The Borrowers: Difference between revisions
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{{Infobox book
[[File:TheBorrowersChildrensNovelCover_5258.jpg|frame]]▼
| title = The Borrowers
| caption =
| author = Mary Norton
| central theme =
| elevator pitch =
| genre = Fantasy
| franchise = The Borrowers
| followed by = The Borrowers Afield
| publication date = 1952
| source page exists =
| wiki URL =
| wiki name =
}}
'''The book:'''
▲A series of children's fantasy books by Mary Norton (who also wrote ''[[Bedknob and Broomstick (Literature)|Bedknob and Broomstick]]'').
Arrietty Clock lives with her parents under the floor in the house of a "human bean". They live by "borrowing" from the human beans (it's only "stealing" if you take things from another Borrower), but never anything that might be missed; a Borrower must never be seen by a human bean, or let a human bean in any way know they exist. Unfortunately, Arrietty is a little too curious for her own good, and ends up talking with a human boy. The boy ends up fetching little things that might help the Borrowers, things they couldn't get for themselves.
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Aside from the first minor "captured by humans" bit, they are captured one major time, when a human husband and wife decide to put the Borrowers on display in a glass house where they will not be allowed any privacy. Luckily, they manage to escape.
An enjoyable series that made for a pretty good couple of movies, starting with a 1973 made-for-TV Hallmark hall of fame movie. The 1997 film starring John Goodman takes a far more urban setup, overturns the idea that the Borrowers have a low population (the ending is rather like that of ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]]''), and in general is not as faithful to the books as the original movies were.A [[The BBC|BBC]] TV movie adaptation was released for Christmas 2011, featuring [[Stephen Fry]] and [[Christopher Eccleston]]. It's
The Beeb had previously run a couple of miniseries in the nineties that were more faithful adaptations of the books.
'''The series:'''
# ''[[The Borrowers]]'' (1952)
# ''[[The Borrowers Afield]]'' (1955)
# ''[[The Borrowers Afloat]]'' (1959)
# ''[[The Borrowers Aloft]]'' (1961)
# ''[[The Borrowers Avenged]]'' (1982)
----
{{tropelist}}
* [[Bamboo Technology]]: Loads. Seems less evident in the Ghibli trailer, although Arrietty's sporting a nifty clamp as a hair clip.
* [[Cultural Translation]]: Fairly minimal. In the 1997 movie, the human boy and the villain are both Americans, but everyone else is British. [[New York City]] is
** Also played straight in the anime adaptation: The anime version takes place in 2010 in Western Tokyo's neighborhood of Koganei which is also where Studio Ghibli happens to be located.
* [[Dying Race]]: Arrietty is afraid that Borrowers may be this. In both the 1997 and 2011 live-action movies it gets disproved rather hard.
* [[The Edwardian Era]]: Time period when the series is set.
* [[Framing Device]]: The first and second books have framing stories of how the author, as a child, meets and talks to people who knew the Borrowers long ago.
* [[Ill Boy]]: The human boy was in the house because he was recovering from [
* [[Insistent Terminology]]: The Borrowers aren't "thieves".
* [[Lilliputians]]
* [[Literary Agent Hypothesis]]: The story of the Borrowers is presented as something told to the author when she was a child (she gives her younger self the name "Kate," to distance herself from the [[Take That Me|"wild, untidy, self-willed little girl who stared with angry eyes and was said to crunch her teeth"]] she apparently was back then), and which she wrote down for her own children when she was an adult. This is most clear in the first two books, where the [[Framing Device]] is the story of how "Kate" meets and talks to old people who either met or were told of the Borrowers in their youths. The latter books (and almost all the adaptations) drop this device, but still include people who could conceivably have talked to "Kate" many years later and told her the story.
* [[Mouse World]]
* [[No Name Given]]: The human boy who befriends the Clock family. In the early '90s films, he's called George, in the '97 film he's called Pete [[Meaningful Name|Lender]], in the [[Studio Ghibli]] [[The Borrower Arrietty|film]] he's called Sho<ref>Or Shawn, because [[Dub Name Change]]. Or Sho, because there are ''two'' English dubs, and the other dub does ''not'' change the name.</ref>, and in the 2011 film he's called James. Only the '70s [[Hallmark Hall of Fame]] version kept him anonymous.▼
* [[Opposite Gender Protagonists]]: The unnamed boy and Arrietty. Arrietty reads to the illiterate boy, strengthening the bond between them. The boy, being far larger than Arrietty, protects her from the dangers the humans present.
* [[Parody]]: Some readers believe that the eponymous characters of the ''[[The Borribles|Borribles]]'' books by Michael de Larrabeiti are intended as a vicious parody of the Borrowers. Given the ''other'' vicious parodies in the book -- such as the Rumbles vs. [[The Wombles]] -- it's not ''that'' far-fetched.
▲* [[No Name Given]]: The human boy who befriends the Clock family. In the early '90s films, he's called George, in the '97 film he's called Pete [[Meaningful Name|Lender]], in the Ghibli film he's called Sho, and in the 2011 film he's called James. Only the '70s [[Hallmark Hall of Fame]] version kept him anonymous.
* [[Posthumous Character]]: Within the [[Framing Device]] story, ''all'' of the major characters might be considered this, since the main story takes place so long ago -- though only the Boy (who was the younger brother of Mrs. May, who first tells "Kate" the story of the Borrowers) is actually confirmed to have died; the Borrowers themselves simply left and were never seen again.
** Within the main story of the first book, several Borrower families are described -- all gone by now. The [[Posthumous Character]] who gets the most attention, however, is Arrietty's cousin Eggletina -- it was her death that caused Uncle Hendreary and his family to leave the house for good. {{spoiler|However, this is [[Subverted]] in the second book, when Eggletina proves to be very much alive.}}
{{reflist}}
{{The Borrowers}}
[[Category:Childrens Literature]]▼
{{Carnegie Medal}}
[[Category:Films of the 1990s]]▼
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Literature of the 1950s]]
[[Category:Carnegie Medal]]
[[Category:
[[Category:
▲[[Category:Films of the 1990s]]
[[Category:Films of the 1970s]]
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