Picture of author.

Gillian Avery (1926–2016)

Author of The Norton Anthology of Children's Literature

45+ Works 1,094 Members 15 Reviews 1 Favorited

About the Author

Image credit: Gillian Avery

Series

Works by Gillian Avery

The Norton Anthology of Children's Literature (2005) — Editor — 252 copies
Russian Fairy Tales (1995) 144 copies
The Warden's Niece (1957) 111 copies
The Everyman Anthology of Poetry for Children (1994) — Editor — 72 copies
The Elephant War (1727) 70 copies
The Greatest Gresham (1768) 47 copies
A Likely Lad (1971) 38 copies
The Italian Spring (1972) 33 copies
To Tame a Sister (1961) 22 copies
Huck and Her Time Machine (1977) 13 copies

Associated Works

Alice in Wonderland [Norton Critical Edition, 2nd ed.] (1992) — Contributor — 612 copies
Alice in Wonderland [Norton Critical Edition, 1st ed.] (1971) — Contributor — 148 copies
Children's Literature: An Illustrated History (1995) — Contributor — 106 copies
Guardian Angels (1987) — Contributor — 11 copies
Victorian Doll Stories (1969) — Introduction — 10 copies
A Great Emergency & A Very Ill-Tempered Family (1967) — Introduction, some editions — 7 copies
Miscellany One (1964) — Contributor — 3 copies

Tagged

Common Knowledge

Members

Reviews

Orphaned Maria feels overwhelmed and out of place in her new boarding school, so she runs away to stay with her uncle, a warden at Cambridge, gets tutored along with the neighbor boys (sons of a professor), and becomes fascinated with the history of a local manor house and its family. Her researches into that history get her into all sorts of scrapes and leads her on several adventures.
This one didn't fully grab my attention but it wasn't the worst of its kind, either, and honestly it has aged pretty well, I think. Recommended if you like this sort of thing.… (more)
 
Flagged
electrascaife | 3 other reviews | Nov 12, 2019 |
[Sharon, I know you are gonna love this one!]

I have the same problem with Russian fairy tales no matter how many collections of them I read. The stories are all pretty much the same: plot, characters, and phrasings. It is all so repetitive. The male hero is always a prince named Ivan. He is always the youngest child. He is always underestimated by his father. The female protagonist is always beautiful. She is always meek, kind, a good cook and maid, and really has no control over her fate. Animals always talk. There is always at least one witch who eats a lot. There are always jealous siblings. Things happen out of the blue, with little-to-no explanation. The young couples fall instantly in love and go on some harrowing journey, but they always lives happily ever after, for many, many years. If you've read three random Russian fairy tales, you've read all Russian fairy tales.

The translations always annoy me. They seem so literal, which makes for a clunky narrative. It's not poetic or artistic. It's more like a relaying of facts. Romance isn't romantic. Adventure isn't adventurous. Russian fairy tales are unemotional.

The Russians excel is so many things, including storytelling, but it seems like it is a talent they were not born with. It is a talent that evolved, and their fairy tales are the primitive cave paintings of Russian literature.




… (more)
 
Flagged
RojaHorchata | Jul 11, 2016 |
I love this. It's simple and uncomplicated. It's the tale of Maria who runs away from hateful school after a mere few weeks to her uncle in Oxford.

She goes to her neighbour for tutoring where she makes friends with three brothers and gets interested enough to do some historical research after visiting a house. She has considerable adventures along the way, although nothing too strenuous and all ends well.
1 vote
Flagged
mumfie | 3 other reviews | Nov 29, 2011 |

Lists

Awards

You May Also Like

Associated Authors

Lissa Paul Editor
Peter Hunt Editor
John Verney Illustrator
Lewis Carroll Contributor
Thomas Bewick Illustrator
Robert Hayden Contributor
Sir John Betjeman Contributor
Robin Flower Translator
Robert Bridges Contributor
Ulli Beier Translator
John Oldham Contributor
Donald Justice Contributor
Colley Cibber Contributor
Anthony Thwaite Contributor
Vachel Lindsay Contributor
E. V. Rieu Contributor
William Plomer Contributor
Norman MacCaig Contributor
Celia Thaxter Contributor
Thomas Brown Contributor
Elizabeth Jennings Contributor
John Crowe Ransom Contributor
Thomas Gray Contributor
Henry Vaughan Contributor
Christopher Smart Contributor
Frances Cornford Translator
Henry Carey Contributor
David McCord Contributor
James D. Rubadiri Contributor
Kojo Gyinaye Kyei Contributor
Dave Goulder Contributor
Ch’eng Hsaio Contributor
Sir John Beaumont Contributor
Laura Richards Contributor
SALAMAN Translator
Sir. Noël Coward Contributor
Sir John Suckling Contributor
A. C. Jordan Translator
Sir Philip Sidney Contributor
Marjory Fleming Contributor
Sydney Carter Contributor
Richard Corbet Contributor
Hugh Peters Contributor
Robert Southwell Contributor
Coventry Patmore Contributor
John O'Keeffe Contributor
Ivor Gurney Contributor
Charles Dibdin Contributor
Walter De la Mare Contributor
Louise Bogan Contributor
Sir Thomas Browne Contributor
James Reeves Contributor
Ted Hughes Contributor
Ogden Nash Contributor
Edward Lear Contributor
Hilaire Belloc Contributor
Elizabeth Bishop Contributor
Langston Hughes Contributor
Philip Larkin Contributor
Robert Browning Contributor
William Wordsworth Contributor
W. B. Yeats Contributor
John Keats Contributor
Sir Walter Scott Contributor
Ezra Pound Contributor
John Donne Contributor
W. H. Auden Contributor
Seamus Heaney Contributor
Robert Frost Contributor
William Blake Contributor
Emily Dickinson Contributor
Walt Whitman Contributor
John Milton Contributor
G.K. Chesterton Contributor
Robert Graves Contributor
T. S. Eliot Contributor
Rudyard Kipling Contributor
Sylvia Plath Contributor
Thomas Hardy Contributor
Charles Causley Contributor
Oliver Goldsmith Contributor
Ben Jonson Contributor
Louis MacNeice Contributor
John Masefield Contributor
Helen Waddell Translator
Wilfred Owen Contributor
Gwendolyn Brooks Contributor
Edith Sitwell Contributor
Thomas Dekker Contributor
Alexander Pope Contributor
John Clare Contributor
Robert Herrick Contributor
Edward Thomas Contributor
Edwin Muir Contributor
William Cowper Contributor
Brian Patten Contributor
Thom Gunn Contributor
Shu Hsi Contributor
Richard Wilbur Contributor
Peter Abrahams Contributor
Padraic Colum Contributor
Christina Rossetti Contributor
A. E. Housman Contributor
James Hogg Contributor
George Herbert Contributor
Arthur Waley Translator
John Dryden Contributor
Annie Keary Contributor
Jean Ingelow Contributor
Maria Edgeworth Contributor
Charlotte M. Yonge Contributor
Scott Snow Illustrator
David Frankland Cover artist

Statistics

Works
45
Also by
8
Members
1,094
Popularity
#23,491
Rating
4.1
Reviews
15
ISBNs
77
Languages
2
Favorited
1

Charts & Graphs