bedlamsbard | (no subject)

OMG I had forgotten some of the utter crack that is The Magician's Nephew. Mrs. LeFay the fairy godmother! The lost city of Atlantis! Crack! So much crack! (Possibly Uncle Andrew is on the good crack, since neither of the above actually appear, but still.)

Also, OH THE VICTORIANS. Since The Magician's Nephew takes place in the days when "Mr. Sherlock Holmes was still living in Baker Street and the Bastables were looking for treasure in the Lewisham Road." I am not entirely certain who the Bastables are (obviously a literary reference, but one I'm not familiar with), but SHERLOCK HOLMES CROSSOVER READY SET GO.

*howls with laughter*

Crossposts: http://bedlamsbard.livejournal.com/599549.html

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

juniperphoenix

A Sherlock Holmes crossover would be awesome. Perhaps in a slightly darker AU, Uncle Andrew experimented on other humans before Digory and Polly, resulting in some mysterious disappearances that require investigation...

From:

bedlamsbard

OMG Jadis vs. Holmes! *dies*

From:

aella_irene

Bastables is E. Nesbit, I think. *googles* Yep! She specialised in siblings going off adventuring sort of thing: the most famous are Five Children and It, and The Railway Children. I...think I was read them when I was little, certainly, Lewis's readers would have been.

From:

juniperphoenix

OMG YES.

From:

bedlamsbard

I think Nesbit might be the author of a book whose title I cannot remember, just a vague impression of its cover and its content, which was very Lewis-esque. There was a tower? I have been wondering wtf this book is for years now.

From:

bedlamsbard

*cackles*

From:

aella_irene

Five Children and It?

From:

bedlamsbard

I...do not think so. There was a tower and a garden and it was red? Maybe?

From:

aella_irene

...right. I must do what I always do. I must Ask the Internet! (Specifically, my friendslist.) We will find this out!

(Sorry. I am a presumptious nitwit. We will find out if you want. Sorry.)

Edited Date: 2010-08-03 07:47 pm (UTC)

From:

bedlamsbard

Well, I have been wondering about this book for years, but for all I know, I could have made it up, since I can no longer find it. So if you want!

From:

isweedan

Possibly the Enchanted Castle?

(just dropping in to go \0/ E. Nesbit!!!!!) (Obligatory Edward Eager tangential squee: Squeeee!)

From:

alexseanchai

I have an E. Nesbit book kicking around somewhere. It's a short story collection and I think there's a dragon on the cover? There were definitely dragons in at least one of the stories, and there was this trippy thing with faucets, the trippiness of which is making me doubt the accuracy of my memory. *hits up Google* The Book of Dragons.

From:

legionseagle

My copy of The Wouldbegoods was yellow, but it featured a crenallated house with a moat.

Harding's Luck ended up with him living in a castle. The House of Arden might also qualify. Or what about the Magic City?

From:

snacky

Maaaaaybe The Enchanted Castle by Nesbit? I remember there was a garden in it.

I read the Nesbit books as a kid, mostly because the kids in Edward Eager's books all talked about them. I remember liking them, but haven't reread them in years.

From:

legionseagle

YOU HAD TO GOOGLE TO FIND THE STORY OF THE TREASURE SEEKERS??!!!??<smites brow melodramatically). What do they teach them in these schools?

From:

bedlamsbard

I think that one! The cover looks familiar!

From:

snacky

*joins you in the Edward Eager squee*

I still think they're awesome books.

From:

bedlamsbard

I think it might be, because the cover

snacky linked below looks familiar! (Of course, it has been at least ten years, so I wam working off a kind of limited memory here.)

From:

aella_irene

My mother read them to me, I think, but that was, you know, about fourteen years ago! The details have faded somewhat!

From:

snacky

Yay, go team me! \o/

For my next bookseller trick, I will find "that book with the green cover, you know the one, with the girl in the castle!" or perhaps the ever famous, "the one I saw on Oprah!"

From:

bedlamsbard

Yes! Find me the book with the person and the place and the thing, you know? There was a cookbook and a frog! THAT WAS ON OPRAH.

(Poor booksellers, man. Although I think my favorite story is one that I got told happened at the university library, where a student -- an English lit major, mind you -- asked the student librarian where the stacks were.)

From:

snacky

Once I had a guy looking for "the book that had black and red on its cover and was about time" and I was annoyed that I knew what he was looking for.

People used to ask me all the time where the "non-fiction section" was. After many questions on my part, like "What are you looking for?" "What kind of topic are you interested in?" "Is there a specific book you want?" or just about anything I could think to narrow it down a little, to which they all invariably replied, "I'm just looking for non-fiction! Can't you just show me where it is?" I would then point out the fiction section. "See those 8 aisles right there? Good, that's fiction. Now turn all the way around, in a circle. See the whole rest of the store? That's NON-FICTION. Let me know if you need any help."

From:

bedlamsbard

Agh, people. *winces* Yet another sign that Humans Are Stupid, not that I needed more proof.

I am starting to memorize Library of Congress call numbers, which is at least vaguely helpful, though certainly not in a bookstore. (TT800 is knitting. DA is British history. DG is Italian history, which also includes Roman history but not Byzantine history, which is with the Greek history, which is D-something. DF, maybe. Food and cooking is TX, and military science is U. Some military history is in U when it should clearly have been categorized as D-something, but noooo, the Library of Congress likes to mess with you. SF is animal husbandry. QH is ecology. QE is volcanoes.)

From:

clanwilliam

I'm with

legionseagle. You HAD TO GOOGLE E NESBIT?

*muttermuttermuttermutter*youthoftoday*muttermuttermutter*

Oh, and IIRC, The Wouldbegoods featured Noel and the others meeting a princess - granddaughter of Queen Victoria, it's implied, not that that means anything in terms of power - hell, I'm surprised we're all not descended from that woman!

From:

clanwilliam

Also, also, also, does this mean that you are one of the few people I know who will not start tearing up on reading the words: "The old gentleman waved from his first-class carriage window. Quite violently he waved. And there was nothing odd in that, for he always had waved. But what was really remarkable was that from every window handkerchiefs fluttered, newspapers signalled, hands waved wildly. The train swept by with a rustle and roar, the little pebbles jumped and danced under it as it passed, and the children were left looking at each other." and knowing that in a couple of pages you're going to be blubbing like an idiot? (Had I any talent for acting, all I'd have had to do to bring on the tears is remember that chapter of The Railway Children and I'd have instant tears. I'm actually wiping my eyes while typing this.)

From:

aella_irene

I am a terrible person. A terrible person who will reread the Railway Children.

From:

waywren

YES! *wails happily*

From:

clanwilliam

Well, Jadis owes a bit to another E Nesbit character - the Queen of Babylon in The Story of the Amulet. Jadis's appearance in London is rather reminiscent of said Queen's appearance, except for the fact that the Queen of Babylon is a lot nicer.