The Enchanted Castle

The Enchanted Castle is a children's fantasy novel by Edith Nesbit first published in 1907.

For the painting by Claude Lorrain, see Landscape with Psyche Outside the Palace of Cupid.
The Enchanted Castle
First edition
AuthorEdith Nesbit
IllustratorH. R. Millar (1907)
Cecil Leslie (1964)
Paul O. Zelinsky (1992)
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
GenreChildren's Literature
PublisherUnwin
Publication date
1907
Media typePrint (hardcover)

Plot summary
Frontispiece by H. R. Millar

The enchanted castle of the title is a country estate in the West Country seen through the eyes of three children, Jerry, Jimmy, and Kathy, who discover it while exploring during the school holidays. The lake, groves and marble statues, with white towers and turrets in the distance, make a fairy-tale setting, and then in the middle of the maze in the rose garden, they find a sleeping fairy-tale princess.

The "princess" tells them that the castle is full of magic, and they almost believe her. She shows them the treasures of the castle, including a magic ring she says is a ring of invisibility, but when it actually turns her invisible she panics and admits that she is the housekeeper's niece, Mabel, and was just play-acting.

The children soon find that the ring has other magical powers[1] such as making the "Ugly-Wugglies" (Guy Fawkes style dummies they had made to swell the audience at one of their play-performances) come to life. They eventually discover that the ring is actually granting their own wishes, and that the disturbing results stem from their failure to specify those wishes precisely.

The Enchanted Castle was written for both children and adults. It combines descriptions of the imaginative play of children, reminiscent of The Story of the Treasure Seekers, with a magic more muted than in her major fantasies such as The Story of the Amulet.

Adaptations

The Enchanted Castle was adapted into a TV-miniseries by the BBC in 1979. It has not been released on DVD or VHS in the UK, however, a DVD was released in Australia on 03/07/2013.[2]

Cameos

Yalding Castle was referenced as a venue in the first volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

References
  1. Stephen Prickett, Victorian Fantasy p 233 ISBN 0-253-17461-9
  2. http://www.bbcondvd.com.au/node/2839



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