Status
Available
Call number
Publication
The Folio Society (1990), Hardcover. Printed on Malplaquet paper.
Description
Ten-year-old Maria, an orphaned heiress living with her unpleasant guardians on a crumbling English estate called Malplaquet, finds her life changing in unimagined ways when she explores an overgrown island on the estate's lake and discovers the descendants of Gulliver's Lilliputians.
User reviews
LibraryThing member MargoMargo
What kid, after reading GULLIVER’S TRAVELS, didn’t secretly dream of discovering an abandoned, forgotten colony of Lilliputians? This happy circumstance befalls Maria, an engaging ten-year-old orphan, heiress to the vast, but now-decrepit, estate and palace of Malplaquet (modeled on
The evolution of Maria’s involvement with the Lilliputians is delightfully rendered by author T.H. White (THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING), giving the reader both significant and amusing insights into relationships between parents and children and between the powerful and the powerless. White writes, “She wanted to play with them, like lead soldiers…and even dreamed of being their queen.” White continues, “But the Lilliputians were not toys. They were grown up, however short they were, and they were civilized.”
White sets up the initial confrontation between Maria and the Lilliputians in his quintessential, ironic, whimsical style: “However, Maria lost grip of herself and she now proceeded on the road to ruin with the speed of a Rake’s Progress.” This conflict is resolved, following a near-tragedy, and Maria and the Lilliputians develop a relationship of mutual respect and admiration. The plot speeds up exponentially when the evil villains Miss Brown and the Vicar discover the existence of the Lilliputians and decide to use them for their own gain, obviously without the assistance of any moral compass whatsoever. White uses this plot arc to expand on his themes of the importance of resourcefulness, intelligence, loyalty, and kindness.
Upon first picking up this treasured childhood book again after over fifty years, I was struck first by what a nerdy kind I must have been to have loved this book so much! Compared with today’s fast-paced middle grade novels, sadly, MISTRESS MASHAM’S RESPOSE drags a bit in the beginning chapters, with sentences such as, “They looked hopeful but wistful when they heard this from her own mouth, not knowing Maria well enough, as yet, to be sure that her word was her bond.” The missing will of Maria’s deceased parents, one of the key underpinnings of the major plot of the story, isn’t even mentioned until page 63. However, if readers are hooked, as I hope they will be, by the unique concept of tiny Lilliputians needing protection conjoined with Maria’s orphaned plight at the mercy of her cruel, selfish guardians, they will be immensely rewarded by White’s boundless creativity and imagination in his wry and empathetic characterizations, descriptions of Malplaquet’s decayed elegance, and inside jokes sure to be appreciated by nerdy kids, humorists, anglophiles, classicists, and literary enthusiasts.
White treats his young readers as co-conspirators, empowering them by giving them the inside track in the perennial struggles of the smaller and weaker against the larger and stronger, an enduring theme in classic children’s literature. Written in White’s tongue-in-cheek style, scenes such as the hysterically-funny yet frantic search for Maria by her only friends and cohorts, the ever-faithful Cook and the erudite, nerdy Professor, who ultimately free her from the Malplaquet dungeon, thanks to the intrepid Lilliputians, will keep the pages turning, even almost seventy years after its first publication. The proposed murder of Maria by Miss Brown and the Vicar creates tension worthy of today’s middle grade writers, and Maria ultimately solves her own problem with her intelligence and ingenuity, bringing a satisfying and cathartic closing to this classic children’s book. Oh, but wait just a minute here…it’s not really a ‘children’s book,’ is it? Indeed, White quotes people dismissively saying of GULLIVER’S TRAVELS: “Oh, that’s a children’s book, isn’t it?”
If you are a true Nerdy Book Club member, as I suspect you are, or you wouldn’t even be reading this, I encourage you and any of your young reader friends to open up this magical and rewarding middle grade novel to be enthralled by Maria’s adventure, as I was, once again, after so many years. And, who knows, you yourself may even discover a tiny baby, nestled in a walnut shell, lying in the grass….
