The Natural History of Make-Believe: A Guide to the Principal Works of Britain, Europe, and America

by John Goldthwaite and John Goldwaite

Book Overview

The Man in the Moon has dropped down to earth for a visit. Over the hedge, a rabbit in trousers is having a pipe with his evening paper. Elsewhere, Alice is passing through a looking glass, Dorothy riding a tornado to Oz, and Jack climbing a beanstalk to heaven. To enter the world of children's literature is to journey to a realm where the miraculous and the mundane exist side by side, a world that is at once recognizable and real--and enchanted...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195038061
• ISBN13: 9780195038064
• Release Date: February 1996
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.4" x 9.7"

Customer Reviews

the ideal story represents the biblical view of wisdom

The ideal tale teaches moral wisdom as represented in the Book of Proverbs; the fairy godmother represents Dame Wisdom. Goldthwaite presents a rare Christian literary point of view and criticizes writers who represent the world in some gnostic or pagan point of view. He does not bother to argue the validity of his point of view. He believes. Earth and the Heavans are God's. Writers who do not reflect this are either heretics or pagans From his position akin to Dante's, you may sense how much of modern literature inhabits either limbo or hell.