E. Nesbit, The Railway Children, 1906
Edith Nesbit (1858-1924)
I knew about E. Nesbit, author, poet, and socialist, before I ever read any of her many books. When I was a kid I loved a book titled Half Magic. In that book three turn-of-the-century siblings find half a magic coin that grants half a wish. When they wish they were on a desert island, the end up in a desert, for example. The three siblings love the books by E. Nesbit and E. Nesbit, unlike the magic half coin turns out to be a real author. Once I read some of Nesbit's books, it was clear that Edward Eager, author of Half Magic, was either paying homage to Nesbit or ripping her off, take your pick.
E. Nesbit invented a whole genre of literature, one in which ordinary children stay in our ordinary world but still manage to have great adventures. And she did it with elegance, wit, and style. Consider her initial description of the children:
There were three of them. Roberta was the eldest. Of course, Mothers never have favourites, but if their Mother had had a favourite, it might have been Roberta. Next came Peter, who wished to be an Engineer when he grew up; and the youngest was Phyllis, who meant extremely well.
The world of 1906 Britain is both like and unlike our own. The children still squabble with each other ("have a row") as siblings still do. The children also find adventure where they can, specifically the railway station near their house. They are constantly saving the day: preventing a train derailment, rescuing an injured boy from a train tunnel, helping a Russian dissident who fled from the Czar. That kind of thing.
Not every adult the children interact with is kind, but the children treat the adults with respect and kindness and eventually even the initially gruff and hostile adults realize the error of their ways and return the children's kindness with kindness. There is no magic but we might be forgiven in thinking that the world in which everyone is kind, empathetic, and thoughtful is a fantasy nonetheless. Still, in these troubled times, there is nothing wrong with spending some time in a world where everyone treats each other with dignity and respect.
The Railway Children has been adapted to film three times, all starring one of my first crushes, Jenny Agutter, which should be reason enough for you to watch them. In a 1968 BBC miniseries and a 1970 movie, Jenny (my close personal friend) played Roberta and in 2000 she played Mother.
Free E-book: tab:https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1874
Free audiobook: https://librivox.org/railway-children-by-e-nesbit/
Free BBC miniseries (1968): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhY2NtXqJwsHrXyG5HlKdSV7cq_JFr3I9
Free movie (1970): https://youtu.be/sKvEWFG01jE?si=CvGyBDehFaqDnx5U
Free made-for-TV Movie (2000): https://archive.org/details/the-railway-children-2000
Free filmed stage play (alas, Agutterless!): https://archive.org/details/the-railway-children-york-theatre-royal-2018
Free hilarious and cheeky podcast discussing The Railway Children: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-8fr9q-196853f
Reading Gutenberg by John Jackson is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
