Graham Law, SILS September 2020 First Year Seminar B: British Children’s Fantasy Fiction (Class 51: Fall Term)

The Magician’s Nephew A (Chs. 1-3): Model Presentation: Graham Law

1) Out in India In Chapter 1, Digory says to Polly:

“And if you father was away in India – and you had to come and live with an Aunt and an Uncle who’s mad (who would like that?) – and if the reason was that they were looking after your Mother – and if your Mother was ill and was going to – going to – die.” Then his face went the wrong sort of shape as it does if you’re trying to keep back your tears.

Britain’s India Empire = informal, economic >>> 1765-1857 (under the East India Company) = formal, political >>>> 1858-1947 (after Mutiny 1857; Victoria Empress from 1877) Many British military servicemen, administrators, and tradesmen resident in India long-term, with or without their families.

India in English Literature Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) – born in India, many tales/novels set there (e.g. Jungle Book 1894-5) E.M. Forster (1879-1970), in India 1912-13, 1921-2, A Passage to India (1924)

“Indian Orphans” in English Children’s Literature Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden (1911), chapter 1

When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. It was true, too. She had a little thin face and a little thin body, thin light hair and a sour expression. Her hair was yellow, and her face was yellow because she had been born in India and had always been ill in one way or another. Her father had held a position under the English Government and had always been busy and ill himself, and her mother had been a great beauty who cared only to go to parties and amuse herself with gay people. She had not wanted a little girl at all, and when Mary was born she handed her over to the care of an Ayah, who was made to understand that if she wished to please the Mem Sahib she must keep the child out of sight as much as possible. So when she was a sickly, fretful, ugly little baby she was kept out of the way, and when she became a sickly, fretful, toddling thing she was kept out of the way also. She never remembered seeing familiarly anything but the dark faces of her Ayah and the other native servants, and as they always obeyed her and gave her her own way in everything, because the Mem Sahib would be angry if she was disturbed by her crying, by the time she was six years old she was as tyrannical and selfish a little pig as ever lived. 2) Three Popular Stories mentioned in Chapter 1

1. “In those days Mr Sherlock Holmes was still living in Baker Street …” Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet (1887), . . .

2. “… and the Bastables were looking for treasure in the Lewisham Road”

Edith Nesbit, The Story of the Treasure Seekers (1899), . . .

3. “he might have been a pirate, like the man at the beginning of Treasure Island” Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island (1883)

3) The Fairy Godmother Uncle Andrew says that his “fairy godmother” was called Mrs Lefay.

Morgan le Fay (from “Morgaine la Fée”, French), or “Morgana the Fairy”, is a powerful witch, deriving from a figure in Celtic mythology. In the tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table told by Geoffrey of Monmouth (C12th) and Malory (C15th), she is the Queen of Avalon, and the enemy of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere.

“Morgan la Fée” (1864)

A.F. Sandys (1829 - 1904),

(Birmingham Art Gallery)