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Churchill’s Blenheim Palace), somewhere in post-World War II England. Maria’s nasty governess and guardian, Miss Brown, abetted -- and often subverted -- by an equally nasty co-guardian, the Vicar, is conspiring to rob Maria of her inheritance. When the two blackguards discover Maria’s secret colony of small minikins, they set a plot in motion to kidnap them, sell them for profit, and, if Maria interferes, do away with her in an insidious fashion.The evolution of Maria’s involvement with the Lilliputians is delightfully rendered by author T.H. White (THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING), giving the reader both significant and amusing insights into relationships between parents and children and between the powerful and the powerless. White writes, “She wanted to play with them, like lead soldiers…and even dreamed of being their queen.” White continues, “But the Lilliputians were not toys. They were grown up, however short they were, and they were civilized.”
White sets up the initial confrontation between Maria and the Lilliputians in his quintessential, ironic, whimsical style: “However, Maria lost grip of herself and she now proceeded on the road to ruin with the speed of a Rake’s Progress.” This conflict is resolved, following a near-tragedy, and Maria and the Lilliputians develop a relationship of mutual respect and admiration. The plot speeds up exponentially when the evil villains Miss Brown and the Vicar discover the existence of the Lilliputians and decide to use them for their own gain, obviously without the assistance of any moral compass whatsoever. White uses this plot arc to expand on his themes of the importance of resourcefulness, intelligence, loyalty, and kindness.
Upon first picking up this treasured childhood book again after over fifty years, I was struck first by what a nerdy kind I must have been to have loved this book so much! Compared with today’s fast-paced middle grade novels, sadly, MISTRESS MASHAM’S RESPOSE drags a bit in the beginning chapters, with sentences such as, “They looked hopeful but wistful when they heard this from her own mouth, not knowing Maria well enough, as yet, to be sure that her word was her bond.” The missing will of Maria’s deceased parents, one of the key underpinnings of the major plot of the story, isn’t even mentioned until page 63. However, if readers are hooked, as I hope they will be, by the unique concept of tiny Lilliputians needing protection conjoined with Maria’s orphaned plight at the mercy of her cruel, selfish guardians, they will be immensely rewarded by White’s boundless creativity and imagination in his wry and empathetic characterizations, descriptions of Malplaquet’s decayed elegance, and inside jokes sure to be appreciated by nerdy kids, humorists, anglophiles, classicists, and literary enthusiasts.
White treats his young readers as co-conspirators, empowering them by giving them the inside track in the perennial struggles of the smaller and weaker against the larger and stronger, an enduring theme in classic children’s literature. Written in White’s tongue-in-cheek style, scenes such as the hysterically-funny yet frantic search for Maria by her only friends and cohorts, the ever-faithful Cook and the erudite, nerdy Professor, who ultimately free her from the Malplaquet dungeon, thanks to the intrepid Lilliputians, will keep the pages turning, even almost seventy years after its first publication. The proposed murder of Maria by Miss Brown and the Vicar creates tension worthy of today’s middle grade writers, and Maria ultimately solves her own problem with her intelligence and ingenuity, bringing a satisfying and cathartic closing to this classic children’s book. Oh, but wait just a minute here…it’s not really a ‘children’s book,’ is it? Indeed, White quotes people dismissively saying of GULLIVER’S TRAVELS: “Oh, that’s a children’s book, isn’t it?”
If you are a true Nerdy Book Club member, as I suspect you are, or you wouldn’t even be reading this, I encourage you and any of your young reader friends to open up this magical and rewarding middle grade novel to be enthralled by Maria’s adventure, as I was, once again, after so many years. And, who knows, you yourself may even discover a tiny baby, nestled in a walnut shell, lying in the grass….
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LibraryThing member themulhern
An extraordinary book. Many scenes are hilarious. The villains, who may resemble people you know, are described with brutal precision. There is a parody of the poem "Horatius" by Lord Macaulay.
LibraryThing member saroz
Mistress Masham's Repose is the slightly off-putting title of a slightly askew book, choosing to highlight its most important setting rather than its characters, any aspect of its plot, or its unusual tone. Looking back on the book, it's not that hard to interpret, so it's a bit of a mystery why
Go this route he did, though, making his book sound more like a stately, Jane Austen-era garden folly and less like the series of comic scrapes, murderous guardians, savagely funny digs at the British class system and reflection on the evils of colonialism that it is. Satire leeches out of the text from the start, and the one thing that quickly becomes apparent is how much White has it in for everyone; he is every bit the malcontent as the more famous Roald Dahl, but without the vicious streak.
