The Wolves of Willoughby Chase

I approached this book with a little apprehension as I have had past experience of re-reading old childhood favourites and feeling letdown, but there was no problem with this novel, set in an alternative 1832 where the monarch is James III (implying that the House of Hanover never came to the throne) and wolves have entered England during a bad winter by crossing the Channel Tunnel (not opened in our reality until 1994).

Unlike the children's books of today - this was first published in the early 1960s - the whole thing proceeds at a riproaring pace with very little build-up. We plunge straight into the situation: the wealthy parents of Bonnie are about to embark on a trip abroad for the mother's health, and a governess, Miss Slighcarp, show more who is also a distant relation, has been hired to run the estate and teach Bonnie and her cousin, Sylvia. Meanwhile, Sylvia, raised by the impoverished sister of Bonnie's father, who is too proud to admit her situation, is put aboard a train to travel to the country estate. A seemingly jovial man travels in the same compartment and makes himself useful when the train is attacked by wolves, but soon after arrival, both he and the governess show their true colours and the adventure is underway, incorporating boys who live in the woods, geese, a Dickensian orphange and a shipwreck, among other elements.

The story is told in bold strokes with melodrama, larger than life villains, faithful retainers who are indispensible to the children's safety, and parents or guardians who are conveniently got out of the way by various mechanisms. The only slight detraction is that the wolves of the title fade away by the time the weather warms, and the book does not feature Dido Twite, who I recall as being the streetwise heroine of Aiken's alternative 19th century tales, but who is not introduced until Black Hearts in Battersea. But otherwise an engaging and speedy read which earns 4 stars from me. show less

The previous reviewers have done this work justice and more, so here's a personal commentary. As a young teen, for some nights after reading this story, I used to lie in bed thinking of those wolves --the enormous slavering beasts -- and imagine the terror of running for my life through the snow with them on my trail. Years later, I can still feel that scene. On rereading the book recently, I was a little disappointed to find the wolves played a small role in the tale. The real wolves in this story, of course, are the evil adults who try to rob the newly orphaned children of their inheritances....

This was a quick one on audio, read by the author’s daughter, Lizza Aiken, including a nice introduction about what the author and family were going through when she wrote the book. The behavior of the wolves was bananas (before they dropped out of the plot completely), the villains were extra villainous, and there was a point when I considered joining the grumpsters who disliked the book and wrote cranky reviews. Instead, I bumped up the speed and carried on.
I loved where things went after Simon the goose boy helped Sylvia and Bonnie escape Miss Brisket, and I had to laugh at how quickly Miss Pattern (heh heh) whipped up clothing for the girls. A lot of it had the feel of kids making things up while playing: the secret passageways, show more the girls loving each other the instant they met (I quite liked that, though), Simon’s cave and his goose business, Mr. Wilderness’s remedies, and the doctor proclaiming that Aunt Jane was too ill to take anything but champaign, administered to her by the teaspoon. By the end, I just had to laugh and enjoy the ride.
I’m not sure what modern children would make of this book, where a little girl (who happens to own her own gun, a fowling piece) exclaims, “How vexatious!” and her father uses “minx” and “hussy” as affectionate nicknames when he teases his spoiled but good hearted girl. I would probably be more likely to recommend it to adults who like children’s books than actual children. show less

I thoroughly enjoyed The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken as part of the British Author Challenge. This book is really part of the reason I look at the challenges: I had not encountered Aiken and would not have without BAC. So, thank you to the curators of these challenges.

This was an adventure series featuring two girls who encounter what I could only think of as a series of unfortunate events (all due respect to Lemony Snickett). Adults are not what they seem and they are forced to rely on their own talents and resources to save themselves and their families.

Wicked wolves and a grim governess threaten Bonnie and her cousin Sylvia when Bonnie's parents leave Willoughby Chase for a sea voyage. Left in the care of the cruel Miss Slighcarp, the girls can hardly believe what is happening to their once happy home. The servants are dismissed, the furniture is sold, and Bonnie and Sylvia are sent to a prison-like orphan school. It seems as if the endless hours of drudgery will never cease.
With the help of Simon the gooseboy and his flock, they escape. But how will they ever get Willoughby Chase free from the clutches of the evil Miss Slighcarp?

I can't imagine how Joan Aiken escaped me when I was growing up. Her books have just the right amount of gothic to have fired my childhood imagination. And yet somehow she never hit my radar until I was an adult. So I was more than pleased to see one of her books included in Shelf Discovery, giving me the perfect excuse to read it. (As if I needed the excuse! The book was already sitting on my own children's bookshelves unappreciated and untouched so it was only a matter of time before I snagged it and tried to entice them with it anyway.)

