The Dolls' House is about a group of dolls who all come together and are owned by two little girls, Emily and Charlotte. The main doll, Tottie, was the girls' Great-Great Aunt's and had been passed down to them. The other dolls that they have were all ones that were given to them. The dolls all want a doll house to live in, so when Emily and Charlotte recieve the house from their Great-Great Aunt, the dolls are happy. The girls' want to fix up the house, but don't have enough money to get what they want. At first they were going to get paid to show off Tottie in a doll exibition, but changed their minds and decided to lend her to the exibition. When Tottie is there, she sees the old doll that she used to live with back when she was owned by the Great-Great Aunt, Marchpane. Somebody figures out that Marchpane belonged to the same old house that Tottie did, so she is sent to live with Emily and Charlotte. When Marchpane gets to the house, she takes over and bosses all of the other dolls around. Emily starts to like her more than the other dolls, and eventually forgets about them. Soon after, Emily and Charlotte get a bad feeling about Marchpane, and send her off to a museum to live.This story follows the standards such as plot, setting, characterization, and point of view. The plot is easily understood and has a clear beggining, middle, and end. The setting is described multiple times as it changes. The doll house it described, the exibition is described and the shoe boxes that some of the dols had to live in were described. The characters would all described well and were given their own personality. The theme is compelling to the "real world" as well as the fantasy world because children can relate to getting new toys and pushing old ones away and then realizing how much they missed their old toys. The elements that make the story a fantasy are convincing. Many children probably think that their dolls have their own little world and that when they aren't looking they do whatever they want. I think that this conceot is not too far fetched and that children can relate to it. The author does maintain a sense of logic with the created world. Everything that would happen in regular life does in Emily and Charlotte's lives. There is nothing out of the ordinary that happens that wouldn't make sense.I enjoyed reading this book, although it did take me awhile to actually get into it. The beginning is a little slow but once the plot starts to deepen it is a good book to read. I think that the way the author portrayed the girls at the end was consistent of how children act in real life. When they get a new toy, they push the other ones off to the side and put all of their time and attention into the new toy. In the classroom, I would use this book to teach children that every toy or doll they have is special and that just because you get something new, does not mean that you have to forget about your other toys. I could relate this to friends as well and tell them that even if they make new friends, they shouldn't forget about the ones that they had before and should always remember them.
The Doll's House might seem at first glance to be sugary and twee: the main characters are dolls and the children who play with them. The plot is straightforward, involving the dolls' quest to live in a house house instead of a draughty shoebox. A potential reader might be forgiven for thinking the story will be as slight as something made up by, well... two five-year-olds playing with dolls.But Rumer Godden's story is never sentimental. The Doll's House is heart-wrenching and often surprisingly bitter-sweet. There is real pathos and drama in the story, whose plot encompasses snobbery, a rivalry lasting centuries, abuse (of dolls by children), cruelty and heroic sacrifice. Godden's dolls are individuals, each with their own personality, and each, interestingly enough, made of different materials. There's Mr. Plantaganet, whose moustache was drawn in pencil by a child and who has never entirely recovered from being thrown to the bottom of a dark cupboard and almost forgotten about. Then there's his wife Birdie, made of celluloid, who has beads rattling around inside her head and tends to lose her train of thought , but who turns out to be more than she seems. Then there's the nasty Marchpane, made of kid leather (that is to say, the skins of baby animals.) Most memorable of all is Tottie Plantaganet, a simple wooden doll bought for a farthing, who has nevertheless existed for over a hundred years as the plaything of generations of girls. Tottie, despite literally being made of wood, is a rounded and engaging heroine, level-headed, kind and courageous. Often teased for being a mere carved piece of wood bought for a farthing, Tottie shrugs off classism and finds inner strength and pride in her ancestry:"She thought of all the bravest things that were made of wood: the bowsprits and figureheads of ships, for instance, that have to drive into the sea and meet the waves..."A true working woman, Tottie champions kindness and practicality over the empty beauty she finds in her nemesis Marchpane, a doll who hates to be played with. The Doll's House cries out for an adaptation by Pixar: it is the most powerful piece of toy-centred fiction I've encountered since Hans Christian Andersen's The Steadfast Tin Soldier.
What do You think about The Dolls' House (2006)?
I have a thing for living dolls. I guess it's the combination of allegory and childlike whimsy that appeals to me.This story perfectly captures the joy of dollhouses as well as the essence of childhood. I remember how my dolls had personalities that I hadn't consciously created. I just sort of sensed them. Godden taps into that sense in the most delightful way! --But it's not all whimsy and roses. There's a touch of melancholy to the narrative as well. There's so much to this little book! It works on many levels. It resonates at any age.And I adore Tottie. She's like the doll version of Dorothea Brooke.Now, if I can just find The Great Gatsby with dolls...
—Sarah
This book is so quirky and magical and I love it. Have read it a few times with different kids. John read it aloud to us, too, and Jessie turned it into an interpretive presentation.Excerpts: "Mrs. Plantagenet was not quite right in the head. There was something in her head that rattled; Charlotte thought it might be beads, and it was true that the something made a gay sound like bright beads touching together. She was altogether gay and light, being made of cheap celluloid, but, all the same, nicely molded and joined and painted. ..." "There was still something of the cracker and feather look about Mrs. Plantagenet as there was something of the dark toy cupboard about Mr. Plantagenet."
—Lisa
As usual : sorry for my scholar English. Read this book in French as a child. One of my favorite books I borrowed in the public library so many times. Bought it last year to my little girls. I can't explain how I was fascinated by the doll's house, how it was fixed, how the furniture were...I hope my daughters will love it too. As I know, it isn't very popular in France and can't be find new. It's a shame. I bought a old examplar of the marvellous collection : la bibliothèque internationale by Fernand Nathan.
—Liloubrun
