| The Borrowers | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Mary Norton |
| Country | UK |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Borrowers |
| Genre(s) | 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:
Contents |
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.
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.
The Borrowers
The Big People
There have been several screen adaptations of The Borrowers:
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by The Wool-Pack |
Carnegie Medal recipient 1952 |
Succeeded by A Valley Grows Up |
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