Fortunately, most of his characters are malcontents, too, and half of them are charming ones. His protagonist, Maria, wants to be a colonial explorer, and in such guise she discovers a leftover colony of Gulliver's kidnapped Lilliputians. Her guardians, the villainous vicar and Mrs. Brown, want to find and sell the "minnikins" for profit. They are thankfully to be outsmarted not just by Maria but by her friend, the Professor, the only one who seems to want nothing from the little people at all - except he will keep being distracted. Over the course of the book, we are also introduced to a goodhearted cook, an overzealous officer of the law, and a dog who sees his human as a pet - all of whom become embroiled in the farrago as it reaches fever pitch.
White is clearly trying to say something about his country, and his countrymen, in the waning days of the British Empire. This is very nearly made explicit once or twice in conversations between Maria - who tries her hand at colonial rule - and the Professor. The humor emerges naturally from White's gently mocking tone: rather than lecturing readers about their preconceptions, he simply demonstrates how ridiculous they all are - which is probably more effective. Half the fun of the book is the series of digressions through which White embellishes his characters, making them more than representative of their types but endearing nonetheless. Critically, his heroes always come through, no matter their distractions or self-absorption - and his villains only remain so through their own determination. In Mistress Masham's Repose, everyone is a fool, but everyone has a chance at redemption, too.
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T.H. White - at this point, known primarily for a book with an extremely literal title, The Sword in the Stone - chose to go this route.Go this route he did, though, making his book sound more like a stately, Jane Austen-era garden folly and less like the series of comic scrapes, murderous guardians, savagely funny digs at the British class system and reflection on the evils of colonialism that it is. Satire leeches out of the text from the start, and the one thing that quickly becomes apparent is how much White has it in for everyone; he is every bit the malcontent as the more famous Roald Dahl, but without the vicious streak.
Fortunately, most of his characters are malcontents, too, and half of them are charming ones. His protagonist, Maria, wants to be a colonial explorer, and in such guise she discovers a leftover colony of Gulliver's kidnapped Lilliputians. Her guardians, the villainous vicar and Mrs. Brown, want to find and sell the "minnikins" for profit. They are thankfully to be outsmarted not just by Maria but by her friend, the Professor, the only one who seems to want nothing from the little people at all - except he will keep being distracted. Over the course of the book, we are also introduced to a goodhearted cook, an overzealous officer of the law, and a dog who sees his human as a pet - all of whom become embroiled in the farrago as it reaches fever pitch.
White is clearly trying to say something about his country, and his countrymen, in the waning days of the British Empire. This is very nearly made explicit once or twice in conversations between Maria - who tries her hand at colonial rule - and the Professor. The humor emerges naturally from White's gently mocking tone: rather than lecturing readers about their preconceptions, he simply demonstrates how ridiculous they all are - which is probably more effective. Half the fun of the book is the series of digressions through which White embellishes his characters, making them more than representative of their types but endearing nonetheless. Critically, his heroes always come through, no matter their distractions or self-absorption - and his villains only remain so through their own determination. In Mistress Masham's Repose, everyone is a fool, but everyone has a chance at redemption, too.
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LibraryThing member carolynmj
At age 12, bored while babysitting, I found this on a bookshelf, began reading and was enchanted. I loved the way the story and the language it was revealed in spirited me to a different time and place. I am a grandmother now, and have given this very unique book to my granddaughter, hoping she
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will enjoy it as much as I did. Show Less
LibraryThing member plappen
Maria is a pigtailed, bespectacled 10-year-old living on a huge estate in rural England. Her parents are dead, so she is looked after by Miss Brown, her mean governess, and their cook, Cook. The mansion, with hundreds of rooms, is in great disrepair, so they live in a couple of rooms in one wing.
One day, Maria rows out to an island in the middle of a lake on the estate. Amid the thorns and brambles, she finds an entire town full of people, but they are all only 6 inches tall. Exiles from a place called Lilliput (yes, that Lilliput), they tell a harrowing story of mistreatment, including being forced into circuses and other spectacles for the financial benefit of others. Maria agrees to keep their secret, but almost destroys her relationship with the Lilliputians.
Miss Brown and the vicar know that something is up, so after leads them on a wild goose chase for several nights, they lock her in her room without supper until she cooperates. After a number of days of no contact with Maria, the Lilliputians mount a full-fledged rescue operation, which almost ends in disaster. Spurred on by dollar signs in their eyes (selling the Lilliputians to a circus), Miss Brown and the vicar resort to drastic measures, locking Maria in the dungeon until she starts talking. Assisted by the Professor, an eccentric elderly gentleman who lives in a book-lined cottage on the grounds, the Lilliputians find Maria again, but know that time, and the patience of Miss Brown and the vicar, is getting very short.
