This is arguably where the sequence really hits its stride. I had forgotten how unrelenting the second volume is, the novel that rightly gives the sequence its title, as the forces of the Dark mount their bitterest attack during the Winter Solstice. I love the essentially old-fashioned adventure story that lies at the heart of the first volume, Over Sea, Under Stone and its deeply nostalgic Cornish setting, emphasised in my old Puffin edition by Margery Gill’s lovely black-and-white line drawings throughout. Some may consider this detrimental to the books, evidence that children’s writing wasn’t changing fast enough but I think it adds enormously to the atmosphere. Personally, I find that the inherent tension this creates adds to the enjoyment.īut many older readers will find a further dimension of warm nostalgia (perhaps even consolation) in Susan Cooper’s novels, because they are pre-internet, pre-smart phone and to a considerable degree almost pre-mass tourism too, so that their settings (Cornwall, Wales, Buckinghamshire) are almost unchanged from the 1950s. But equally, the old had not entirely given way to the new: for instance, as the earlier Letterpress reviews note, you can see that Susan Cooper was still seeking to reconcile elements of dark fantasy with the sort of Enid Blyton-style adventure stories that had previously dominated writing for children (this is especially the case in Over Sea, Under Stone and Greenwitch). Writing for younger readers – and especially fantasy writing – was becoming not just darker and more challenging, but more inventive too in how it used myth, magic and folklore. The five The Dark is Rising novels offer a crash-course in what was happening in children’s literature during the 1960s and 70s. I had extremely fond memories of reading these in the late-70s but had never read the rest of the sequence. The first two volumes in the sequence – Over Sea, Under Stone and The Dark is Rising – are already reviewed on Letterpress. I began with some of Alan Garner’s work ( Letterpress review) and moved on to the five novels in Susan Cooper’s wonderful The Dark is Rising sequence. Over the past couple of weeks I have found myself rereading some spectacular children’s literature from the 1960s and 70s. Posted on Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising sequence
0 kommentar(er)
