The Enchanted Castle

Infobox Book
name = The Enchanted Castle
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = 1992 HarperCollins edition
author = Edith Nesbit
illustrator = H. R. Millar (1907) Paul O. Zelinsky (1992)
cover_artist = | country = United Kingdom
language = English
series =
subject =
genre = Children's Literature
publisher = Unwin
release_date = 1907
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardcover)
pages =
isbn = NA
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"The Enchanted Castle" is a children's fantasy novel published in 1907 by Edith Nesbit.

Plot summary

The enchanted castle of the title is a country estate in the West Country seen through the eyes of three children, Gerald, James and Kathleen, who discover it while exploring during the school holidays. The lake, groves and marble statues, with white towers and turrets in the distance, make a fairy-tale setting, and then in the middle of the maze in the rose garden they find a sleeping fairy-tale princess.

The "princess" tells them that the castle is full of magic, and they almost believe her. She shows them the treasures of the castle, including a ring she says is a ring of invisibility, but when it actually turns her invisible she panics and admits that she is the housekeeper's niece, Mabel, and was just play-acting.

The children soon discover that the ring has other magical powers. [Stephen Prickett, "Victorian Fantasy" p 233 ISBN 0-253-17461-9] "The Enchanted Castle" was written for both children and adults. It combines descriptions of the imaginative play of children, reminiscent of "The Story of the Treasure Seekers", with a magic more muted than in her major fantasies such as "The Story of the Amulet".

Adaptations

"The Enchanted Castle" was adapted into a TV-miniseries by the BBC in 1979. It has not been released on DVD or VHS.

References

External links

*gutenberg|no=3536|name=The Enchanted Castle
* [http://librivox.org/the-enchanted-castle-by-e-nesbit/ Free audiobook] from [http://librivox.org LibriVox]