I really enjoyed this story, which, I guess, is a sequel to *Gulliver's Travels*. It is good for readers of any age, and is well worth the reader's time.
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Miss Brown and the local vicar are convinced that there is some sort of treasure or other riches on the grounds, and that Maria knows the location.One day, Maria rows out to an island in the middle of a lake on the estate. Amid the thorns and brambles, she finds an entire town full of people, but they are all only 6 inches tall. Exiles from a place called Lilliput (yes, that Lilliput), they tell a harrowing story of mistreatment, including being forced into circuses and other spectacles for the financial benefit of others. Maria agrees to keep their secret, but almost destroys her relationship with the Lilliputians.
Miss Brown and the vicar know that something is up, so after leads them on a wild goose chase for several nights, they lock her in her room without supper until she cooperates. After a number of days of no contact with Maria, the Lilliputians mount a full-fledged rescue operation, which almost ends in disaster. Spurred on by dollar signs in their eyes (selling the Lilliputians to a circus), Miss Brown and the vicar resort to drastic measures, locking Maria in the dungeon until she starts talking. Assisted by the Professor, an eccentric elderly gentleman who lives in a book-lined cottage on the grounds, the Lilliputians find Maria again, but know that time, and the patience of Miss Brown and the vicar, is getting very short.
I really enjoyed this story, which, I guess, is a sequel to *Gulliver's Travels*. It is good for readers of any age, and is well worth the reader's time.
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LibraryThing member sdunford
How this delightful children's story escaped me for so long, I just don't know. This is White at his best, spinning a tale of good and evil, where innocence defeats cynicism. And he does this using Jonathan Swift's Lilliputians, from Gulliver's Travels as main characters.
Is this a parable of real
And the best part of all is that whether you read this as a child's tale or a cautionary tale, its both well-written and well-told.
If you've missed this story somewhere along the line, you're never too old to find it, read it, and come away the better for it
Is this a parable of real
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world's events. Given White's history of using children's tales to frame the world's issues, (he is the author of The Sword in the Stone, after all) and the times when he wrote it (just following World War 2), its hard not to come to that conclusion.. I can easily the evil governess as Hitler, the bumbling, evil-want-to-be rector as Mussolini, Maria as Churchill, and the Lilliputians as the British people, who overcame their fears to defeat Hitler (or the governess)And the best part of all is that whether you read this as a child's tale or a cautionary tale, its both well-written and well-told.
If you've missed this story somewhere along the line, you're never too old to find it, read it, and come away the better for it
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LibraryThing member kslade
Good fantasy of a girl meeting up with Lilliputians left over from Gulliver's Travels.
LibraryThing member helenjoan
Mum gave me a copy she read to me as a child which she had illustrated copying the original illustrations by Fritz Eichenburg in the 1946 edition. The year I was born done in pen and ink, line drawings and this edition has the original illustrations. The stately home where an orphan is sent is
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modelled on Blenheim Palace and Stowe Public School and is wonderful. Gulliver's Lilliputians get into the story and there is an absent minded professor. It appeals to adults and is totally delightful. Show Less
LibraryThing member juniperSun
As a pre-teen I was quite smitten with The Once and Future King, but never got around to reading Mistress Masham. Reading it now, I'm afraid it will no longer pass muster with modern youth. There are far too many classical references, and latin quotations which are not translated. The story line is
Conundrum: should I include it in our small public library or sell it off?
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an interesting sequel to Gulliver's Travels, but I'm not sure even that will be familiar to modern young people.Conundrum: should I include it in our small public library or sell it off?
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LibraryThing member fuzzi
An amusing tale of an orphaned heiress who tries to hide a settlement of tiny people from her heinous guardians' greedy grasps. As with previous works, the author uses dry humor throughout the story and obscure references to elicit a chuckle. Definately a read for a more subtle audience.
