The Borrowers

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The Borrowers (book cover)

The Borrowers is a novel by Mary Norton about tiny people who "borrow" things from normal humans and keep their existence unknown. Published in 1952, it won the Carnegie Medal for that year.

It was followed by a series of sequels recounting the further adventures of the Clock family.

The Borrowers Afield (1955),
The Borrowers Afloat (1959),
The Borrowers Aloft (1961),
"Poor Stainless: A New Story About the Borrowers" (1971),
The Borrowers Avenged (1982), which includes Poor Stainless.

[edit] Plot introduction

In all of these, interaction between the minuscule Borrowers, who are themselves supposed to be descendants of the folkloric Little People, and the "human beans" (a slang or dialect form of "human beings") is seen as the primary cause of trouble, irrespective of the human's motives. Whether the main character, Arrietty Clock, has been talking with the ward of Fairbank, with Tom Goodnough, or with Miss Menzies, her parents react with similar fears and worries.

As a result of Arrietty's illicit talks, her family is forced several times to move their home from one place to the other, making their lives more adventurous than the average Borrower would like. They finally settle down in the vicinity of a church, in the home of a caretaker surnamed Whitlace (or "Witless" as his undiscovered tenants call him).

Along the way, they meet a cast of colorful characters, such as a hunter of their own race whose only memory of his family is the adjective "Dreadful Spiller" which he uses as a name; such as their relations the Harpsichords and one Peagreen Overmantel; such as Mild Eye the Gypsy and Tom Goodnough the gardener's son and heir.

[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

There have been three distinct screen adaptations of the book.

The first was an American made-for-TV movie, shot on videotape to facilitate the necessary special effects.

The second was a BBC television series starring Ian Holm; this was sufficiently well-received that a sequel was made.

The third was a 1997 theatrical movie starring John Goodman as an evil lawyer, Jim Broadbent as the head of the Borrowers family and Celia Imrie as his wife, set in a fictional country that contains elements of Britain, France and America. Similarly, the film does not appear to be set in any real time period since it features modern inventions in an anachronistic setting. This film seems to reverse the Hollywood cliché of having a British villain, as it features an all British cast with an American actor as villain. Two of the movie's other actors, Tom Felton and Mark Williams, went on to appear in the Harry Potter films.