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The Midnight Folk (Classic Mammoth)
‘Don’t you have any fear, Kay. We’re the guards, we are. We hear that the house has gone all to sixes and sevens since we left it, but that’s going to be remedied now’
Young Kay Harker lives in an old house in the country, filled with portraits of his ancestors. His only companions are his unpleasant guardian Sir Theopompus and his governess Sylvia Daisy Pouncer (who, Kay s...more
Young Kay Harker lives in an old house in the country, filled with portraits of his ancestors. His only companions are his unpleasant guardian Sir Theopompus and his governess Sylvia Daisy Pouncer (who, Kay s...more
Published
(first published 1927)
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I'm being a little silly in characterizing this book as magical realism, but it does seem to fit it best. Like Alice in Wonderland, it depicts fluid physical laws. Unlike Alice, it draws no really meaningful lines between the world where the rules apply and that where they do not. The magical happenings that befall Kay Harker partake both of the logic of the dream world and the concerns of the waking one.
Kay is a young boy living in his familial country house, but overseen by unrelated and seem...more
Kay is a young boy living in his familial country house, but overseen by unrelated and seem...more
I cherish this book. I still have the original early 60's puffin paperback edition with the 1930's b/w spot illustrations on the cover washed over by psychodelic swatches of (midnight) blue and purple...My parents listened to a broadcast version on BBC radio c1960, and soon after bought the book. Eventually read by my elder sister and me. It grabs you from the very beginning and doesn't let go. Sheer magic. The section where Kay, the little orphan boy hero, has to don the disguise of a witch and...more
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Kay Harker lives in a vast old country house, and is looked after by an unpleasant duo: the oily and egregious Sir Theopompous and the petulant and punitive Sylvia Daisy Pouncer.
In her zeal to educate Kay on the finer points of Latin grammar, Sylvia Daisy has even taken away all of Kay’s toys. Life seems very dull, until out of an old family portrait steps Kay’s great-grandfather, a sea captain, who, if legend is to be believed, made off with a fabulous treasure.
Soon Kay is engaged in a thrilli...more
In her zeal to educate Kay on the finer points of Latin grammar, Sylvia Daisy has even taken away all of Kay’s toys. Life seems very dull, until out of an old family portrait steps Kay’s great-grandfather, a sea captain, who, if legend is to be believed, made off with a fabulous treasure.
Soon Kay is engaged in a thrilli...more
I read this because I really enjoyed the Box of delights and this is the first book he wrote about Kay. I heard that it wasn't as good, it's definitely not as good as the sequel, the story is far less cohesive, but it was still enjoyable. This is one that I think children would really enjoy, it is just full of imagination. Animals all have their own personalities, paintings offer up doorways to different places and times, there are witches and pirates and hidden treasure. It's never quite obviou...more
This reads as if Masefield wrote it in one go and that's why it’s a bit rough around the edges - and also why it's full of amazing events and episodes that just couldn’t have been planned. If you want the one you have to put up with the other. I particularly like the bit where Kay is taken down to the guard-room and finds out that the toys that he thought he’d had taken from him are all alive and well and secretly looking after him still. I also like the way that animals and people change sizes...more
Not quite a classic but very enjoyable, and a satisfying, unexpected find. The New York Review has brought this book and its sequel, The Box of Delights, back in print in very nice editions. Loved the rough illustrations that go right along with the story, which is often surreal and headlong in the way a young and unfettered imagination can be. Shape changes, talking animals, fairy doors opening almost at random--Masefield just throws them in as needed to keep things moving, but it all works bet...more
Jan 02, 2013
Susan
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Susan by:
Michael Dirda
Shelves:
childrens
Kay, a little boy living with a severe governess in the country, begins living a secret life at night where he encounters witches, cats, foxes, and other characters, and hunts for the lost treasure entrusted to his great grandfather. This edition has splendid black and white illustrations.
"Pinked them in the plexus' was the phrase. All these fine old phrases are gone out, since pinafores and temperance became the rage."
"A man like my Pa is not easily to be quenched, any more than I am. My heart...more
"Pinked them in the plexus' was the phrase. All these fine old phrases are gone out, since pinafores and temperance became the rage."
"A man like my Pa is not easily to be quenched, any more than I am. My heart...more
An amazing dream of a book that unfolds with surreal logic as cats talk, witches fly, foxes plot against gamekeepers, model ships sail away with a water-rat captains and a hundred other odd and wonderful things, while Kay tries to discover the fate of his great-grandfather's lost treasure. The voices and the language are as magical as the various miraculous and mysterious occurrences. It utterly refuses to make any sense of things or offer explanations or justifications. It's pretty much its own...more
I bought the book of Box of Delights on a friend’s recommendation of the BBC’s 1980s TV adaptation and then discovered that this is a sort of prequel to it and although I believe they stand alone, I thought I’d like to read them in order.
