The Borrowers Series by Mary Norton
The Borrowers Series is a captivating four-book fantasy written by English author Mary Norton that tells the story of miniature people known as Borrowers. These tiny individuals live by borrowing items from humans, using discarded objects for their daily needs. The series begins with "The Borrowers," introducing the Clock family—Pod, Homily, and their daughter Arrietty—who must escape from their home after being seen by a human boy. As the story unfolds across the subsequent books, the family embarks on various adventures in their quest for a safe and undisturbed place to live.
The second book, "The Borrowers Afield," follows their challenges in the fields as they seek out relatives. "The Borrowers Afloat" sees them navigating a treacherous journey down a river in a makeshift vessel, while the concluding book, "The Borrowers Aloft," involves a daring escape from kidnappers seeking to exploit them. Each installment builds on the themes of survival, ingenuity, and the desire for a home. The series highlights the imaginative struggles of the Borrowers in a world dominated by humans, echoing universal themes of family and resilience.
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The Borrowers Series
First published:The Borrowers (1952), The Borrowers Afield (1955), The Borrowers Afloat (1959), and The Borrowers Aloft (1961)
Type of work: Novels
Type of plot: Fantasy—alien civilization
Time of work: The late nineteenth century
Locale: England
The Plot
Mary Norton, English actress, playwright, and award-winning author, tells in a four-book series the engrossing fantasy of miniature people known as Borrowers. They are so called because they live by “borrowing,” for their own use, lost or discarded items around a house, such things as scraps of food, dropped needles and pins, matches or candles that have fallen behind a chest, dollhouse furniture, or half of a pair of broken scissors—things that people know they have but simply cannot find at the moment.
The four books in the Borrowers series actually compose one continuous story in four episodes. The first book, The Borrowers, establishes the parameters of the fantasy, introduces the central family, describes the under-the-kitchen-floor setting, and reveals some of the conflicts and challenges that confront the family daily. The three following books in the series relate further adventures of the inches-high people as they search for a place where they may live undisturbed by “human beans.”
The Borrowers begins as Mrs. May tells young Kate the fanciful story of the little people her brother, Tom, had made up—if indeed he had made them up. Pod, Homily, and Arrietty belong to the Clock family of Borrowers, so named because they enter and leave their home under the kitchen floor through a hole at the base of a grandfather clock. They must find a new residence because Pod, the father, has had the misfortune of being seen by a human, “the boy” who is sick abed in Firbank Hall, the home occupied by old Aunt Sophie and Mrs. Driver, the housemaid. Moreover, Arrietty, the Borrower daughter, has even dared to talk to the boy. Although his kindness in bringing them useful things and even offering to let them live in the dollhouse upstairs shows that he is no threat to them, the family members know that they must leave when Mrs. Driver discovers their presence and calls the rat catcher to smoke out the “horrible creatures.” They make their escape to the fields in the nick of time.
The grown-up Kate continues the story in The Borrowers Afield. She tells her children the story she learned from Tom Goodenough himself when she, as a child, visited Mrs. May, who had inherited Firbank Hall upon Aunt Sophie’s death. Searching for their relatives who supposedly are living in a badger’s set, the Clock family suffers many hardships in the fields. Their makeshift home in an abandoned boot provides little protection from moths, snakes, cows, owls, field mice, Gypsies, and a cold winter. Once again “the boy” comes to their rescue when Pod, Homily, and Arrietty are discovered in the caravan of Mild Eye the Gypsy. Along with Spiller, an ingenuous orphan Borrower who often assists them, the Clock family finds temporary quarters with Lupy, Hendreary, and Eggletina, their sought-for relatives who have moved from the badger’s burrow into the walls of Firbank Hall.
In The Borrowers Afloat, Pod, Homily, and Arrietty must again search for a new home because the departure of Tom and his grandfather from the cottage will leave no food for Pod to “borrow.” The locked house seems to have no avenue of exit, but the resourceful Spiller comes and leads the Clock family out through the washhouse drain pipe. As if this harrowing experience were not enough, the family of three must endure a treacherous trip down the river in a tea kettle. Although they are seen and almost caught again by Mild Eye the Gypsy, Spiller saves them. They make their way toward a hobbyist’s miniature village at Little Fordham.
The Borrowers Aloft completes the series about the little people. The family enjoys life in the model village at Little Fordham, especially Homily, who has always wanted a proper house of her own. Unfortunately, Arrietty again commits the indiscretion of talking to a human, this time the housekeeper for kindly Mr. Pott, the builder of the tiny village. Before they can leave, the family is kidnapped by a greedy couple who hope to use them to increase business at their own miniature showplace. Locked in the couple’s attic, the Borrowers inge-niously construct a passenger balloon, float out the attic window, and make their way back to the replica village. Pod and Homily know, however, that Borrowers and humans do not make good company. After a night’s rest, they will be off again in search of a new home.