Mistress Masham's Repose
T.H. White, Fritz Eichenberg
Paperback
(NYRB Kids, Oct. 25, 2016)
āShe saw: first, a square opening, about eight inches wide, in the lowest stepā¦finally, she saw that there was a walnut shell, or half one, outside the nearest doorā¦. She went to look at the shellābut looked with the greatest astonishment. There was a baby in it.ā So ten-year-old Maria, the orphaned mistress of Malplaquet, discovers the secret of her deteriorating estate: On a deserted island at its far corner, in the temple long ago nicknamed Mistress Mashamās Repose, lives an entire community of peopleāāthe People,ā as they call themselvesāall only inches tall. With the help of her only friendāthe absurdly erudite ProfessorāMaria soon learns that this settlement is no less than the kingdom of Lilliput (first seen in Gulliverās Travels) in exile. Safely hidden for centuries, the Lilliputians are at first endangered by Mariaās well-meaning but clumsy attempts to make their lives easier, but their situation grows truly ominous when they are discovered by Mariaās greedy guardians, who look at the People and see only a bundle of money.
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