LibraryThing member antiquary
A orphaned English girl living with an odious governess in a vast decaying 18th century mansion (called Malplaquet, and rather like Blenheim without funds for upkeep) discovers that an island in the middle of a neglected ornamental lake is inhabited by a colony of Lilliputians, brought to Britain
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by the sea captain who rescued Gulliver and then returned to capture Lilliputians to display at English country fairs. The girl,advised by a fiercely libertarian unemployed old professor of Classics, makes friends with the Lilliputians and eventually triumphs over the governess and her unpleasant ally the vicar, Show Less
LibraryThing member myfanwy
This book is quite simply charming. There's no question it's a children's book, but it's one of that rare breed which is perfectly delightful for an adult to read too. It's the tale of a 10 year old girl, living in a decrepit mansion as the ward of two greedy adults. She is curious, adventuresome
The only reason I can see why this is not more famous is that it is clearly derivative. Maria (the child) finds Lilliputians on the island. Not just little people -- Lilliputians, and much of the book revolves around Gulliver's travels and the people of that novel. Now the events in MM'sR are inventive and original, they are charming and entertaining, but I was a little worse for never having read Gulliver. Lilliputians and Brobdignagian's I'd heard of, but Yahoos and the Horse people? I had to infer from context.
Still, this book was a pleasure, as I'm sure is any writing by T.H. White. It's clear this book came out of many nights of bedtime stories to his niece(?) daughter(?) Amaryllis. It's simply whimsical, but in it's whimsy it brought me delight.
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and at times cruel, and the book describes her discoveries on a little island which she explores, "her spectacles twinkling fiercely in the sun."The only reason I can see why this is not more famous is that it is clearly derivative. Maria (the child) finds Lilliputians on the island. Not just little people -- Lilliputians, and much of the book revolves around Gulliver's travels and the people of that novel. Now the events in MM'sR are inventive and original, they are charming and entertaining, but I was a little worse for never having read Gulliver. Lilliputians and Brobdignagian's I'd heard of, but Yahoos and the Horse people? I had to infer from context.
Still, this book was a pleasure, as I'm sure is any writing by T.H. White. It's clear this book came out of many nights of bedtime stories to his niece(?) daughter(?) Amaryllis. It's simply whimsical, but in it's whimsy it brought me delight.
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LibraryThing member JeremyPreacher
I'd only read The Once and Future King, and T.H. White's style works even better in a modern children's fantasy, I think. It's quite grim, but certainly not more so than the middle Harry Potters.
LibraryThing member PollyMoore3
A very strange but beguiling book. I have a faint memory of it being serialised in my lovely girls' comic, "Princess" in the very early 1960s.
Very similar to the fantasies of Joan Aiken, who maybe was inspired by it?
However, I've never liked Swift, and it doesn't make me want to read Gulliver's
Very similar to the fantasies of Joan Aiken, who maybe was inspired by it?
However, I've never liked Swift, and it doesn't make me want to read Gulliver's
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Travels ever again (not a children's book but a heavy satire on eighteenth century life). Show Less
LibraryThing member Katherine_Ashe
Wonderful to see this reprinted! I have the copy I have had since Mistress Masham was read to me at age three. It has probably had some effect in shaping my life.
LibraryThing member kcslade
Pretty good fantasy of a good girl who meets up with Lilliputians.
LibraryThing member willowcove
I love this book. It is an easy, fun-to-read story of a little girl discovering the lilliputians that Gulliver brought back with him. Right up there with the Secret Garden
LibraryThing member aelfgifu
I read this book and loved it as a child, but hadn't seen it for many, many years. Was absolutely delighted to discover that it is even better when read as an adult. It is crammed with clever historical references, wry comic observations of class and mid-20th century social customs and the joyous
The premise is that the sea captain who rescued Gulliver from Lilliput (and who received some tiny cattle for his trouble) returned to the island and captured a handful of the little people. The Lilliputians escaped and found a hiding place in Mistress Masham's Repose, an overgrown island in a lake on the grounds of a vast and derelict stately home. Two hundred years later, their descendants are discovered by the spirited orphan Maria, the heiress of the ruined mansion. It has a lively plot involving Maria's lost inheritance, her nasty and cruel guardians, the heroic and resourceful Lilliputians and the funniest, sweetest, most absent-minded professor ever.
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eccentricities of place names in the English countryside. These were completely wasted on me as an 8-year-oldThe premise is that the sea captain who rescued Gulliver from Lilliput (and who received some tiny cattle for his trouble) returned to the island and captured a handful of the little people. The Lilliputians escaped and found a hiding place in Mistress Masham's Repose, an overgrown island in a lake on the grounds of a vast and derelict stately home. Two hundred years later, their descendants are discovered by the spirited orphan Maria, the heiress of the ruined mansion. It has a lively plot involving Maria's lost inheritance, her nasty and cruel guardians, the heroic and resourceful Lilliputians and the funniest, sweetest, most absent-minded professor ever.
