The Book of Dragons

[memelaina]

I'm reading E. Nesbit's The Book of Dragons. It's a collection of eight short children's stories about, you guessed it, dragons. I have a copy of this book that lisajulie gave me many years ago. I also found (on doing some bookshelf consolidation) that I have another copy. I think this one is probably the original that my first husband, David, and I bought in a little indie bookstore in Great Falls, Montana many many years ago. I took it down out of the library thinking that perhaps I would send it to him (or at least to his parents' house) and then started reading it. Nesbit's style is very conversational. I wonder if that is a turn of the century thing, or more individual to her? She talks to the children she is writing for and makes wonderful allusions to everyday bits of Edwardian/Victorian life in her comparisons to the life, times, feelings, and appearance of dragons. There's certainly an element of the "moral tale" bit - good children are rewarded for good things - but it's very painless and her subject matter just outré enough to make it all great fun.

Comments

[lisajulie.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting question about Nesbit's style - I'll have to go back and re-read some of her books (oh! the pain!) I'm trying to think about other children's books written about that time and am drawing a blank. Swallows and Amazons was later - post WW I, I believe.

So, what other authors should I read for comparison purposes?

Wow! I hadn't realized she was quite _so_ Victorian era - born in 1858, died in 1924.

[gilraen2.livejournal.com]

Her contemporaries were George Bernard Shaw and Wallis Budge - both of them also probably her lovers. Not sure who her contemporaries as children's authors were. There's a really excellent biography of her called A Woman of Passion that makes startling revelations about her life.

[lisajulie.livejournal.com]

Seriously cool!!! Shaw _and_ Budge. Wow.

But I'm curious about other children's books of the time. I can find much before (The Children of New Forest and Tom Brown's School Days) and after (Swallows and Amazons). Maybe Dr. Doolittle? There must have been something written for children - maybe it was so horrible it just vanished?

Caveat: the search for books was made in my bookshelves and no further.