Description
Book SynopsisThe "Psammead Trilogy" written by Edith Nesbit includes "Five Children and It", "The Phoenix and the Carpet", and "The Story of the Amulet". The essays collected in this volume celebrate the completion of the "Psammead Trilogy". These essays employ differing strategies and place Edith Nesbit in various contexts to assess her achievement.
Trade Review...the collection offers an enticing array of shifting perspectives...The pleasure of these essays lies not only in their individual arguments but also in the way they creatively challenge and complement each other, demonstrating the vitality of contemporary Nesbit criticism. * Children's Literature Association Quarterly, Vol. 32, No. 2 (2007) *
a most admirable and timely volume. * English Literature and Translation *
Nesbit's works of fantasy nestle on many a child's bookshelf, and in this trilogy three of them reside: Five Children and It, The Phoenix and the Carpet, and The Story of the Amulet. In this collection of 13 essays scholars peek behind the fantasy and find plenty, including such topics as the ideologies of gender in the Psammead Trilogy, Fabianism and didacticism, the writing of empire, magical realism in the form of generic manipulation and mutation, comic spirituality and communicating humor, staging desire in Five Children and It, Nesbit's and Dickens's literary borrowings, parallels with the nineteenth-century moral tale, socialist utopia in The Story of the Amulet, H.R. Millar's expansions and subversions of the trilogy, and Edgar Eager's revisions. * Reference and Research Book News, August 2006 *
Table of ContentsPart 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Chapter 1. The "It" Girl (and Boy): Ideologies of Gender in the Psammead Trilogy Chapter 3 Chapter 2. A Momentary Hunger: Fabianism and Didacticism in E. Nesbit's Writing for Children Chapter 4 Chapter 3. The Beginning of the End: Writing Empire in E. Nesbit's Psammead Books Chapter 5 Chapter 4. Generic Manipulation and Mutation: E. Nesbit's Psammead Series as Early Magical Realism Chapter 6 Chapter 5. Materiality, the Wish, and the Marvelous: E. Nesbit's Comic Spirituality in the Psammead Trilogy Chapter 7 Chapter 6. Communicating Humor in E. Nesbit's Fantasy Trilogy Chapter 8 Chapter 7. Where It Was, There Shall Five Children Be: Staging Desire in Five Children and It Chapter 9 Chapter 8. Textual Building Blocks: Charles Dickens and E. Nesbit's Literary Borrowings in Five Children and It Chapter 10 Chapter 9. Five Children and It: Some Parallels with the Nineteenth-Century Moral Tale Chapter 11 Chapter 10. News from E. Nesbit: The Story of the Amulet and the Socialist Utopia Chapter 12 Chapter 11. The Amulet and Other Stories of Time Chapter 13 Chapter 12. "Exactly As It Was"? H.R. Millar's Expansions and Subversions of the Psammead Trilogy Chapter 14 Chapter 13. Only Half Magic: Edward Eager's Revision of Nesbit's Psammead Trilogy Part 15 About the Editor and Contributors
