THOSE BUMPTIOUS BASTABLES

"Oswald is a delightful narrator and the stories he tells are among Nesbit's best." -- Gore Vidal

As if the remarkable collections of children's adventures The Story of the Treasure Seekers and The Wouldbegoods weren't enough E. Nesbit's third book of this series finishes the delightful trilogy by this famous fantasy author.

Who needs fantasy, though, when you have these wonderful tales of the Bastable children, narrated by Oswald Bastable in his best superior third person fashion. Here again is Oswald's troublesome little brother H.O., and Dicky and Dora and Alice and No l, to say nothing of the Bastable uncles, father and mother. The story is told from a child's point of view. The narrator is Oswald, but on the first page he announces: "It is one of us that tells this story - but I shall not tell you which: only at the very end perhaps I will. While the story is going on you may be trying to guess, only I bet you don't." However, his occasional lapse into first person and the undue praise he likes to heap on himself, makes his identity obvious to the attentive reader long before he reveals it himself.