Audiobook · read by volunteers
Wouldbegoods, Being the Further Adventures of the Treasure Seekers
E. Nesbit (1858–1924)
Read by Alan Chant, Hazel Chant · 14 chapters · 8 h 39
About the book
The Bastable children have been sent to stay in the countryside, and they are determined to be good. Unfortunately, their ideas about goodness are not quite those of the grown-ups around them. Dora, Oswald, Dicky, Alice, Noël and H. O., together with their dog Pincher, found a society for being good, and it leads them into one escapade after another: an imaginary jungle, a tombstone for Bill and plans that tend to go comically astray. E. Nesbit tells the story through the voice of one of the children, with dry humour and an affectionate eye for how young people think. This follow-up to The Treasure Seekers is a delight for anyone who enjoys a rollicking family tale. Fourteen chapters, read by two volunteers, last about eight and three quarter hours. They are ideal for a long journey or a week of bedtimes.
Introduction
Edith Nesbit, who wrote as E. Nesbit and lived from 1858 to 1924, was an English author who wrote some of the most lively children's books of her time. The Wouldbegoods, published in 1901, is a sequel to The Treasure Seekers, and its subtitle announces that it continues the adventures of the same family.
Nesbit's stories were innovative in treating children as real individuals, with faults, humour and imagination, and in letting them speak for themselves. The narrator of this book is one of the Bastable boys, who often reveals more than he intends. Later writers of family adventure, including many in the twentieth century, acknowledged her influence.
The LibriVox recording has fourteen chapters, from The Jungle and The Wouldbegoods to Bill's Tombstone and further, and runs for around eight and a half hours. Two volunteers share the reading. The book was written more than a century ago and some of its attitudes belong to its time, but its comedy and its sharp observation of childhood remain fresh. It makes a good listen for families and for adults who love classic British children's literature. The humour of the book depends partly on the gap between what the children think they are doing and what the reader can see is really happening. A good voice makes the most of that, and the two readers here keep a light touch. The result is a story that has the comfort of a family favourite and the sparkle of a well-told joke.
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