The Story of the Treasure Seekers: Being the Adventures of the Bastable Children in Search of a Fortune [School & Library Binding]

Edith Nesbit (Author), Cecil Leslie (Illustrator), Eleanor Graham (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1996 | Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. This text refers to the Bibliobazaar edition.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Edith Nesbit (1858 – 1924), was a mischievous, tomboyish child who grew up to be an unconventional adult. She and her husband were founder members of the socialist Fabian Society and their home became a centre for socialist and literary discussion. Their friends included some of the time’s greatest writers and thinkers, including George Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells.

Everything about Edith showed her as a woman trying to break out of the mould demanded by English society at the time – she expressed her individuality through her clothes, hairstyle, lifestyle and her habit of speaking forcefully on almost any subject. She lived her socialism and late in life her charitable deeds brought her close to bankrupcy.

E. Nesbit – she always used the plain initial for her writing and was sometimes thought to be a man – started to write for children after years of successful writing for adult magazines. She was asked to write about her childhood but instead of facts chose to describe her happy girlhood in fiction. The result was books still read today, firm bestsellers for decades. She was brilliant at combining real-life situations with elements of fantasy and humour. Films –such as The Railway Children - have kept her stories in the public eye and her magical fantasies, including Five Children and It, continue to delight each new generation of children.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• School & Library Binding: 242 pages
• Publisher: San Val (February 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0613518993
• ISBN-13: 978-0613518994
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,594,973 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Realistic, funny, creative children of the early 1900s, December 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Story of the Treasure Seekers: Being the Adventures of the Bastable Children in Search of a Fortune (Puffin Classics) (Paperback)

A word about me--I am the mother of four children ages 7-17 and have always loved to read. My favorite books as a child are still a pleasure for me today, although I read them more critically now: the Narnia books (where I first read about the Bastables on the first page of "The Magician's Nephew"); "A Little Princess," "The Secret Garden," "Little Lord Fauntleroy," and "Toinette's Philip;" "Little Women," "Ivanhoe," "Tom Sawyer," "Uncle Tom's Cabin," "Hans Brinker," "Tales of King Arthur," "Scottish Chiefs," etc. After my children were born I discovered new classics: Edward Eager, "The Phantom Tollbooth," Philip Pullman, Diana Wynne Jones, Lloyd Alexander, and of course Harry Potter.

The Bastable books were written for literate children of 8-14 almost a hundred years ago, and may be a little difficult for the easy-reader child of today, who thinks Harry Potter is full of hard words! It also has an "I" narrator, which many children do not like. But E. Nesbit was one of the first great children's writers, and in my opinion this is the best of all her books.

Although E. Nesbit is rightly well-known known for fantasies like "The Phoenix and the Carpet," "The Enchanted Castle," or "Five Children and It," this book is not a fantasy. The Bastables are six lively children who live in a dreary London suburb in a row house. Their mother is dead, their discouraged, rather milquetoast father has lost all his money. The children are left to their own devices, since they can no longer afford to go to school (this is the turn of the 19th century). They decide to go about seeking their fortune, and do so in the most imaginative and amusing ways. They often get into trouble, bicker, pout, and basically act like real children; but their emphasis on old-fashioned honor and bravery is a welcome change from modern books. Many of the scenes are very funny, especially to older readers who can figure out what is really happening, versus what the children think is happening. It is also fascinating to see how creative the children have to be to entertain themselves-- which they are very good at! and to marvel at how much more freedom of movement children had in those days. No one is worrying about their safety as they travel around London alone all day long. The narration itself is clever, both because the narrator, who is one of the children, tries to write in a literary style (with funny results), and because the narrator is trying to fool the reader.

The children accidentally bury alive a neighbor boy who "doesn't know how to play," ruin a fishing contest, kill a pudding, play with a real princess, meet a famous politician and a poet, and set out to catch a burglar. They quarrel over lost balls, who should pay for treats, and who has to take care of the youngest brother, whom they have nicknamed after a cereal ad, and who always insists on tagging along. You find yourself laughing and realize that these could be children you know today. There is almost no Victorian/Edwardian sentimentality (some may have been required to be publishable in those days, just as political correctness is now), and only a few convenient happy endings.

This book brings the past to life more vividly than almost any I have ever read. I find myself thinking of it whenever I read about that period of history. It's odd to think the boys would have been just the age to fight and perhaps die in the First World War. The Bastables are a children's classic.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny in an Original Way., March 15, 2005

By 

Steve Slater (Wytheville, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Story of the Treasure Seekers: Complete and Unabridged (Puffin Classics) (Paperback)

The Treasure Seekers is written from the point of view of a young British boy trying along with his siblings to recover "the lost treasures of the house of Bastable."

The book is crammed with hilarity. To begin with, the speaker says that he will not give away who he is - "While the story is going on you may be trying to guess, only I bet you don't." Throughout the book, he makes little digs about his siblings, and adds things like, "Oswald often thinks of very intersting things. And directly he thought of it he did not keep it to himself, as some boys would have, but he told the others."

His writing is very straightforward and honest (if biased), like a boy. And he does not try to be funny at all. Some ironies are obvious to the reader, making us chuckle while Oswald is very serious about them.

On the whole, Oswald is very likeable and understandable and creative, as are Dora, Dicky, Alice, Noel, and H.O. They get into scrapes with their good intentions, but the ending (in Oswald's words) "is like what happens in Dickens's books; but I think it was much jollier to happen like a book."

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cultural Reference "Let dogs delight...", July 30, 2005

By 

Mr. Steven Prelgovisk "[e-mail]" (Missionary, Puerto Rico) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Story of the Treasure Seekers: Complete and Unabridged (Puffin Classics) (Paperback)

Some of the cultural references in the book are obscure, but finding what they mean can be a lot of fun. Here is the context of "Let dogs delight..." It is from an old hymn to encourage children to get along with each other. Here is the text:

Song 16. Against quarrelling and fighting. (8,6,8,6)

Let dogs delight to bark and bite,

For God has made them so:

Let bears and lions growl and fight,

For `tis their nature, too.

But, children, you should never let

Such angry passions rise:

Your little hands were never made

To tear each other's eyes.

Let love through all your actions run,

And all your words be mild:

Live like the blessed Virgin's Son,

That sweet and lovely child.

His soul was gentle as a lamb;

And as his stature grew,

He grew in favour both with man,

And God his Father, too.

Now, Lord of all, he reigns above;

And from his heavenly throne

He sees what children dwell in love,

And marks them for his own.