The Borrowers by Mary Norton

First published: 1952; illustrated

Type of work: Fantasy

Themes: Family and friendship

Time of work: The late nineteenth century

Recommended Ages: 10-13

Locale: A country home in England

Principal Characters:

• Arrietty Clock, the thirteen-year-old daughter of the borrower family, who seeks adventure and yearns for contact with other borrowers
• Pod Clock, Arrietty’s father, an excellent provider for his family, who knows the world beyond the floorboards and the dangers it holds
• Homily Clock, Arrietty’s mother, whose values rest in a safe, secure home which is tidy and well furnished
• The Boy, a curious, lonely nine-year-old child, recovering from rheumatic fever, who discovers and befriends the Clock family of borrowers
• Mrs. May, the boy’s sister, who, as a grown woman, goes to live with relatives and reveals the story of the borrowers to Kate
• Kate, the young girl whose lost crochet hook prompts Mrs. May to tell her about the borrowers

The Story

Structured as a story-within-a-story, The Borrowers is told by Mrs. May to Kate, her young relative. Young Kate ponders aloud over the topic of lost hooks and safety pins, and Mrs. May, who responds with, “Don’t say they’re in this house,” reveals the origin of misplaced items by telling the story of the Clock family, which was discovered by her brother.

For years, the Clock family had gone undetected by everyone but Great Aunt Sophy, who believed her encounters with Pod to be a creation of her imagination and fine, old Madeira wine. Their meetings posed no threat for the Clock family. One night, however, after returning from a borrowing jaunt for a teacup, Pod tells his wife, Homily, that their most horrible fear has come true: “I been ‘seen.”’ With his discovery by another human, a boy, Pod and Homily fear for Arrietty. They finally reveal to her that an outside world, beyond their safe quarters under the kitchen, exists. This world is filled with humans who pose grave threats to borrowers, as witnessed by their kin’s unfortunate demise.

Arrietty, then, becomes intent on leaving her safe confines. Pod and Homily reluctantly agree, for their survival may depend one day on their daughter’s skill at borrowing. When Pod takes Arrietty with him to borrow, they are sighted by the same boy who had helped Pod abscond with a teacup. Out of Arrietty’s fear and the boy’s disbelief and distrust springs a conversation about their two races. The boy informs Arrietty of the vast numbers of humans, a fact that runs counter to her belief that only a few humans exist to serve the needs of the Clock family. From this revelation, Arrietty begins to realize that borrowers are few; in fact, they may be dying out. This fear leads her to make contact with relatives who have “emigrated” from a comfortable human house to the badger-sets because of their daughter’s unfortunate meeting with a cat. An exchange of letters with her uncle reveals that Arrietty’s Aunt Lupy had disappeared on her way to see the Clock family—more evidence of the borrowers’ decline.

The boy continues to help the Clock family, providing them with new furniture from a dollhouse and, more daringly, with knickknacks from the drawing room. When Mrs. Driver, the housekeeper, discovers these missing items, her relentless tracking of the thief ends with the discovery of Pod, Homily, and Arrietty. She hires the local rat catcher to smoke them out. The rat catcher arrives, all escape routes are sealed with cement, and the boy can only watch helplessly outside. He remembers a grate, however, and, taking an ax, he chops an escape path, but he never witnesses their escape.

While the boy’s story ends here, Mrs. May’s continues. She too had gone to Great Aunt Sophy’s home and had left doll furniture, tea, and coffee for the borrowers. She never saw the Clocks, but the items were taken. She did discover Arrietty’s journal as proof that borrowers exist. However, the book ends with Mrs. May’s teasing observation to Kate: the letter “e” from Arrietty’s diary looked just like her brother’s handwriting.

Context

The Borrowers began a highly popular, critically acclaimed series of books which span several decades. Norton’s first novel was followed by The Borrowers Afield (1955), The Borrowers Afloat (1959), The Borrowers Aloft (1961), and The Borrowers Avenged (1982). Each of these novels chronicles the adventures of the Clock family and personal growth of Pod, Homily, and Arrietty.

Critics have praised The Borrowers for its realistic detail. Norton’s brilliance has created a miniature world where a potato is rolled, not carried, out of the storehouse; where postage stamps of Queen Elizabeth become sitting-room portraits; and where the lid of a cigar box with its chiffon-dressed ladies and palm trees is the ceil-ing of Arrietty’s bedroom. Norton’s skillful ability to give new purpose and function to common items from the human world establishes The Borrowers as believable.

From the creation of a realistic world, dependent upon goods from humans, Norton has skillfully woven humor into her story, capturing both the readers’ and the critics’ attentions. Homily’s insistent primping for the boy’s nightly visit and Pod’s desperate need to escape from the constant rearrangement of furniture in Great Aunt Sophy’s bedroom are two excellent examples of Norton’s use of humor.

Clearly, The Borrowers has all the hallmarks of a successful fantasy. Its basic premise is unique; the characters, situations, and setting are believable; and its underlying meaning, a social comment on the reader’s world, is significant. Furthermore, Norton’s work brings fantasy into the domestic realm in a distinctive way. No cyclone is needed, as in L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900); no wardrobe exists for an entrance to Narnia. Travel, therefore, is not necessary to enter the fantasy world of the borrowers. Instead, the borrowers appear to those who look closely and carefully—their world intimately dependent upon and existing simultaneously with that of humans. Because of this proximity, The Borrowers is a fascinating book for children.