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The Enchanted Castle by E. Nesbit
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The Enchanted Castle (original 1907; edition 1994)

by E. Nesbit

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations / Mentions
2,413366,254 (3.85)1 / 74
Three children discover an old country estate during their school holidays. When they're exploring it they come upon a mysterious young girl claiming to be a fairy princess. She shows them the castle's treasure, including a ring that will turn you invisible. But no one is more surprised than she when she slips it on her finger ... and disappears! The ring is indeed magical, and the children waste no time finding out what else it can do.… (more)
Member:Mialro
Title:The Enchanted Castle
Authors:E. Nesbit
Info:Wordsworth Editions Ltd (1994), Edition: New Ed, Paperback, 352 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:****
Tags:children's classics, fairytales, fantasy, fiction, children's books

Work Information

The Enchanted Castle by E. Nesbit (1907)

  1. 20
    Magic or Not? by Edward Eager (HollyMS)
    HollyMS: Both Edward Eager and E. Nesbit are known for writing books for children that contain a lot of magic. In these two works, however, the magic is more muted than usual.
  2. 10
    Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (ed.pendragon)
    ed.pendragon: Despite a castle being in the titles of both books, each novel is really about the human stories contained within and the characters' interaction with the magic they come in contact with.
  3. 10
    The Story of the Treasure Seekers by E. Nesbit (ed.pendragon)
    ed.pendragon: More feelgood adventures chanced on by young members of liberal middle-class families in Victorian England.
  4. 10
    Half Magic by Edward Eager (foggidawn)
  5. 00
    The Hotel Under the Sand by Kage Baker (PhoenixFalls)
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» See also 74 mentions

English (35)  Spanish (1)  All languages (36)
Showing 1-5 of 35 (next | show all)
Gerald, Cathy and Jimmy wake a beautiful princess from her hundred-year sleep in an enchanted garden. It's really only Mabel, the housekeeper's niece - but the garden really is enchanted, and the ring she slips on really is magic! The children find that it takes magic to get everything sorted out.
  PlumfieldCH | Dec 15, 2023 |
This was a good story that I probably would have enjoyed as a child but which feels a bit shallow and a bit coherent on a first read as an adult. ( )
  eri_kars | Jul 10, 2022 |
Okay so this is the one with the hollow statues. I remembered almost nothing else about the book since reading it as a child, and what vague recollections I did have were muddled chronologically.

The Ugly Wuglies came back to me as I read. I think they felt creepier to me now as an adult than when I read as a child (the creepiness reminds me of Frances Hardinge's books though hers are of course far creepier) while by contrast the hollow statue was rather anticlimactic compared to how it had stuck around in my mind all these years. ( )
  zeborah | Feb 8, 2022 |
Well this isn't as fairytale-like as the title might suggest. A very grounded story although still one with lots of magical happenings. Some of the smaller adventures seem a little similar to 'Five Children and It' which i've read previously but these are got through relatively quickly.
Its a very random/organic story, which on the one hand means your never sure what will happen next but can also make it feel a little pointless at times as you can't see the main aim of the tale.
It can get quite dark for a kids book in places, about on par with some of the scarier 'Doctor Who' episodes. Overall i like the mix of magic and reality and the strange turns the story takes. The eldest child protagonist also has some great personality traits. Odd but well written book.
I wonder if they stole from this for the 'Night at the Museum' films. ( )
  wreade1872 | Nov 28, 2021 |
Much of this is routine tale-spinning, but then there are the Ugly-Wuglies: Crude dummies put together by the protagonist children, and inadvertently wished into life. Nesbit makes them both comic and genuinely terrifying, and works some wonderfully inventive variations on the theme.
  sonofcarc | Apr 3, 2021 |
Showing 1-5 of 35 (next | show all)
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» Add other authors (21 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
E. Nesbitprimary authorall editionscalculated
Beavers, SeanCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Collins, PatrickBook and cover designersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Fraser, BettyIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Glassman, PeterAfterwordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Leishman, VirginiaNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Leslie, CecilIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Millar, H. R.Illustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
PhotoDisc Inc.Cover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Schönfeldt, Sybil GräfinTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Törék, MargitTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Valero, JaimeTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Ward, JohannaNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Würtz, ÁdámIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Zelinsky, Paul O.Illustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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To Margaret Ostler with love from E. Nesbit
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There were three of them - Jerry, Jimmy, and Kathleen.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Three children discover an old country estate during their school holidays. When they're exploring it they come upon a mysterious young girl claiming to be a fairy princess. She shows them the castle's treasure, including a ring that will turn you invisible. But no one is more surprised than she when she slips it on her finger ... and disappears! The ring is indeed magical, and the children waste no time finding out what else it can do.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Available online at The Hathi Trust:
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/...

Also available at The Internet Archive:
https://archive.org/details/enchantedc...

Also available at Project Gutenberg:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34219...
Haiku summary
Careful what you wish:
Edwardian children find
magic mixed blessing.
(ed.pendragon)

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Penguin Australia

An edition of this book was published by Penguin Australia.

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