Audiobook · read by volunteers
Nine Unlikely Tales
E. Nesbit (1858–1924)
Read by Cori Samuel · 9 chapters · 4 h 29
About the book
Nine stories, and not one of them quite what you expect. In Nine Unlikely Tales, E. Nesbit takes the old fairy-tale pattern and shakes it until it laughs. Here you will meet an arithmetic fairy, a king who ends up transformed into a charming villa residence, and a dreadful automatic nagging machine, along with tales such as The Cockatoucan, Whereyouwantogoto and The Blue Mountain. Nesbit tells her stories with a sly sense of humour and a sharp eye for human foolishness, and she slips in a moral or two without ever losing the ring of a proper fairy tale. Cori Samuel reads all nine tales in about four and a half hours. This is a delightful recording for children, for families and for anyone who enjoys wit with their magic.
Introduction
Edith Nesbit, who wrote as E. Nesbit (1858-1924), was an English author and poet who changed the course of children's literature. Her books, including Five Children and It and The Railway Children, combined realistic family life with magic and humour, and they influenced many later writers for children. Her Bastable stories, beginning with The Story of the Treasure Seekers, had already made her a favourite with young readers. She was also a political activist and a founder of the Fabian Society, although it is for her stories that she is chiefly remembered.
Nine Unlikely Tales, published in 1901, collects nine original fairy tales. They use the familiar apparatus of kings, princes, enchanted objects and magical creatures, but they treat it with irreverence. Characters talk back, magic is organised in unexpected ways, and the conventions of the genre are cheerfully turned upside down. Nesbit's narrator often addresses the reader directly, commenting on events with a wry and affectionate voice.
The collection offers an arithmetic fairy, a king who ends up as a villa residence and a dreadful automatic nagging machine, with a moral tucked in here and there. Titles such as The Cockatoucan, Whereyouwantogoto, The Blue Mountain and The Prince, Two Mice, and some Kitchen-Maids show the inventive range of the collection.
This LibriVox recording is read by Cori Samuel. It lasts around four and a half hours and is divided into nine files, one for each story, which makes it perfect for bedtime listening. Adults will enjoy the humour as much as children, and the book is a good introduction to an author whose influence can still be felt in modern fantasy writing.
Public domain
E. Nesbit died in 1924: 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