Thus American fantasy writers set their work in different countries, as for example,
Nancy Bond’s A String in the Harp (1984) is set in Wales, or reference it to a different time/
place such as Eleanor Cameron’s The Court of the Stone Children (1973).
Perhaps the most notable exception is E.B.White’s Charlotte’s Web, which provides an
interesting shift of perspective, and which suggests that fantasy is the province of the
younger child. While Wilbur the pig lives with the Arabels, as a family member, he does
nothing out of pig-ordinariness. Once in the barn, surrounded by animals and observed
by Fern, he communicates in understandable English along with the rest of the
animals. The only human to comprehend this communication is Fern and when she
tries to explain to her mother, her mother seeks advice from the family doctor who soothes
Mrs Arabel by suggesting that Fern will grow out of it. By the end of the book, this
process is already taking place as Fern shifts her interest to a boy, Henry Fussy; the
adults, as far as they know, are scarcely touched.
Some major classic writers fall within my second category of domestic fantasy, in
which the children are responsible for discovering the magic being or thing—a good
number of which are dug out from the past. For example, the children in E.Nesbit’s Five
Children and It unearth the Psammead in a sand pit in a realistically described Kent
where the children are spending the summer. A survivor from the neolithic age, the
Psammead is described as ‘old, old, old, and its birthday was almost at the very
beginning of everything’ (Nesbit 1902:11). The Psammead has the magical ability to grant
a wish a day; each chapter presents another wish gone wrong. The children wish to be
beautiful and no one recognises them, they ask for money and get non-negotiable gold
coins. When they finally request their mother’s return, they get it right and vow never to
wish for anything again. They retain the knowledge of the adventures and are, it is
assumed, wiser about what is essential to happiness.
The fantasy is kept well in its place; magic effects wear off at sunset, and both parents
are absent; when they return at the end of the book, truthful Jane tries to explain:’ “We
found a Fairy,” said Jane obediently. “No nonsense, please,” said her mother sharply.’
(288). As in The Phoenix and the Carpet (1904) and The Story of the Amulet (1906), the
children know better than the adults.
Roger Lancelyn Green has cited the influence on Nesbit of F Anstey’s The Brass Bottle
and Vice Versa, and of Mrs Molesworth’s novels, especially The Cuckoo Clock. Published
in 1887, The Cuckoo Clock is characteristic of the way in which domestic fantasy
developed. It features a magic cuckoo crafted by Griselda’s great-grandfather which
introduces her to various adventures. As Rosenthal has observed:
Far from separating her from reality, Griselda’s forays into the world of fantasy
have a direct and immediate impact on her daily life; her two worlds begin to
interlock as in ‘real’ life she begins to obey her aunts’ instructions and do her
lessons despite her distaste for ‘musting.’
Rosenthal 1986:190The Psammead and the Phoenix and the Cuckoo are all argumentative ‘adult’ characters
who generally have a good moral, or moralising, effect on the children. By contrast,
Puck, called forth by accident by Una and Dan on Midsummer Eve in Kipling’s Puck of
296 TYPES AND GENRES