The 13 Clocks (1950)

This was such a fun read aloud, perhaps best described by Neil Gaiman: "It's one of the great kids' books of the last century. It may be the best thing Thurber ever wrote. It's certainly the most fun that anybody can have reading anything aloud."

This is an archetypal fairy tale, with a wicked duke, a captive princess, a handsome prince who fulfills a quest through bravery, trickery, and luck, and even a pair of white horses to carry off the principals at the end. Add to that mix the Golux (an enigmatic and somewhat unreliable wizard), a monster so horrible it defies description, a woman reputed to cry precious stones, and delicious wordplay (I think my 8th grade daughter has quoted the book to her entire school), and you have a bona fide treasure that begs to be reread aloud. Superb!

Not quite sure how I made it almost half a century without reading this one, but am glad that a friend pointed out my omission. A lovely and clever little gem. [a:Marc Simont|34161|Marc Simont|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg]'s illustrations are a delight, and the introduction from [a:Neil Gaiman|1221698|Neil Gaiman|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1234150163p2/1221698.jpg] is an added bonus. ( )

I like the post modern fairy tale. What I mean Thurber wrote this toward the end of his career and it's sly humor and clever wordplay are all there but so are classic folktale elements, supernatural, good v. evil, tricksters and beautiful princesses. But it retains the magic, the timelessness of those stories, while still being some how modern. I'm horrible at explaining it but it works, it just plain works. ( )

In the introduction, Neil Gaiman describes this story as "probably the best book in the world." I'm not sure how literal I was to take that, but perhaps it did skew my expectations. This story is considered a classic, so my expectations were high regardless.

This is a not-so-typical fairy tale about a prince's quest to rescue a princess from the clutches of her uncle, the evil Duke. The style and flow is good, but the story itself seemed to lose its way. The price is sharp in the beginning but by the end is totally relying on the Golux and just stumbling his way through the plot. I'm not sure what he did to truly earn the hand of the princess or why the Golux decided this was the suitor worth guiding.

Fun story for kids, but nothing exceptional, in my opinion.
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I loved this little book :-)

As a child, I read a lot of fairy tales, just because I loved them so much. This book for me is a fairy tale with something extra. It felt, when reading, like the sentences had a kind of rhythm, almost like reading a poem. I loved it.

I liked the illustrations as well. In my opinion they fir well with the story.

Despite it was a quick and easy read, it brought back a lot of good memories.

But, for some reason I am not so impressed by this story as I was with the fairy tales I read when I was young. Maybe it is becasue I've grown up, have read an such awful lot in the meantime that no book like this one can surprise me anymore. Or maybe it is, because the characters were not so convincing? Apart from the Golux it felt like they were kind of flat. ( )