Bonnie's parents are leaving in order to try and strengthen her mother, who is frail and ill, and have found a shirt-tail relative to act as Bonnie's governess while they are gone. This personage show more strides into the book nasty and parsimonious and prune-faced. She's a puppy kicker of the first degree. Shortly after her arrival, Bonnie's cousin Sylvia arrives as well, having come by train and braved the terrifying, ravening wolves that live and prey on things near Willoughby Chase. With her is a man who has been struck unconscious on the train. As in the best gothic traditions, he will turn out to be not as he appeared on the train and will add to the menace of horrible Miss Slighcarp. Need I mention that somehow the terrible Miss Slighcarp arrived without having to face the awfully frightening wolves?

Once Bonnie's parents have gone, things go from bad to worse for forthright Bonnie and shy Sylvia. All the servants, except for those who are untrustworthy anyway, are turned off. The lowly governess takes to wearing Lady Willoughby's clothing. And finally, Miss Slighcarp informs them that Bonnie's parents have died when their ship went down, sending them off to a hideous school that is more a children's workhouse than anything resembling a school. The girls must escape to survive. Relying on the kindness of the goose boy and former servants, they manage to evade capture and head off to foil the dastardly plans of Miss Slighcarp and her compatriots in crime.

I love that there is no Disney Dead Mom syndrome here. Yes, Bonnie's parents must disappear for the girls to have their scary adventure but we aren't faced with the plucky orphan syndrome that pervades so much of children's literature and film these days. Aiken has created a delightfully gothic world that won't be too terrifying for children but she maintains the important conventions like having the weather and the natural world reflect the plot. Her wolves are scary and the visual of the girls slogging through an initially grey, winter world on the way to London and redemption in the colorful spring pays homage to the best of gothic writing. Bonnie and Sylvia are charming characters, if Sylvia's tendency to weakness and all around goodness is a tad irritating. The secondary characters are not intrusive but help move the little girls along in their quest, providing the warmth that counteracts the nastiness of the adults ostensibly in charge. I can't say how this would hold up as a re-read but as a first read, even as an adult, it's a delight. Good is rewarded and evil punished but there's no heavy handed moralizing here. I do think middle grade readers will eat it up, given half a chance and adults who appreciate middle grade books will find much to appreciate as well. show less

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken is a fairly straightforward story of children dealing with powerful and abusive adults, with everything coming right in the end. But the lovely Gothic undertones, perfect prose, and fun characters combine to make this conventional story a more memorable read than its plot might suggest.

Bonnie, daughter of the house at the wealthy manor Willoughby Chase, is excited when her cousin Sylvia comes to stay with her. But Bonnie's parents are leaving for a long trip and the governess they employ, Miss Slighcarp, soon proves to be a cruel woman intent on plundering Willoughby Chase for all it's worth. The girls are sent to a terrible school reminiscent of Charlotte Brontë's Lowood and Charles show more Dickens' Dotheboys Hall. They eventually make their escape, aided by a friendly country boy (who reminded me of Frances Hodgson Burnett's Dickon). From there they make their way to London, where they are just in time to save their Aunt Jane from starvation and get the family lawyer on the case to see justice done and provide a happy ending all around.

The story pits children against adults, but at least the villainous grownups are balanced by the good ones—even if some of the good ones, like Mr Willoughby, are so kind as to be utterly blind. Aiken does a lovely job with her two leading characters, Bonnie and Sylvia. I especially liked her description of Sylvia's life with Aunt Jane, her journey to Willoughby Chase, and her emotions as she adjusted to her new life. Maybe because Sylvia reminds me a little of myself.

One thing I didn't quite understand was the wolves. They are so ravenous that they will attack stopped trains and devour anyone foolish enough to step outside without a weapon. But beyond scaring Sylvia and creating a vague atmosphere of tension very much in the background of the story, they don't do much. Maybe that's just what Aiken intended, though, for the wolves to represent the vague danger of the outside world for children, a hostility all the more ominous for being on the outskirts. I understand there are more books set in this world; perhaps the wolves play a more important role in later stories.

I didn't find this a very humorous book, as one of the back-cover blurbs seems to think it was, but I do agree with that same blurb that the language is "so fantastically right." It's not exactly Austenian, but that is probably the closest comparison I can come up with. Every now and then I'd get whiffs of that delicate phrasing and spare narrative that so distinguish Austen. I think I read somewhere that Aiken is quite the Austen fan, and it doesn't surprise me at all.

Overall I enjoyed this story and will be looking for the rest of Aiken's books. show less