This book has been on my shelf for at least the last fifteen years, but I never got around to reading it until now. It's a clever story of a girl named Maria who discovers Lilliputians on her property. Having never read Gulliver's Travels, I can't say how necessary that might be, but I'm familiar enough with the tale to understand most of the references. The supporting characters - the evil Vicar and Miss Brown, the distracted Professor, the chatty Cook - are delightfully ridiculous. The description can get a little lengthy at times, but it's easy to skim and does, if you read every word, add to the atmosphere. Though this could be enjoyable for adults, I would most heartily recommend this for older children with a love for fantasy. ( )

...I find I cannot be easie without communicating to you the infinite deal of satisfaction wherewith I have perused your late admirable work Mrs. Masham's Repose. I'm sure 'tis no Flatterie (which I disdaine) to say that for the gaiety and invention of the Fable, the justness of the Sentiments, and the Elegance of the Style, I have not read its Equal in late years.

The ludicrous and the Poetical support and vary each other without any Discord, and it was a very particular Pleasure to me to observe that while the whole Platform of your Tale is in a maner a compliment to the late ingenious Dean [Jonathan Swift] yet you are so judicious as not to spare the Follies in which he allowed himself concerning Laputa. Where you make merry with my own Profession in the excellent place about Mr. Pope's letter habetis confitenem reum [you have a guilty plea], and I fairly rolled in my great chair while I read it...
- from a 29 April 1947 letter to the author, which like White's book imitates the English of Jonathan Swift's time, in The collected letters of C.S. Lewis, volume III ( )

I read this book and loved it as a child, but hadn't seen it for many, many years. Was absolutely delighted to discover that it is even better when read as an adult. It is crammed with clever historical references, wry comic observations of class and mid-20th century social customs and the joyous eccentricities of place names in the English countryside. These were completely wasted on me as an 8-year-old

The premise is that the sea captain who rescued Gulliver from Lilliput (and who received some tiny cattle for his trouble) returned to the island and captured a handful of the little people. The Lilliputians escaped and found a hiding place in Mistress Masham's Repose, an overgrown island in a lake on the grounds of a vast and derelict stately home. Two hundred years later, their descendants are discovered by the spirited orphan Maria, the heiress of the ruined mansion. It has a lively plot involving Maria's lost inheritance, her nasty and cruel guardians, the heroic and resourceful Lilliputians and the funniest, sweetest, most absent-minded professor ever. ( )

Pretty good fantasy of a good girl who meets up with Lilliputians. ( )

Mum gave me a copy she read to me as a child which she had illustrated copying the original illustrations by Fritz Eichenburg in the 1946 edition. The year I was born done in pen and ink, line drawings and this edition has the original illustrations. The stately home where an orphan is sent is modelled on Blenheim Palace and Stowe Public School and is wonderful. Gulliver's Lilliputians get into the story and there is an absent minded professor. It appeals to adults and is totally delightful. ( )