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LibraryThing member melydia
This book has been on my shelf for at least the last fifteen years, but I never got around to reading it until now. It's a clever story of a girl named Maria who discovers Lilliputians on her property. Having never read Gulliver's Travels, I can't say how necessary that might be, but I'm familiar
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enough with the tale to understand most of the references. The supporting characters - the evil Vicar and Miss Brown, the distracted Professor, the chatty Cook - are delightfully ridiculous. The description can get a little lengthy at times, but it's easy to skim and does, if you read every word, add to the atmosphere. Though this could be enjoyable for adults, I would most heartily recommend this for older children with a love for fantasy. Show Less
LibraryThing member Stevil2001
One of my favorite pieces of writing about what science fiction is and what it does comes from China Miéville's introduction to H. G. Wells's The First Men in the Moon. Miéville argues that science fiction is not really about the future: "It is, like any worthwhile literature, 'about' now, using
In Swift, for example, Gulliver's journey to Brobdingnag [...] clearly casts a remorseless light on Swift's own society; it also, however, features a sword fight with a giant wasp, a passage the enjoyment of which depends on the specific uncanny/estranging impact of literalizing the impossible: simply, it is a great, weird idea. Weirdness is good to think with, and is also its own end.Miéville goes on to mention "the pleasure he [Wells] took in his oddities" as one of the things that distinguishes First Men from being only satire.
It's been a long time since I actually read Gulliver's Travels, not since childhood, but it's my memory that though certainly Brobdingnag, Lilliput, and all the other fantastic countries Gulliver visits are literally true, and the book has certainly provided its share of "great, weird" imagery—that iconic image of Gulliver tied down by the Lilliputians, which is on so many book covers and probably appears in every screen adaptation—Swift's emphasis is more on the social satire than the "great, weird" ideas. Like, sure we get swordfights with giant wasps and such, but the point of the novel is to see our human foibles writ large and writ small and writ equine. (I, for one, always though the journey to the place where they got electricity out of cucumbers was underrated.)
Mistress Masham's Repose is a 1946 children's fantasy novel by T. H. White, best known as the writer of The Once and Future King. It's clearly intended to be read aloud (the name of the dedicatee, Amaryllis Virginia Garnett, is even mentioned by the narrator a few times), though in that very British way where there are passages that the adult reader will get much more out of than the child listener, a lot like Kingsley's The Water-Babies. I found it on my wife's shelves and decided it looked interesting enough to read; the book is a sort-of sequel to Gulliver's Travels.
The premise is that there's a young orphan girl named Maria who lives on the rambling country estate that she inherited from her parents, but does not have the money to maintain. Her legal guardian is a cruel vicar, and her day-to-day guardian is an even crueler governess. Her only friends are the estate's sole servant, a cook, and a local absent-minded professor of classics. One day, exploring an island on the estate, she finds a colony of Lilliputians, brought to England and forgotten about, where they've been living for centuries in secret.
The pleasure of the book is that it takes the "great, weird idea" of the Lilliputians very seriously, probably more seriously than Swift himself did. Anticipating books like Mary Norton's The Borrowers (1952) and John Peterson's The Littles (1967), the book gives us a group of little people operating in our world, and asks how they might survive, what they might to do, say, fish in a world where the fish are to them as whales are to us, or how they might be able to intervene to battle against human adults.
The book not only gives the reader this pleasure of the fantastic, it also explores how the characters themselves experience that pleasure. There's one extended sequence where the Professor imagines what he would do if they also got hold of a Brobdingnagian giant. What would be the logistics of capturing it? How would you transport it back to England? What would you do with it then? He doesn't go through with any of this, he can't, but it's fun to see him work it all out. In another passage, Maria and the Professor debate if an island could really fly in the way Swift imagined for Laputa. (And the Professor points out "that Dr. Swift was silly to laugh about Laputa. I believe it is a mistake to make a mock of people, just because they think. There are ninety thousand people in this world who do not think, for every one who does, and these people hate the thinkers like poison. [...] Better to think about cucumbers even, than not to think at all." The book is filled with great, quiet observations like this.)
