The Complete Borrowers Stories

by Mary Norton

Contains Mary Norton's five haunting novels about the Borrowers - the little people who inhabit odd corners of houses, forever in danger from "human beans", forever surviving because of their courage and resourcefulness.

Genres: Childrens, Fiction, Fantasy, Young Adult, Classics

720 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1995

About the author

Mary Norton (née Pearson) was an English children's author. She was the daughter of a physician, and was raised in a Georgian house at the end of the High Street in Leighton Buzzard. The house now consists of part of Leighton Middle School, known within the school as The Old House, and was reportedly the setting of her novel The Borrowers. She married Robert C. Norton in 1927 and had four children, 2 boys and 2 girls. Her second husband was Lionel Boncey, who she married in 1970. She began working for the War Office in 1940 before the family moved temporarily to the United States.

She began writing while working for the British Purchasing Commission in New York during the Second World War. Her first book was The Magic Bed Knob; or, How to Become a Witch in Ten Easy Lessons published in 1943, which, together with the sequel Bonfires and Broomsticks, became the basis for the Disney film Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

Mary Norton died of a stroke in Devon, England in 1992.

Reviews

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those books I can't possibly review objectively. When I was a child, my best friends were William Brown, Nancy Blackett ... and Arrietty Clock. I loved the Borrowers stories passionately as a child, and I still do. Their world was so beautifully and vividly drawn (and the original illustrations by Diana Stanley were also enchanting) it felt very real. The characterisation was superb, too, and the stories were involving and interesting. I still think the first four books are the best children's books ever written. Avenged is the reason this collection only gets four stars; it was written many years after the others, and while still very good, it doesn't have the same tone as the rest. Maybe the pointless introduction of ghosts and psychic Lady Mullings are the reason why I never liked it as much, or perhaps it was that Miss Menzies seemed to have changed into a different person since Aloft, but whatever, it loses the series a star.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this fun adventure series!

[Cathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read as a child and want to read them to my grandkids.

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Clock family are tiny people who live under the kitchen floor and "borrow" small items they find around the house and reuse them for their own purpose, postage stamps become paintings, matchboxes become dressers. All goes well until Arrietty is spotted by a boy. The family is forced to move at first within the house, but in later books out into the world, where they face new dangers.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't like the writing, nor the idea. Plus too many dialogues for my liking. This book has such an impossibly high rating here on Goodreads that I am compelled to think that something's wrong with me.

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. Read it to my children while they grew up.

[Elizabeth]

The complete adventures of the Borrowers by Mary Norton (1967), [1st American ed.]

[Jamie Tubbs]

Not as good as I remember but still better than a lot of things? Re-read with my 8 year old.