The Railway Children

London: Ernest Benn, 1957; (1906). "First re-issue in this edition 1957". Octavo in 223 pages: illustrations; 21 cm. A clean and tight hard cover with minor signs of wear to exterior. Tiny spot to front free endpaper recto. Lacks jacket. Hardcover.

Serialized in The London Magazine during 1905 before appearing in book form in 1906, Edith Nesbit’s most enduring novel follows three children whose comfortable London life collapses when their father is taken away. They move with their mother to a cottage in the Yorkshire countryside, where the nearby railway line becomes the center of their world: they wave to passing trains, avert a landslip disaster, befriend a kindly old gentleman on the 9:15, and slowly uncover the truth of their father’s wrongful imprisonment for espionage, a plot often read as an echo of the Dreyfus affair. Nesbit (1858–1924), a founding member of the Fabian Society with her husband Hubert Bland, brought to children’s fiction an unsentimental, funny, and quietly radical sensibility. Here it shows in the family’s genteel poverty, their aid to a Russian political exile, and children who act with real moral agency rather than serving as vehicles for adult instruction. The first edition was published in London by Wells Gardner, Darton & Co., with illustrations by C. E. Brock. The story’s place in British popular memory was sealed by the 1970 film directed by Lionel Jeffries, starring Jenny Agutter, Bernard Cribbins and Dinah Sheridan.. ¶ Nesbit, E. 1858-1924. (Edith Families -- Great Britain -- Juvenile fiction. Country life -- Great Britain -- Juvenile fiction. Children of prisoners -- Juvenile fiction. Siblings -- Juvenile fiction. Country life -- Juvenile fiction. Family life -- Fiction. Railroads -- Fiction. Familles sans père -- Romans, nouvelles, etc. pour la jeunesse. Familles -- Grande-Bretagne -- Romans, nouvelles, etc. pour la jeunesse. Enfants de prisonniers -- Romans, nouvelles, etc. pour la jeunesse. Frères et sœurs -- Romans, nouvelles, etc. pour la jeunesse. Siblings Children of prisoners Country life Families Fatherless families bookplates. book jackets. Paper (fibre product) case bindings. publishers' advertisements. children's books. Fiction Juvenile works Fiction.