The Magic Fishbone [Hamlyn Little Fairy Tale]

Just a short story, but it's listed on Goodreads as its own thing, so I'll happily review it.

Delightful! The conceit (it helps to know it) is that when this was originally published, Dickens pretended it was written by a child. So, like Daisy Ashford's The Young Visiters, it's rife with

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intentional silliness. It's young author has very little idea of what life in a palace is like, so the Royal Family behaves much like a typical Victorian middle-class household, with a couple of servants, Father going off to work (and perhaps stopping at the fishmonger on the way back), and the princess improvising bandages from the Royal rag bag. All of this is absolutely charming, and would be enjoyable even if you weren't sure why Dickens had chosen the approach.

I lapped it up, and like an excellent Sangria on a hot August day, it was gone before I knew it.

P.S. I have no idea what the illustrations in the edition I read were supposed to be, but I reckon they're for some other story, having no resemblance to the events that unfolded in the prose side of things. I ignored them.


(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve!

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