The Midnight Folk (Kay Harker)

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A disappointment (so why 3 stars rather than 2? Bumped up for historical importance and author's literary qualities ... but for sheer pleasure it gave me, it's really a 2). Even Madeleine L'Engle, who wrote an afterword for it, damned it with faint praise (paraphrasing, but basically "it's over-complicated and confusing but kids ought to be able to figure it out nonetheless). The current owner of the box is an old Punch and Judy man called Cole Hawlings whom Harker meets at the railway station. They develop an instant rapport, which leads Hawlings to confide that he is being chased by a magician called Abner Brown and his gang, which includes Harker's former governess. For safety, Hawlings (who turns out to be the medieval philosopher and alleged magician Ramon Llull) entrusts the box to Harker. The schoolboy then goes on to have many adventures as he protects the box from those who wish to use it for bad deeds.

Masefield’s first volume of oetry, Salt-Water Ballads, was published in 1902, however, it was not until the publication of The Everlasting Mercy in 1911 that he made his mark on the literary scene. The success of his second book was followed by the publication of several long narrative poems, including Dauber (1914) and Reynard the Fox (1919). When freed from lessons he explores and investigates the surroundings of his ancestral home of Seekings, uncovering a nefarious plot to steal some long-lost treasure, thus following up family traditions and living up to the family name. The Harker shield displays three oreilles couped proper (that is, three disembodied flesh-coloured ears) and so, true to form, Kay eavesdrops, harkening to conversations and learning from what he overhears. I’m told that this was written by John Masefield, a well-known and highly respected poet in his adult years. Perhaps so, but I’m pretty sure that in addition to channeling his inner child, he must have had a willing collaborator of tender years to help him work the magic, follow the merry chase and find his way home. Twas the Night Before Christmas: Edited by Santa Claus for the Benefit of Children of the 21st Century" (2012) being Pamela McColl "smoke-free" edit of Clement Clarke Moore's poemIn The Midnight Folk, Masefield includes no chapter breaks at all, which gives the narrative an unbroken, dreamlike feeling. The separation between one day and night and the next is tenuous, and as I read, I sensed time moving differently. Strange, unsettling things happen throughout the book, all of which are received very evenly and calmly by Kay Harker, the young protagonist. The tone of the writing lures me in to accept everything just as Kay does, with the result that the book is illogical but perfect. I love the way Masefield brings together tropes from mythology, fairy tale, Arthurian legend, pirate adventure, and the search for lost treasure. Having pieces of the past revealed to Kay little by little really drew me into the story. And the way the characters across several generations share the same names was fantastic. Madeleine L’Engle wrote the afterword in the edition I read, and that makes perfect sense to me, since she took that idea of names across generations for her novel A Swiftly Tilting Planet. John Masefield is growing younger every year. He was old in Multitude and Solitude. He had grown appreciably younger in Sard Harker. He is a child among the children in "The Midnight Folk,” which is incomparably the best book of its kind that has appeared since Mrs. Hubert Bland died. — Illustrated London News, 1927. [2] Part of my own ease comes from remembering myself at the same age, with the same sense of life being a dreamscape where reality was of one substance with imaginings. Maybe a lot of the novel's strange-yet-familiar quality comes from the author's own remembered past being a kind of foreign country, where "they do things differently". Young Kay Harker lives in an old house in the country, filled with portraits of his ancestors. His only companions are his unpleasant guardian Sir Theopompus and his governess Sylvia Daisy Pouncer (who, Kay suspects, has stolen all his toys). Life is lonely and dull, until one night Kay’s great-grandpapa Harker, a sea captain, steps out of his portrait to tell him about a stolen treasure that belongs to Kay’s family. The evil Abner Brown is searching for it too, but Kay is helped by the midnight folk: creatures like Nibbins the cat and Rollicum Bitem Lightfoot the fox, and even his lost toys, who will join him on his dangerous quest. He has written a book which will be a source of delight to children of future generations well as his own, one that ranks with such masterpieces in this genre The Water Babies, Alice in Wonderland and Sylvie and Bruno. — The Northern Whig, 1927 [1]

Christmas Eve" ( Noch pered Rozhdestvom, 1832) by Nikolai Gogol (from Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka)At seventeen Masefield was living as a vagrant in America. He found work as a bar hand but eventually secured employment at a carpet factory. Thinking that journalism might allow him to write for a living, Masefield returned to England in 1897.

In 1894, Masefield boarded the Gilcruix, destined for Chile. He recorded his experiences while sailing through the extreme weather. Upon reaching Chile, Masefield suffered from sunstroke and was hospitalized. He eventually returned home to England as a passenger aboard a steam ship.The Midnight Folk is a children's fantasy novel by John Masefield first published in 1927. It is about a boy, Kay Harker, who sets out to discover what became of a fortune stolen from his seafaring great grandfather Aston Tirrold Harker (in reality, Aston Tirrold is a village in Oxfordshire). The treasure is also sought by a coven of witches who are seeking it for their own ends. Kay's governess Sylvia Daisy Pouncer is a member of the coven. The witches are led or guided by the wizard Abner Brown. Mr. Masefield has written the sort of book that grown-up people like to give a child for Christmas, and then enjoy reading for themselves. The Midnight Folk is a story to be read aloud in the traditional Winter fireside setting….The style is imaginative and glamorous…Children will like to hear their elders read the tale.”– The New York Times John Masefield (1878-1967) was born in Herefordshire, England. After being orphaned at an early age, he was sent to sea aboard the school-ship HMS Conway in preparation for a naval career. Masefield’s apprenticeship was disastrous—he was classified as a Distressed British Seaman after a voyage around Cape Horn—and he soon left the ship. Arrangements were then made for him to join another ship in New York. But Masefield had other plans: he deserted ship vowing “to be a writer, come what might.” As has been pointed out to me, at times The Midnight Folk feels like a mash-up between Treasure Island and Halloween, what with ecclesiastical gold and South American settings and a clandestine witches' coven meeting at at dead of night. But it is much more complex than that: the three ears of the Harker arms underscore several trios of themes. You must be the master in your own house. Don't let a witch take the charge of Seekings. This is a house where upright people have lived. Let's have no Endorings nor Jezebellings in Seekings." -- Grandmamma Harker's message to Kay.

Interestingly, early on in the book, Kay reads the names of his long-lost toys ('The Guards') and among them are the names Jemima, Maria, Susan and Peter which of course are the names of the Jones children in The Box of Delights written years later. There are three treasures (smuggled goods, a highwayman's plunder, and the aforementioned Spanish gold), three principal hidey holes (caves, the highwayman's lair, and under a hearthstone), three prime locations (Seekings, Trigger Hall in the North of England and Santa Barbara in South America), not forgetting three groups of friends for Kay (his old toys, the animals at Seekings, and Arthur's knights); there are even three generations of the truly sinister villain, each one called Abner Brown.The Midnight Folk introduces readers to Kay Harker, the orphaned boy who is also the hero of John Masefield’s classic Christmas fantasy, The Box of Delights. Kay lives in a vast old country house, and is looked after by an unpleasant duo: the oily and egregious Sir Theopompous and the petulant and punitive Sylvia Daisy Pouncer. In her zeal to educate Kay on the finer points of Latin grammar, Sylvia Daisy has even taken away all of Kay’s toys. Life seems very dull, until out of an old family portrait steps Kay’s great-grandfather, a sea captain, who, if legend is to be believed, made off with a fabulous treasure.