Read in 2023 - 29: The Palace in the Garden

The Palace in the Garden

by Mrs. Molesworth

You know I have a thing for old children's books, and this was not my first read by the author known as Mrs. Molesworth (clicking on her name will take you to her wikipedia entry). You can find my other reviews of her books simply by typing "Molesworth" in the search box in the top left corner of this page.

As I said before when reviewing one of her books, sometimes her stories remind me of Edith Nesbit, one of my favourite authors. Like her, Mrs. Molesworth does not over-moralise her stories or treat children as little adults - she lets them be children, play and make up their own stories which enables them to cope with whatever it is in their real life situation that is beyond their control.

In this book (originally published in 1887), three orphaned children live a rather reclusive life with their grandfather. The most social interaction they have is among themselves, with their home schooling teacher and their nurse; their grandfather, although kind enough, is distant and rarely allows himself anything like humour.

But the siblings (aged 12, 10 and 7) don't know any different, and are content with roaming the library in their big house, where one day they find a book that belonged to their grandfather when he was a boy. Strangely, there is a firmly crossed out girl's name written in the front, right above their grandfather's - a name they do not recognise from what they know about their family.

Soon afterwards, the household transfers from the city to the old family country home where the children have never been before. It is love at first sight, and they have mostly free reign in house and garden with only two hours of lessons every day.

They find an overgrown wooden door in the garden wall - and would you believe it, the 7-year old finds the big old key to the door, too. They embark on an adventure that eventually leads to their family being happy again after decades of sadness and loneliness.

I won't say anymore about the story; it is a nice read and much of what transpires from various clues is easy to guess. Still, I did want to find out the full story and liked it well enough. There is no violence; and although it appears so at first to the children, no supernatural powers are involved.

My free ebook came without illustrations, but I found some on the internet which I am using here.