Audiobook · read by volunteers
Golden Goose Book
L. Leslie Brooke (1862–1940)
Read by Kara Shallenberg (1969-2023) · 4 chapters · 31 min
About the book
Long before picture books became a business, Leonard Leslie Brooke was filling pages with gentle, mischievous drawings and telling old tales his own way. In this collection a kind-hearted boy, a family of bears, three little pigs and a very small hero take their turns, and the rules that govern them are the ones every child knows: generosity is rewarded, greed and meanness are not. But Brooke is far more playful than a simple moral would suggest. He lets odd details creep in, sets absurd little scenes beside the familiar plots, and keeps the listener guessing about where a story will go next. The result is a set of four tales that feel at once traditional and slightly bizarre, with a Victorian nursery brought to life in sound. They run for about half an hour in all, which makes them a lovely bedtime companion, read here by Kara Shallenberg.
Introduction
Leonard Leslie Brooke, born in 1862 and died in 1940, was an English illustrator who made his name with picture books for children. The Golden Goose Book appeared in 1905 and brings together four stories that were already old when he took them up: The Golden Goose, The Three Bears, The Three Little Pigs and Tom Thumb. What he added was his own eye. His drawings are full of small comic touches, and the text he wrote beside them is brisk and cheerful, with a taste for the unexpected turn.
The collection belongs to the great tradition of Victorian and Edwardian nursery literature, where a fairy tale was expected to teach as well as amuse. Kindness is rewarded, selfishness is punished, and yet the stories do not feel like sermons. Brooke seems more interested in the oddity of his characters and the logic of their dilemmas than in delivering a lesson, and readers who think they know these plots may be surprised by how much room he leaves for invention.
The audio version offers four chapters, one for each tale, and lasts about thirty minutes. Because the book was designed to be looked at as well as heard, its illustrations are often mentioned alongside it, but the stories hold up well on their own. The reader is Kara Shallenberg, a LibriVox volunteer. It is a good choice for children, and for adults who remember these tales fondly. It is a book to share with a child, and then to enjoy again alone, with a smile at how freely a Victorian illustrator could play with the stories everyone thought they knew.
Public domain
L. Leslie Brooke died in 1940: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text