The Borrowers
| File:TheBorrowers BookCover.png | |
| Author | Mary Norton |
|---|---|
| Country | UK |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Borrowers |
| Genre | Fantasy |
Publication date | 1952 |
| Followed by | The Borrowers Afield |
The Borrowers, published in 1952, is the first in a series of children's fantasy novels by English author Mary Norton. The novel and its sequels are about tiny people who live in people's homes and "borrow" things to survive while keeping their existence unknown. The central characters of the novels are a borrower family surnamed Clock: Pod, Homily and their spirited teenage daughter, Arrietty. The Borrowers won the 1952 Carnegie Medal.[1] In 2007, the novel was selected by judges of the CILIP Carnegie Medal for children's literature as one of the ten most important children's novels of the past 70 years.
The Borrowers was followed by a series of sequels recounting the further adventures of the Clock family:
- The Borrowers Afield (first published in 1955)
- The Borrowers Afloat (first published in 1959)
- The Borrowers Aloft (first published in 1961), which includes "Poor Stainless" (a story from Homily's childhood)
- The Borrowers Avenged (first published in 1982)
Series introduction
Beginning with The Borrowers and developed further in the book's sequels, interaction between the minuscule borrowers and the "human beans" (a borrower mispronunciation of "human beings") is seen as a primary cause of trouble, irrespective of the sometimes kind, sometimes selfish motives of the humans. Arrietty, the main character of the series, often begins relationships with Big People that have chaotic effects on the lives of herself and her family, causing her parents to react with fear and worry.
As a result of Arrietty's curiosity and friendships with Big People, her family is forced to move their home several times from one place to another, making their lives more adventurous than the average borrower would prefer. After escaping from their home under the kitchen floorboards of an old English manor they finally settle down in the home of a caretaker on the grounds of an old church.
Along the way, they meet a cast of colourful characters - other borrowers including a young man around Arriety's age who lives outdoors and whose only memory of his family is the descriptive phrase, "Dreadful Spiller", which he uses as a name (introduced in The Borrowers Afield), the Harpsichord Family who are relatives of the Clock family, Peregrine ("Peagreen") Overmantel and also Big People such as Mild Eye the Gypsy, Tom Goodenough, the gardener's son and Miss Menzies, a sweet but overly helpful woman.
The Borrowers plot summary
Fourteen-year-old Arrietty (Ah-RIE-et-eeh) Clock lives under the floorboards of a house with her parents, Pod and Homily. As Borrowers, they survive through Pod's "borrowing" of items from the "human beans" who live in the home above the floor. One day, Pod comes home shaken after borrowing a toy tea cup. After sending Arrietty to bed, Homily learns that he has been "seen" by one of the big people — a boy who had been sent from India to live with his great-aunt while recovering from rheumatic fever. Remembering the fate of their niece Eggletina, who wandered away and never returned after (unbeknownst to her) her father had been seen and the big people had brought in a cat, Pod and Homily decide to warn Arrietty. In the course of the ensuing conversation, Homily realises that Arrietty ought to be allowed to go borrowing with Pod.
Several days later, Pod and Arrietty go on a borrowing trip to retrieve fibers from a doormat for a scrub brush. Arrietty wanders outside where she meets the Boy, and develops a friendship with him. At one point, Arrietty tells the Boy that there cannot be very many of his kind but there are many of her kind. He disagrees and tells her of times when he had seen hundreds and even thousands of big people all in one place. Arrietty realizes that she can't prove that there are any other Borrowers left in the world besides her and her parents and is upset. The Boy offers to take a letter to a badger sett two fields away where her Uncle Hendreary (father of Eggletina), Aunt Lupy, and their children are supposed to have emigrated. On a later borrowing trip, she manages to slip the letter under the doormat where the Boy agreed to look for it.
Meanwhile, Arrietty has learned from Pod and Homily that when big people approach, they get a "feeling." She's concerned that she didn't have a feeling when the Boy approached, so she practises by going to a certain passage over which the cook, Mrs. Driver, often stands. She overhears Driver and the gardener, Crampfurl, discussing the Boy. Driver is annoyed that the boy continually disturbs the doormat and Crampfurl is concerned about him after seeing the Boy in a field calling for "Uncle something" after the Boy asked him if there were any badger setts in the field. Crampfurl is convinced the Boy is keeping a ferret.
Arrietty becomes anxious and sets off on her own to find the Boy. As it turns out, he did find her letter, delivered it, and returned with a response — a mysterious note asking her to tell Aunt Lupy to come back. Pod then discovers Arrietty talking to the Boy and takes her home. Pod and Homily are frightened because the Boy will probably figure out where they live. They turn out to be right but the Boy, instead of wanting to harm them, brings them gifts of dollhouse furniture from the nursery. They experience a period of "borrowing beyond all dreams of borrowing" as the Boy offers them gift after gift. In return, Arrietty is allowed to go outside and read aloud to him.