The book also finds limits to literalizing the impossible. Maria, for example, concocts an idea that Lilliputians might be able to fly in toy airplanes, and tries to make it happen. But she is (metaphorically) crashed down to earth when her pilot (literally) crashes down to earth. As she learns, we can have some fantastic imaginings that cannot be well, realized. Realistic concerns get in the way. This is disappointing to Maria, of course, but part of what makes the book pleasurable to us—if the book is to feel real, there need to be some things that cannot happen.
It's also very funny. I was forever quoting bits to my wife (who, if she had actually read the book, did not remember it all). When the Professor tries to get the local Lord Lieutenant to intervene to protect Maria from the cruelty of the vicar and the governess, who have locked her in the estate's torture dungeon, the Lord Lieutenant objects that such things aren't heard of these days:"But, good Lord, my dear chap, you can't do that sort of thing in the nineteenth century, or the twentieth, or whatever it is. I mean, you take the first two figures, and add one, or subtract one, I forgot which, for reasons I never could fathom, possibly owin' to these X's which those chaps are always writin' on monuments, and then it is different. Now, take horses..."
"Whether you can or can't, it has been done. I tell you..."
"My old Grandad, or his grandad, I can't remember which, used to ride a hunter in a long point until it foundered, old boy, died, absolutely kaput. Now you couldn't do that sort of thing nowadays, not in this century, whichever it is, without getting the Society for Cruelty to Animals after you. Absolutely couldn't do it. Not done. Out of date. I heard it was the same with dungeons?"I mean, it's funny if you like pompous out-of-touch English people going on about things, and I certainly do. The book is is filled with stuff like that.
Overall, Mistress Masham's Repose has good "worldbuilding" (I kind of shudder to apply the term here, but it fits) and good comedy, but also good themes and great hair-raising escapes and dangers and ingenious protagonists. I found it an utterly delightful 250 pages. I don't know if it would work for most readers, but it's the kind of book that felt squarely aimed at me, and all the better for it.
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a technique of rationalized (rather than free-for-all) alienation from the everyday to structure its narratives and investigate the world." But, he points out, there's also a pitfall if you go too far in the other direction: "When 'mainstream' writers dip their toes into the fantastic, they often do so with the anxiety of seriousness, keen to stress that their inventions are really 'about' other, meaningful things." What makes the fantastic work for its readers and writers, he claims (and I agree), is that it does both at once. You get a metaphor for the present day but within the world of the story, it's literally true (unlike in mimetic fiction, where metaphor is just metaphor), and that's pleasurable. He uses Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels as an example of this:In Swift, for example, Gulliver's journey to Brobdingnag [...] clearly casts a remorseless light on Swift's own society; it also, however, features a sword fight with a giant wasp, a passage the enjoyment of which depends on the specific uncanny/estranging impact of literalizing the impossible: simply, it is a great, weird idea. Weirdness is good to think with, and is also its own end.Miéville goes on to mention "the pleasure he [Wells] took in his oddities" as one of the things that distinguishes First Men from being only satire.
It's been a long time since I actually read Gulliver's Travels, not since childhood, but it's my memory that though certainly Brobdingnag, Lilliput, and all the other fantastic countries Gulliver visits are literally true, and the book has certainly provided its share of "great, weird" imagery—that iconic image of Gulliver tied down by the Lilliputians, which is on so many book covers and probably appears in every screen adaptation—Swift's emphasis is more on the social satire than the "great, weird" ideas. Like, sure we get swordfights with giant wasps and such, but the point of the novel is to see our human foibles writ large and writ small and writ equine. (I, for one, always though the journey to the place where they got electricity out of cucumbers was underrated.)
Mistress Masham's Repose is a 1946 children's fantasy novel by T. H. White, best known as the writer of The Once and Future King. It's clearly intended to be read aloud (the name of the dedicatee, Amaryllis Virginia Garnett, is even mentioned by the narrator a few times), though in that very British way where there are passages that the adult reader will get much more out of than the child listener, a lot like Kingsley's The Water-Babies. I found it on my wife's shelves and decided it looked interesting enough to read; the book is a sort-of sequel to Gulliver's Travels.
The premise is that there's a young orphan girl named Maria who lives on the rambling country estate that she inherited from her parents, but does not have the money to maintain. Her legal guardian is a cruel vicar, and her day-to-day guardian is an even crueler governess. Her only friends are the estate's sole servant, a cook, and a local absent-minded professor of classics. One day, exploring an island on the estate, she finds a colony of Lilliputians, brought to England and forgotten about, where they've been living for centuries in secret.
