Month: June 2006
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Five Children and It by E. NesbitBooks of Wonder, 1999 (originally T. Fisher Unwin, 1902)
Part of what is so pleasing about E. Nesbit’s books is the way that her children navigate through the world, and the world they navigate through: in this book, a summer-holiday-world of adults and sand-fairies and magical events and not very many other children. And, of course, I’m smitten with the British-ness of this story,…
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The Wings of the Dove by Henry JamesMiramax Books, 1997 (originally The Bodley Head, 1902)
James’s sentences are often exquisite: sentences as long as paragraphs, sentences full of commas, phrases nested like Russian dolls. His style forces me to slow down, to re-read passages, and I appreciate his pacing, his rhythm. Even the long slow middle of the book, a period of waiting for Kate and Merton and Milly, and…