The Phantom Tollbooth
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| Author | Norton Juster |
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| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy |
| Publisher | Random House |
Publication date | 1961 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 255 |
| ISBN | 0-394-81500-9 |
The Phantom Tollbooth (1961) is a children's novel and a modern fairy tale full of wordplay and faggotry. Written by Norton Juster and illustrated by Jules Feiffer, it tells the story of a bored young boy named Milo who drives through a magic tollbooth into the Kingdom of Wisdom, where he embarks on a noble quest and in the end learns a valuable lesson. The Phantom Tollbooth has been compared to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Journey to the West, and the works of Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein. Juster claims his father's fondness for puns and The Marx Brothers' movies were a major influence.
Plot summary
A bored little boy named Milo comes home one day to find an unusual gift waiting for him in his room: a miniature purple tollbooth. When he drives past the assembled structure in his small car he is transported to the Kingdom of Wisdom, where he chooses to visit Dictionopolis, one of the divided country's two capitals. He pays insufficient attention to his route and becomes lost in the Doldrums, where thinking is not allowed, but he is found and rescued by the steadfast watchdog Tock, who joins him on his journey.
They arrive in Dictionopolis, where all the world's letters are grown in orchards and sold in a vast marketplace. During a brief incarceration in the city's dungeon, Milo talks to Faintly Macabre, the not-so-wicked Which (sic), who tells him about Wisdom's two rulers, King Azaz and the Mathemagician, and their adopted sisters, Rhyme and Reason. The two princesses were unable to settle the long-standing argument between their brothers over whether letters or numbers are more important and were consequently banished to the Castle in the Air, high in the demon-infested Mountains of Ignorance. Milo then meets King Azaz the Unabridged, who agrees to allow the princesses to be rescued, providing his brother also agrees - a remote event, as they have not agreed on anything for years. Milo and Tock leave Dictionopolis with the blustering Humbug, whom Azaz has sent along as a guide, heading towards the Mathemagician's capital of Digitopolis.
Entering the Forest of Sight, they meet Alec Bings, a little boy who sees through things and grows until he reaches the ground; visit the twin cities of Reality and Illusions; and watch Chroma and his orchestra of color conduct the sunset. Moving on to the Valley of Sound, they meet Dr. Dischord, who dispenses unpleasant noises, and his smoky sidekick the Awful DYNNE. In the valley proper, which is completely silent, Milo visits the fortress of the Soundkeeper, creator and cataloguer of all sounds, who has withheld the valley's sounds because the inhabitants had stopped appreciating them. Milo steals a sound from the palace, which the people of the valley use to break open the palace's sound vault.
Milo and his friends continue on, taking a short detour to the Island of Conclusions, to which they jump after making unwarranted assumptions about their trip. Returning to the mainland and arriving in Digitopolis, they meet the Dodecahedron, a figure having twelve faces, each of which expresses a different emotion. He takes them to the Mathemagician, who shows them the Numbers Mine, where the world's digits are pulled from the earth like jewels. Milo tricks the Mathemagician into agreeing with his brother to release the princesses, whereupon the ruler takes them to the edge of Mountains of Ignorance.
Entering the Mountains, Milo, Tock, and the Humbug meet the Everpresent Wordsnatcher, a dirty bird who twists the meanings of their speech; the Terrible Trivium, who stalls the travelers with meaningless busywork; the Demon of Insincerity, who tricks them into falling into a pit; the ever-hungry Gelatinous Giant; and the Senses Taker, who bogs them down with his demands for all sorts of trivial information before taking their senses.
Milo uses gifts from all the people he has met in Wisdom to defeat these creatures, and the travellers climb to the Castle-in-the-Air, where the two princesses welcome Milo. The enraged demons chop off the base of the staircase, causing the Castle to begin to float away. Fortunately, time flies, with the result that Tock is able to carry the others back to earth. The combined armies of Wisdom, led by Azaz and the Mathemagician, appear and drive back the demons. The two leaders welcome the princesses home and begin a celebration to mark their return.
Milo must also return home. The next day, he hurries home with dreams of further adventures only to find the tollbooth has vanished, leaving a note that he can now find his own way to Wisdom. Milo then realizes that he would not have time to go back anyway, as a million fantastic and profitable adventures are waiting all around him.
