one I read more than once.
Anyway, it was great fun. It's a time-travel story where the time-traveling is handled rather neatly in some aspects an silly in others. The plot works neatly for about twelve chapters, and then there is a weird, rushed ending in the last two. I like that Edred isn't an Awful Child Who Needs a Personality Make-over a la Eustace Scrubb, but a sometimes good, sometimes annoying kid who needs to grow. (I'm totally in love with Elfrida.) It's great fun to trace her influence on later writers, like J.K. Rowling (Mr Parados is totally ur-Snape!), and Lemony Snicket. (I don't know if Daniel Handler has ever read Nesbit, but if he hasn't he must have picked up some of her stylistic tricks by osmosis.)
Browsed through Harding's Luck, but wasn't inspired to re-read it.
( Comments you might want to skip if you plan to read these century-old children's books )
A quote from chapter XI, because I found i so lovely in this day and age of digital cameras:
"
More about books I loved as a child: Neil Gaiman blogs about Noel Langley's The Land of Green Ginger (though he does it even more here) which was one of those books I didn't know anyone else had ever read.
Anyway, it was great fun. It's a time-travel story where the time-traveling is handled rather neatly in some aspects an silly in others. The plot works neatly for about twelve chapters, and then there is a weird, rushed ending in the last two. I like that Edred isn't an Awful Child Who Needs a Personality Make-over a la Eustace Scrubb, but a sometimes good, sometimes annoying kid who needs to grow. (I'm totally in love with Elfrida.) It's great fun to trace her influence on later writers, like J.K. Rowling (Mr Parados is totally ur-Snape!), and Lemony Snicket. (I don't know if Daniel Handler has ever read Nesbit, but if he hasn't he must have picked up some of her stylistic tricks by osmosis.)
Browsed through Harding's Luck, but wasn't inspired to re-read it.
( Comments you might want to skip if you plan to read these century-old children's books )
A quote from chapter XI, because I found i so lovely in this day and age of digital cameras:
"
Dear reader, do you recall the agitating moment when you pass the film
through the hypo–and hold it up to the light–and nothing happens? Do you
remember the painful wonder whether you may have forgotten to set the shutter?
Or whether you have got hold of an unexposed film by mistake? Your breath comes
with difficulty, your fingers feel awkward, and the film is unnaturally
slippery. You dip it into the hypo-bath again, and draw it through and through
with the calmness of despair.
"I don't believe it's coming out at all," you say.
And then comes the glorious moment when you hold it up again to the red
light, and murmur rapturously, "Ah! it is beginning to show!"
More about books I loved as a child: Neil Gaiman blogs about Noel Langley's The Land of Green Ginger (though he does it even more here) which was one of those books I didn't know anyone else had ever read.
