Tom's Midnight Garden is a children's fantasy novel by Philippa Pearce. It was first published in 1958 by Oxford with an illustration by Susan Einzig. Repeatedly reprinted and also adapted for radio, television, cinema, and stage. Pearce won the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognizing children's books circulated this year by a Briton. In 2007, for the 70th anniversary of the award, a panel named it one of the top ten medal winners and the British public voted him a favorite of both countries.
Video Tom's Midnight Garden
Premise
Tom is a modern boy living under quarantine with his aunt and uncle in a city flat, part of a converted building that was a country house during the 1880s 1890s. At night he slipped into the past into the old garden where he found a girl playing friend.
Maps Tom's Midnight Garden
Plot summary
When Tom Long Peter's sister got measles, Tom was sent to live with Uncle Alan and Aunt Gwen. They live on the top floor of a big house with no garden, just a small courtyard for parking. The former land of large houses has been sold for buildings and occupied by modern houses. Parent ant and closed, Mrs. Bartholomew, living above them. Since Tom might be contagious, he was not allowed to play, and he felt lonely. Without training he awakens after midnight, agitated, when he hears the communal grandfather clock strangely attacking 13. He gets up to investigate and finds that the back door is now open in a large garden lit by the sun.
Every night the hour shows at 13 and Tom returns to the Victorian courtyard. There he met another lonely child, a girl named Hatty, and they became an integral part of play. Tom saw the family occasionally, but only Hatty (and as revealed later in the book, gardener) saw it and others believed he played himself.
Tom writes a daily account for his brother Peter, who follows the adventure during his recovery - and afterward, because Tom is trying to extend his stay with Aunt and Uncle. Gradually at first, Hatty grows and passes Tom's age; he realized that he slipped to a different point in the past. Eventually he grew up faster, until he grew up he was getting acquainted with his friend, Barty. At this stage in the book, the season in the old garden tends to winter. Tom cleverly gets ice skates by telling Hatty to hide his old couple in his room, where he later finds them and joins his skates the next night.
On the last night before Tom would go home, he went downstairs to find the garden was not there. He desperately tries to run and find her, but bumps into a set of trash from the yard today, waking up some residents. She yells Hatty's name in disappointment, before Uncle Alan finds him and puts the show to Tom walking while sleeping. The next morning, Mrs Bartholomew called Tom to apologize, only to reveal herself as Hatty, after making the link when she heard her call her name. The event that Tom experienced was real in Hatty's past; he had stepped into them by going to the garden the moment he dreamed of them. On the last night, he even dreamed of marriage to Barty.
After bringing Tom home, Aunt Gwen commented on the strange way that Tom said good-bye to Mrs. Bartholomew when he leaves: he hugs her, as if she's a little girl.
Theme and literary meaning
The book is considered a classic but also has a tone that seeps into other areas of Pearce's work. We remain in doubt for a while who the ghost is, there is a question of the nature of time and reality and we end by believing that the midnight garden is a projection of an old lady's mind. These space/time questions occur in his other books, especially those related to ghosts. The last reconciliation between Tom, still a child, and Hatty's parents, many argue, one of the most touching moments in children's fiction.
In Written for Children 1965, John Rowe Townsend sums up, "If I were asked to mention a work of English literature of children since [the Second World War]... it would be amazing this beautiful and absorbing books ". He retained that assessment in the second edition of magnum opus (1983) and in 2011 repeated it, in a novel retrospective review.
In the first chapter of the Narrative of Love and Lost: Studies in Modern Children's Fiction, Margaret and Michael Rustin analyze emotional resonance of Tom's Midnight Garden and explain the use of imagination and metaphor, as well as comparing it with The Secret Garden .
Researcher Ward Bradley, in his review of modern stories and books describing Victorian English society, criticized Midnight Garden for "romanticizing the 19th century aristocratic aristocratic home, making it a lost and shining paradise in contrast to the reality gloomy lower middle-class English. (...) A child who gets Victoria's English image of this fascinating and well-written fairy tale will not know about destructive poverty in the slums and slums where the landlord often derived their wealth ".
Time slip became a popular tool in the novels of British children in that period. Other examples of success include Alison Uttley Travelers in Time (1939, slipping back to the Mary period, Queen of Scots), Ronald Welch The Gauntlet (1951, slipping back to the Welsh Marches in the fourteenth century), Barbara Sleigh's Jessamy (1967, returning to First World War), and Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer (1969, returning to 1918).
References
The historical part of the book is set at the bottom of the house, which resembles the house where the author grew: Mill House in Great Shelford, near Cambridge, England. Cambridge is represented in fiction as Castleford throughout this book. By the time he was writing the book, the author returned to live in Great Shelford, just across the street from Mill House. The Kitsons' house is thought to be based on a house in Cambridge, near where Pearce studied during his time at the university. The time theory used by the novel is the work of influential J. W. Dunne in 1927 An Experiment with Time .
Movie, TV or theater adaptation
- It was dramatized by the BBC three times, in 1968, 1974, and 1988 (broadcasted in 1989).
- 1999 Full-length film starring Anthony Way
- 2001 Adapted to perform by David Wood
Publishing history
- 1958, UK, Oxford University Press (ISBNÃ, 0-19-271128-8), Pub Date: December 31, 1958, hardcover (first edition)
- 1992, UK, HarperCollins (ISBNÃ, 0-397-30477-3), Pub date: February 1, 1992, hardcover
- 2001, Adapted to the stage by David Wood, Samuel French (ISBNÃ, 0-573-05127-5)
2007 introduction
Since 1936, the professional association of British librarians has recognized the best new book of the year for children with Carnegie Medals. Philippa Pearce and Tom won the 1958 Medal. For the 70th anniversary celebration of 2007, a panel of experts appointed by a children's librarian named Tom's Midnight Garden was one of ten the work of Medal winners, who compose ballot papers for the nation's favorite elections. It ranks second in the general election of the short list, between two books that are about forty years younger. Among votes cast from the UK, Northern Light surveyed 40%, Tom's Midnight Park 16%; Skellig 8%. The winning writer, Philip Pullman, kindly said: "Personally I feel they got the right initials but not the names I do not know if the result will be the same in a hundred years, maybe Philippa Pearce will win then." Julia Eccleshare, Children's Book Editor for The Guardian newspaper, continues the theme: " Northern Lights is the right book by the right author.Philip is accurate in saying that one- the only contradiction is from another PP.And, it must be said, Midnight Park Tom has lasted almost 60 years... and we do not know that Northern Lights will do the same. , yes, a very good winner. "
See also
References
External links
- Philippa Pearce on Internet Internet Speculative Fiction
- Tom's Night Park at IMDb
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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