This tells the story of Kay’s adventures to recover some treasure entrusted to his great-grandfather many years ago in order for him to return it to its rightful owner. Along the way, Kay encounters many talking animals, mermaids etc all out to help him but he h...more
This tells the story of Kay’s adventures to recover some treasure entrusted to his great-grandfather many years ago in order for him to return it to its rightful owner. Along the way, Kay encounters many talking animals, mermaids etc all out to help him but he h...more
Diese beiden Geschichten (hatte eine Ausgabe, in der auch Box of Delight war) erinnern vielleicht im ersten Moment ein wenig an den Harry-Potter-Hype, wurden aber bereits vor ca. 70 Jahren geschrieben. Es geht hier um den kleinen Kay Harker, der als Waise viel auf sich gestellt ist. Seine Gouvernante, eine olle alte Schachtel, kann er nicht leiden. Eines Nachts erhält Kay Besuch von sprechenden Tieren und Spielzeug, und wird in eine fantastische Welt entführt. Gemeinsam mit seinen Verbündeten ma...more
A strange book - in the "traditional" meaning of the word - put on my radar by a Neil Gaiman recommendation. This is an odd tale of witches, talking animals, sea-faring, and hidden treasure told in a fairly haphazard fashion. The enjoyment I found dealt mostly with the pure "Englishness" of the story and some delightfully chewy new words: knops, chine, valanced, besom, stooks, weirs, bee-skeps, beckets, and clegg.
I'm rereading this (to my son) and am as happy as the first time. Everything unfolds perfectly from a child's perspective. Infused with wonder, with its own dreamlike logic, offering no simple answers, there's nothing cute or overly nice about the story or characters. Put this on the same shelf as Alice In Wonderland and The Phantom Tollbooth.
I absolutely adored this book as a child. Everything about it resonated with me, far more so than any of his other works. Perhaps it was the cats. I do, and always have, had a 'thing' for cats. But it was also the elements of magic and mystery, and the wonderful names of the animals. Just superb.
This is a wonderfully odd book, dreamlike and spooky at the same time. While modern U.S. children might find some of the British references difficult to understand the range of imaginative images and poetic richness more than offset its sometimes odd language.
While I did enjoy the imaginative story-telling and vivid descriptions of this book I wasn't so keen on the way it seemed to jump around a little. Now I know that it was part of the story that it would jump from Kay's bedroom to the open seas (or wherever else his adventures led him) but at times I did find it a little disorientating and made the story a little disjointed. Once I got over these bits, I loved Masefield's story-telling style that combines vivid and realistic descriptions with talk...more
Not as good as its sequel, The Box of Delights, but it is still crazy imaginative and fun. Kay is moving through time, chasing witches, and scheming in trees with owls. It's all over the place, but good fun.
This is a very dreamy book, but I don't think most children today would stay with it. Like a dream, events sometimes progress logically and then will veer off on an odd track with no logic. Kay shows patience and tolerance for a very lonely sounding existence, and a rather unsurprising acceptance for animals who talk. The book ends rather abruptly. Still, it is enjoyable and evokes a British child's universe that I suspect never truly existed.
The shifts from fantasy to reality and vice versa were nicely done and added a lot of interest, but overall the book was a little flat. Our hero Kay is an awfully bland little boy.
A brilliant children's story that drifts from reality to fantasy and back over and over again. Or does it?
I started out reading this to my kids (8 and 10) but it didn't grab them. Lots of references they didn't understand and colloquial speech. I finished it on my own and thought it was quite wonderful. It's very atmospheric and has a slightly off-kilter feel, though grounded in the charming hero, Kay.
Here is one of my favorite passages, describing the villain Abner Brown as "like a white, sweet, sanctified horsedealer, or a hymn-singing cut-throat, or any cherry-lipped poisoner who will drop a tea...more
Here is one of my favorite passages, describing the villain Abner Brown as "like a white, sweet, sanctified horsedealer, or a hymn-singing cut-throat, or any cherry-lipped poisoner who will drop a tea...more
Wonderful use of language. Much of it is almost poetry. A children's classic that everyone should read.
Part of The New York Review Children's Collection.
Very confusing and has an interesting plot.
As I remember - great!
Finally read it! I read The Box of Delights before this, and didn't like it much because I didn't like the style, I guess. It wasn't what I'd expected it to be. But the style must have grown on me, or The Midnight Folk was written a bit differently, because I really liked this one! I loved the twisty plot and the witches and the malkins and wearing various creatures' skins! A different kind of children's adventure book, but just as awesome.
What a great read for Christmas. Long before Kay Harker was entrusted with The Box of Delights, he was embroiled in an adventure involving lost family treasure, witches, talking animals and, of course, the arch villain, Abner Brown. It's quite densely written, and for a child, I would imagine hard going at times. It's wonderfully comforting though, and perfect escapism for snowy nights in front of the fire.
Dec 18, 2012
Rick Davis
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
children-s-books,
read-aloud
This is an excellent children's book. It clearly inspired Neil Gaiman's "The Graveyard Book," and there are so many things that J.K. Rowling borrowed for Harry Potter that it's downright ridiculous.
I admired the writing, but didn't much enjoy reading this. Masefield builds the characters almost solely through dialogue and throws you right into the action (admirable!), but there are so many characters operating in obscurely devious ways, the plot becomes hard to follow. The story is imaginative, but lacks warmth. I never felt like I broke through the periphery of eavesdropping.
I wanted to read 'The Box of Delights' and found out this was the prequel... The use of imagination in this book is amazing but I have reached the age (unfortunately) where I need explanations as to why a character can suddenly breathe underwater or ride a fox or fly and be mistaken for a bat. So all in all, I found it a bit hard going but worth sticking with, I think.
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| Goodreads Librari...: Some advice about ISBN conflict, please? | 2 | 164 | 23 sept. 16:30 |
Masefield was born in Ledbury, a rural area in England to George Masefield, a solicitor and Caroline. His mother died giving birth to his sister when Masefield was only 6 and he went to live with his aunt. His father died soon after. After an unhappy education at the King's School in Warwick (now known as Warwick School), where he was a boarder between 1888 and 1891, he left to board the HMS Conwa...more
More about John Masefield...
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