Characters
- Milo, the main character
- Tock, a ticking watchdog and loyal companion of Milo. The job of a watchdog runs in his family (father-to-son).
- The Humbug, a large talking insect who acts as the anti-hero
- King Azaz the Unabridged, ruler of Dictionopolis and lover of words
- The Mathemagician, ruler of Digitopolis and lover of numbers
- Rhyme and Reason (also known as The Princesses of Sweet Rhyme and Pure Reason)
- Faintly Macabre, (or Aunt Faintly) the Not-So-Wicked Which
- Alec Bings, who sees through things. Like the other members of his family, he grows downwards from a fixed point in the air until he reaches the ground
- Chroma, conductor of the world's color
- Kakofonous A. Dischord, a fan of noise: the "A" stands for "AS LOUD AS POSSIBLE!"
- The Awful Dynne, an emotional, noise-loving creature formed of blue smoke; an accomplice of Dr. Dischord. His grandfather was The Dreadful Rauw, who died during "the Great Silence Epidemic of 1712".
- The Soundkeeper, ruler of the Valley of Sound, and keeper of a large collection of previously-uttered noises; a stern woman who actually prefers silence, and at one point banned sound in her valley because she felt the locals had abused the privilege
- The Dodecahedron, an inhabitant of Digitopolis with twelve faces: one happy, one sad, one angry, and so forth
- The Everpresent Wordsnatcher, a monstrous filthy bird that anticipates everything you say and takes the words right out of your mouth; has ambitions of being a demon, but can only manage to be a nuisance
- The Senses Taker, a demon who distracts passers-by by supplying them with illusions of things they would rather be perceiving
- Officer Shrift, apparently Dictionopolis' entire police force, who enjoys arresting and imprisoning people, but isn't concerned with keeping them incarcerated. He is taller sitting down than standing up, and is almost twice as wide as he is tall.
- The Whether Man, who tries to send travellers beyond Expectations, Milo's first stop on his trip. Lost his way long ago.
- The Lethargarians, whose regular schedule consists of dawdling and dillydallying, with a little timewasting every so often; their home is in the Doldrums
- The Spelling Bee, an expert at word-construction who quarrels violently with the Humbug
- The Half Boy, a boy who is only .58 of a person. He comes from the "average" family, which has 2.58 children. He is the .58.
- The Giant, the Midget, the Fat Man, and the Thin Man, all the same very ordinary-looking individual who explains that he is at once the world's shortest giant, tallest midget, thinnest fat man, and fattest thin man
- Canby, a frequent visitor to Conclusions who is both as short as can be and as tall as can be, among other things
- King Azaz's advisors/cabinet, includes the Duke of Definition, Minister of Meaning, Count of Connotation, Earl of Essence, and the Undersecretary of Understanding.
The Demons of Ignorance
- The Terrible Trivium, a demon who seduces passers-by with mindlessly easy but pointless tasks that take an incredibly long time to accomplish. Tasks include moving great piles of sand grain by grain.
- The Demon of Insincerity
- The Gelatinous Giant
- The Triple Demons of Compromise, a demon fused of three bodies; one is short and fat, one is tall and thin, and the third looks exactly like the others. They can never truly go anywhere because, rather than reach agreements, they constantly compromise.
- The Horrible Hopping Hindsight, a demon which has its eyes on its rear end. It never sees where it is going, only where it has been, and always thinks that each movement could have been better.
- The Overbearing Know-it-All, a spherical demon with spindly legs. He constantly talks, offering his own incorrect opinions to anyone nearby, and all are in danger of being crushed under him.
- The Threadbare Excuse, a humanoid demon that clings to anyone who will give him a ride. He is always heard murmuring weak reasons for not doing things, and also has a vice-like grip on anyone who holds him.
- The Gorgons of Hate and Malice, two disgusting slug-like demons that leave oozing trails behind them. They are completely blind.
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
In 1969, animation director Chuck Jones adapted The Phantom Tollbooth into a full-length feature film.
- In 1995, Juster adapted Tollbooth into a libretto for an opera version.
- Various stage adaptations have been created and performed.
External links
- "The road to Dictionopolis", interview with Norton Juster from Salon.com
- Excerpts from the Phantom Tollbooth