Edith Nesbit
born 19 aug 1858 / died 04 may 1924
i started to read Edith Nesbit's books already as child
as i found her books in the school library together with Francis Hodgson Burnett's books
from the beginning on i loved Nesbit's stories more than any others
many years later i found in C. S. Lewis' Narnia stories a similar good quality first
Harry Potter fans may forgive me, but i can't imagine, that someone, who knows Nesbit's books can be a passionate fan of Joanne K. Rowling
Joanne K. Rowling may be the best selling children autor of today, but Edith Nesbit will be ever a more imaginative, fantastic, subtle & humorous story teller
first of all
The Magic City is for me the one & only book, which i would take with me for a lonely island,
although i've read it meantime several times it will be for me the best book ever
the story's frame, a relationship between a boy & his adult sister is a wonderful base for an adventure, where he seeks & fights for love & a family
the adventures themselves are a journey similar to such classical stories like the Odyssey, where the hero's travelling in the outside & must solve different riddles & fight with monsters, but the real journey is the one in the inside world & the real fight is one against the own fright, bad attitudes & for the right way in the own life
Nesbit's heros don't solve the world, not even the own family, but are fighting to be a better human
& such a tenor is not very surprising because Edith Nesbit is not only known as a great children autor, but also as one of England's first socialists
she was a self-conscious woman in the beginnings of emancipation, paying the daily life out of her own work as a story teller, not a very normal situation in the victorian/edwardian times
besides of The Magic City i like mostly the Psammead series, where brothers & sisters are travelling through space & time experiencing a lot of magical & fantastic adventures with the help of a curious & ancient creature, the hydrophobic Psammead
further i like the Enchanted Castle, a thick package of most fantastic & magical adventures, where all wishes come true & end not so luckily as they were ment
& i like Edith Nesbit's short tales, the most of are plain beautiful & i've read never more similar inventive
short said, if you don't know Edith Nesbit's books, you have missed the world's most enchanted
regarding the quality of Edith Nesbit's work is her presence in the internet rather poorly:
six of E.N.'s wonderful stories online eg. the Psammead series:
Five Children & It + The Phoenix & the Carpet + The Story of the Amulet
The Railway Children - a site about the autor & mainly the 2000 production
many informations, a bibiography & pictures of her home & grave
a picture of her last house in St. Mary's Bay
Edith Nesbit Bibliography
"Piecioro dzieci i cos" + "Nowi poszukiwacze skarbow" - stronka po polsku
two poems by Edith Nesbit
The Fields of Flanders, another poem by E.N.
some transcriptions of E.N.'s books - The Rainbow and the Rose with a handwritten dedication
more of E.N.'s books online
more about her political backgrounds
The Edith Nesbit Society
10 may 2002