The authoress, herself |
I couldn’t help noting, after
recently revisiting her books, how much influence Edith Nesbit had on later fantasy
writers.
She was born in 1858 in Surrey, and, because her sister had poor
health, saw a good bit of the world before she finally married a rake (she didn’t
know he was a rake until after she married him, but she remained married to
him, despite discovering and adopting several children of his that did not
belong to her). She was a great friend and fellow Fabian of author William
Morris (who deeply influenced J.R.R. Tolkien with his various writings, especially
The Well at the World’s End). Edith,
herself, wrote various poems and books for adults, but it wasn’t until the
publication of The Treasure Seekers
in 1898, that she became really beloved.
And she’s still beloved. I believe her most famous book is The Five Children and It, where five
children (you guessed it) meet ‘It’, which happens to be a Psammead (which is pronounced
‘Sammy-ad’). I won’t describe It, because everybody knows what a Psammead is
(and if you don’t, you should). Read the book. Don’t watch the recent movie. It
isn’t worth it.
A still from the movie....looks familiar, doesn't it? |
Edith Nesbit captured the wide-eyed innocence of childhood; despite her
political leanings, she manages to paint an unspoiled and beautiful world where
children always have tea on time and things always work out just as they should
(which is not parallel to her own unhappy life).
In my opinion, her strength was her uncanny skill with fantasy. Her
imagination was nearly boundless…there’s nothing formulaic about her work.
Sometimes her characters build cities on the nursery floor which come to life,
other times, they meet unlikely friends like a phoenix and a magic carpet
(which behave in a curiously ordinary and believable way).
And she always had twists and turns which are completely hilarious and
utterly unpredictable…like wishing for milk to feed nine hundred cats (don’t
ask where they came from) and getting
a whole cow (which I probably needn’t tell you is inconvenient in a nursery).
George MacDonald - a rather shaggy, but very interesting character, who I might talk about some other time |
I think she, along with George MacDonald, laid the foundations of modern
fantasy. C. S. Lewis was especially inspired by her. Her light-hearted style
must have resonated with him, because his is similar. His Grecian,
psudo-medieval world of Narnia could almost have stepped out of one of her
books…and some other things really did, like statues that come alive,
children that find a magic, seemingly abandoned castle in the woods, or a
little girl named Lucy who steps through a door into a magical world.
I’m not trying to say C. S. Lewis stole her ideas, or that his books are inferior
(anyone who knows me knows that isn’t
true)…but I am trying to say that
Edith Nesbit isn’t as well-known as she should be. If you haven’t, you should
read her books. They can be found for free everywhere from Amazon to Project
Gutenberg, and if you’d rather not have a digital edition, go to a used book
store. You’ll probably find them tucked away somewhere in a corner, waiting for
you to come along. As Oswald Bastable
would say, “They’re absolutely A1!”
~Psyche