One of the things I had decided to do on the blog this year was to revisit some books that were childhood favourites with the lense of “Does this book still resonate with me now?” Among those were titles like The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, Le Guin’s Earthsea books (particularly The Tombs of Atuan), but the one that I kicked off first was a slight little collection called The Book of Dragons by E. Nesbit.
This isn’t the blog post where I fully revisit that story collection, since I haven’t really thought through and made notes on what I wanted to say about each story in the collection. But I did re-read it and still enjoyed it, probably appreciating it more now in some ways because I get more of the humour. What happened after that was I decided to delve into who E. Nesbit was and grabbed a copy of her most recent biography by Eleanor Fitzsimmons.
I really enjoyed reading some non-fiction again. (I finally feel capable of non-fiction after a pretty long stretch of just not being able to focus on it. Interestingly enough, in a massive parenthetical tangent, my mental health care provider has indicated they think I was experiencing neurodivergent burnout, which was way more validating than I expected it to be.) In particular, I found the story of Edith’s life pretty engrossing. There were times when I definitely didn’t resonate with her (in particular her strong anti-suffrage viewpoint and general somewhat hypocritical anti-feminist rhetoric; also her weird conspiracy theory obsession that Francis Bacon wrote Shakespeare’s plays; what seems to have been a need for high drama in her personal life; and I was thoroughly grossed out with her smoking habit). But there was a core of personality traits that I really felt drawn to.
I never read The Death of the Author but I’ve absorbed some of the commentary on the book and its thesis. I don’t think I take too seriously that we should inject who the author was into their work, this is more of a personal curiosity to know who was the mind that conceived of the story? What was their life like, their loves and hates, and what might have inspired them to write the story that I enjoyed. The Life and Loves of E. Nesbit certainly provided that.
It seems like Nesbit (I’ll refer to her here by her author name for The Book of Dragons for simplicity’s sake, even though she also used her married name of Bland) had a weirdly lonely / isolated childhood, which was one aspect that resonated. Although she had several siblings she lived in an era and place where families often sent children away to school. For Edith this also seemed to include multiple countries since her family traveled in the hopes of improving the health of her consumptive sister.
That theme of childhood loneliness is a big one for me. In The Book of Dragons, most of the children have siblings or playmates and it was something I often longed for. A while back when I was chatting with my co-podcaster Marly I made some comment about how I felt like I finally had a secret club, a childhood ambition I had always maintained but never achieved.
Another thing that jumped out at me was her love of countryside, nature, and — I was surprised to read — boating! I think this is especially poignant for me now, because I don’t spend as much time out in nature as I’d like. I was fascinated to read about her trips to Kent and the River Medway, rowing and camping out, and navigating the locks. It made me think of Wind in the Willows — a book I didn’t really get into until I was much older than when I first encountered The Book of Dragons. Even though I’m a seafarer more than a river rat, I’ve often been charmed by the idea of living on a little river barge and paddling around, watching the countryside drift past at an easygoing pace with none of the drama of big waves and weather. Since I grew up mostly cruising and never really going far from shore, in some ways the open sea is still a bit overwhelming to me, and crossing the Bass Strait when I was thirty was probably the most terrifying extent I have ever and will ever attempt.
What really struck me by surprise in some ways was Nesbit’s political activity. I had no inkling that she was a staunch socialist and instrumental in the Fabian Society. I felt like Nesbit’s politics generally aligned with my own values (except for her odious sentiments about the role of women which were entirely hypocritical since she was her family’s breadwinner). In some ways they needled me to get more active about community involvement and support. She was a long time champion of helping people out of poverty and providing everyone with a good education, a lesson that we probably need to turn back to in the current state of the world.
I don’t know that I really have a conclusion to this post, other than I felt like it was a really good experiment to dive into the background of this particular author, one that was very influential on a literary front. I’ve never read much of Nesbit beyond The Book of Dragons but I’m definitely keen to have a crack at some of her other works now.
I’m not sure when I’ll manage to put together a detailed review of The Book of Dragons but I’m hoping that by posting this it’ll be easier to hold myself accountable.