Mistress Masham's Repose (New York Review Children's Collection)

ISBN: 1681370069

Author: White, T.H.

Condition: New

She saw: first, a square opening, about eight inches wide, in the lowest stepfinally, she saw that there was a walnut shell, or half one, outside the nearest door. She went to look at the shell-but looked with the greatest astonishment. There was a baby in it.So ten-year-old Maria, the orphaned mistress of Malplaquet, discovers the secret of her deteriorating estate: On a deserted island at its far corner, in the temple long ago nicknamed Mistress Mashams Repose, lives an entire community of people-the People, as they call themselves-all only inches tall. With the help of her only friend-the absurdly erudite Professor-Maria soon learns that this settlement is no less than the kingdom of Lilliput (first seen in Gullivers Travels) in exile. Safely hidden for centuries, the Lilliputians are at first endangered by Marias well-meaning but clumsy attempts to make their lives easier, but their situation grows truly ominous when they are discovered by Marias greedy guardians, who look at the People and see only a bundle of money.