The Enchanted Castle
by E. Nesbit
Publication date 2007-09-27
Usage Public DomainCreative Commons Licensepublicdomain
Topics librivox, audiobook, children, fiction, fantasy,
LibriVox recording of The Enchanted Castle, by E. Nesbit.
Read by Peter Eastman.
Three children, forced to remain at school during the holidays, go in search of adventure. What they find is a magic castle straight out of a fairy tale, complete with an enchanted princess at the center of a maze. Or is it? The castle turns out to be just a country estate, and the princess is only the housekeeper's niece, playing at dressing up. But the magic ring she shows them proves -- to her surprise and horror -- to really be magic. Soon they are caught in an adventure where statues come alive, lost lovers are reunited, and wishes can be granted -- but always for a price. (Summary by Peter Eastman)
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the enchanted castle by e nesbit recorded by peter eastman
to margaret ostler with love from e nesbit peggy you came from the heath and more and you brought their heirs through my open door you brought the blossom of youth to blow in the latin quarter of soho for the sake of that magic i send you here a tale of enchantments peggy dear a bit of my work and a bit of my heart the bit that you left when we had to part royalty chambers soho west
chapter one
there were three of them jerry jimmy and kathleen of course jerry's name was gerald and not jeremiah whatever you may think and jimmy's name was james and kathleen was never called by her name at all but kathy or catty or puss cat when her brothers were pleased with her and scratch cat when they were not pleased and they were at school in a little town in the west of england the boys at one school of course and the girl at another because the sensible habit of having boys and girls at the same school is not yet as common as i hope it will be someday they used to see each other on saturdays and sundays at the house of a kind maiden lady but it was one of those houses where it is impossible to play you know the kind of house don't you there is a sort of a something about that kind of house that makes you hardly able even to talk to each other when you are left alone and playing seems unnatural and affected so they looked forward to the holidays when they should all go home and be together all day long in a house where playing was natural and conversation possible and where the hampshire forests and fields were full of interesting things to do and see their cousin betty was to be there too and there were plans betty's school broke up before theirs and so she got to the hampshire home first and the moment she got there she began to have measles so that my three couldn't go home at all you may imagine their feelings the thought of seven weeks at miss hervey's was not to be born and all three wrote home and said so this astonished their parents very much because they had always thought it was so nice for the children who have dear miss herveys to go to however they were jolly decent about it as jerry said and after a lot of letters and telegrams it was arranged that the boys should go and stay at kathleen's school where there were now no girls left and no mistresses except the french one it'll be better than being at miss hervey's said kathleen when the boys came round to ask mademoiselle when it would be convenient for them to come and besides are schools not half so ugly as yours we do have tablecloths on the tables and curtains at the windows and yours is all deal boards and desks and inkiness
when they had gone to pack their boxes kathleen made all the rooms as pretty as she could with flowers and jam jars marigolds chiefly because there was nothing...