Driver, in the meantime, notices a few items missing and believes someone is playing a joke on her. She stays up late and almost catches the Boy bringing his nightly gift to his new friends. She does, however, see the Borrowers and find their home. The Boy attempts to rescue the Borrowers but Driver locks him in the nursery. At the end of three days, the Boy is to be sent back to India. Driver cruelly takes him to the kitchen before he goes to see the ratcatcher smoke the Borrowers out of their home. The Boy manages to slip away and break off the grating outside. He never gets to see the Borrowers escape since the cab comes to take him away.
His sister (a young Mrs. May, the narrator at the beginning and end of the book) later visits the home herself and is able to go to the badger sett and leave gifts there, which are gone the next time she checks. However, the novel ends on an ambiguous note when she tells Kate that when she returns to the badgers sett she finds a book she believes to be Arriety's book of "Memoranda" - and that the writing in it bears a striking similarity to that of her brother.
Characters
The Borrowers
- Arrietty Clock - An adventurous fourteen-year-old Borrower girl who is not allowed to go borrowing with her father until her mother decides to let her. She then meets the Boy. She knows how to read, owns a collection of pocket-sized books, and enjoys looking out the grating and writing in her diary.
- Pod Clock - Arrietty's father and, according to his wife, the most talented Borrower.
- Homily Clock - Arrietty's mother. She has a bony nose and untidy hair (though she starts curling it later on), is often cross, has a taste for fine things (such as dollhouse furniture), and is terrified of the thought of emigrating and living in a badger set.
- Hendreary Clock - Arrietty's uncle. He was on the fireplace mantel when the maid came to dust and attempted to pass himself off as a knick-knack but sneezed when he was dusted. He later emigrated to a badger sett with his family. He went fishing in a bowl of soup to see if he could reel up any chunks of food from inside the soup.
- Lupy (Rain-Pipe Harpsichord) Clock - Uncle Hendreary's wife. Homily describes her as apt to put on airs because of her association with the Harpsichord family. She has three sons and a stepdaughter, Eggletina.
- Eggletina Clock - Uncle Hendreary's daughter by his first marriage. She wandered away and disappeared after a cat had been brought into the house, leading her family to think the cat ate her. Eggletina is used as a warning to Arrietty about what could happen if she is 'seen'; however, in the second book Eggletina is discovered alive and well.
The Big People
- Kate - A "wild, untidy, self-willed little girl". It is through Kate that the story of The Borrowers is told. Not much of Kate is in the middle of the story.
- The Boy - At ten-years-old he leaves his home in India to recover from an illness at the country home of his great-aunt near Leighton Buzzard. He discovers and befriends the Borrowers.
- Mrs. May/Aunt May - The Boy's sister. As an elderly woman, she tells Kate the story of the Borrowers that was told to her by her brother.
- Great Aunt Sophy - The Boy's bedridden, elderly great-aunt who has a penchant for Fine Old Pale Madeira. Pod often comes to her room to borrow when she has had too much to drink - she believes that Pod is a hallucination. Also referred to as "Her".
- Mrs. Driver - The housekeeper-cook. She's described by the Boy as fat with a moustache and constantly threatening to take her slipper to him.
- Crampfurl - The gardener.
- Rosa Pickhatchet - A maid who once worked in the house. She gave notice after seeing Pod's brother, Hendreary Clock.
Film, TV, or theatrical adaptations
There have been several screen adaptations of The Borrowers:
- The Borrowers: a 1973 American made-for-TV movie in the Hallmark Hall of Fame.
- The Borrowers: a 1992 BBC TV series and its 1993 sequel The Return of the Borrowers, both starring Ian Holm and Penelope Wilton.
- The Borrowers: a 1997 film with a British/American cast including Tom Felton, John Goodman, Jim Broadbent, Celia Imrie and Mark Williams.
- The Secret World of Arrietty: a 2010 Japanese animated film from Studio Ghibli.[2]
- The Borrowers: an upcoming BBC production starring Stephen Fry, Victoria Wood, and Christopher Eccleston.[3]
References
- ^ http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/carnegie/full_list_of_winners.php
- ^ "Ghibli's Next Film Adapts Mary Norton's The Borrowers". Anime News Network. Retrieved 2009-12-16.
- ^ "Stephen Fry leads cast for Borrowers adaptation". BBC News. 2011-06-20. Retrieved 2011-06-20.