The pleasure of the book is that it takes the "great, weird idea" of the Lilliputians very seriously, probably more seriously than Swift himself did. Anticipating books like Mary Norton's The Borrowers (1952) and John Peterson's The Littles (1967), the book gives us a group of little people operating in our world, and asks how they might survive, what they might to do, say, fish in a world where the fish are to them as whales are to us, or how they might be able to intervene to battle against human adults.
The book not only gives the reader this pleasure of the fantastic, it also explores how the characters themselves experience that pleasure. There's one extended sequence where the Professor imagines what he would do if they also got hold of a Brobdingnagian giant. What would be the logistics of capturing it? How would you transport it back to England? What would you do with it then? He doesn't go through with any of this, he can't, but it's fun to see him work it all out. In another passage, Maria and the Professor debate if an island could really fly in the way Swift imagined for Laputa. (And the Professor points out "that Dr. Swift was silly to laugh about Laputa. I believe it is a mistake to make a mock of people, just because they think. There are ninety thousand people in this world who do not think, for every one who does, and these people hate the thinkers like poison. [...] Better to think about cucumbers even, than not to think at all." The book is filled with great, quiet observations like this.)
The book also finds limits to literalizing the impossible. Maria, for example, concocts an idea that Lilliputians might be able to fly in toy airplanes, and tries to make it happen. But she is (metaphorically) crashed down to earth when her pilot (literally) crashes down to earth. As she learns, we can have some fantastic imaginings that cannot be well, realized. Realistic concerns get in the way. This is disappointing to Maria, of course, but part of what makes the book pleasurable to us—if the book is to feel real, there need to be some things that cannot happen.
It's also very funny. I was forever quoting bits to my wife (who, if she had actually read the book, did not remember it all). When the Professor tries to get the local Lord Lieutenant to intervene to protect Maria from the cruelty of the vicar and the governess, who have locked her in the estate's torture dungeon, the Lord Lieutenant objects that such things aren't heard of these days:"But, good Lord, my dear chap, you can't do that sort of thing in the nineteenth century, or the twentieth, or whatever it is. I mean, you take the first two figures, and add one, or subtract one, I forgot which, for reasons I never could fathom, possibly owin' to these X's which those chaps are always writin' on monuments, and then it is different. Now, take horses..."
"Whether you can or can't, it has been done. I tell you..."
"My old Grandad, or his grandad, I can't remember which, used to ride a hunter in a long point until it foundered, old boy, died, absolutely kaput. Now you couldn't do that sort of thing nowadays, not in this century, whichever it is, without getting the Society for Cruelty to Animals after you. Absolutely couldn't do it. Not done. Out of date. I heard it was the same with dungeons?"I mean, it's funny if you like pompous out-of-touch English people going on about things, and I certainly do. The book is is filled with stuff like that.
Overall, Mistress Masham's Repose has good "worldbuilding" (I kind of shudder to apply the term here, but it fits) and good comedy, but also good themes and great hair-raising escapes and dangers and ingenious protagonists. I found it an utterly delightful 250 pages. I don't know if it would work for most readers, but it's the kind of book that felt squarely aimed at me, and all the better for it.
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Subjects
Language
Original publication date
1946
Local notes
A sort-of sequel to Gulliver's Travels. 10yo Maria, orphaned mistress of Malplaquet, discovers an entire community of people - 'The People,' as they call themselves - all only inches tall. With the help of her only friend, the absurdly erudite Professor, Maria soon learns that this settlement is no less than the kingdom of Lilliput in exile. Safely hidden for centuries, the Lilliputians are immediately endangered by Maria's well-meaning but clumsy attempts to improve their lot, but their situation grows truly ominous when they are discovered by Maria's greedy guardians, who look at The People and see only the potential for profit.
2nd hand copy missing slipcase.
Folio Society hidden joke: printed on Malplaquet paper (Malplaquet being the estate where the book takes place, based on the real-life model of Stowe.)
2nd hand copy missing slipcase.
Folio Society hidden joke: printed on Malplaquet paper (Malplaquet being the estate where the book takes place, based on the real-life model of Stowe.)
Other editions
Mistress Masham's Repose (Puffin Books) by T. H. White (Paperback)