Pilgrim’s Badge with Sun with human face, The Cloisters

Medium: Lead

The Cloisters Collection, 1986 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

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Review: Box Of Delights

Box Of Delights by John Masefield
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A completely surreal read.

For a children's book, this is dark and chaotic. Murder, kidnapping and robbery vie amongst scenes of rural fantasy and cameos by Herne the Hunter, mermaids and disembodied talking heads.

It is clear that this early foray into children's fantasy has influenced a huge number of later children's writers, notably Susan Cooper, Alan Garner, C.S. Lewis and Mary Norton. I constantly found reminders of other children's authors and their work. Kay, the protagonist, obtains the Box of Delights, which is given to him by an eccentric man who travels the countryside with a Punch and Judy show. The box is coveted by Abner Brown and his sinister network of spies and thieves disguised as an ecclesiastical college and the events of the book follow their attempts to claim it using violence and coercion.

Whether Masefield intended to be openly critical of the church and the law in this story is unclear, but the policemen are consistently exposed as utterly inept and useless, whilst the villains working undercover as a religious organisation throws a considerable amount of shade on the workings and integrity of religious groups.

Masefield has a masterful command of language and scenery, and whilst this was written in the 1930's and there are instances where colloquial language has changed somewhat, it is still remarkably modern in its approach.

Adults are lacking in this story; in fact, Kay lives with a guardian (his lack of parents is never explained) and the children seem to have complete autonomy to revel in the surrounding countryside at will. Maria possesses several pistols which she uses at whim. For a children's novel this lack of adult direction is both liberating and unsettling. The children are adrift in the world of adults, and left to their own devices are regularly in situations which seem dangerous and potentially life threatening to a modern audience.

Add to the mix detailed descriptions of the Battle of Troy, Pirates, Alchemy and surrealistic interludes featuring fairies and talking animals and it all becomes truly bizarre. One thing is for certain it isn't easy to forget once read. Truly unique and warrants repeated readings I feel to fully absorb the magnitude of Masefield's imagination. This is often marketed as a 'Christmas' story, and whilst being set around that time of year I wouldn't recommend reading this to a child at bedtime, as it might just provoke nightmares! It certainly isn't the jolly hockey sticks kind of classic festive children's writing.

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