Little, Big by John Crowley
"Little, Big" is a novel that intricately weaves elements of fantasy and realism through the lives of the Drinkwater family and their enchanting estate, Edgewood. The story centers on Smoky Bar-nable, a shy bachelor from New York City, who embarks on a journey to marry his destined love, Daily Alice. The narrative unfolds in a non-linear fashion, exploring the family's secret destinies and the magical influences surrounding them, particularly those from the fairy world. Central characters include Smoky and Daily Alice, along with their daughters who possess an otherworldly understanding of life.
Key themes include love, transformation, and the interplay between the mundane and the magical, as exemplified by the family's interactions with fairies and their own personal struggles. The complex dynamics within the family are further enriched by motifs such as illegitimacy, the power of knowledge, and the weight of legacy. The novel also touches on broader societal themes, including political allegory through characters like Ariel Hawksquill, who connects the personal to the national scale. Overall, "Little, Big" invites readers into a richly imagined world that reflects the profound and sometimes ambiguous nature of love, destiny, and existence.
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Subject Terms
Little, Big
First published: 1981
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Fantasy—Magical Realism
Time of work: The 1880’s to the near future
Locale: The Edgewood estate in upstate New York and New York City
The Plot
The novel begins in the middle of what the characters self-consciously call the Tale. Smoky Bar-nable, a shy and old-fashioned bachelor from New York City (called only “the City”), journeys to the idiosyncratically built and literally magical estate, Edgewood, to marry his destined love, Alice Dale Drinkwater (nicknamed Daily Alice). The story unfolds both backward and forward, from the founding of the clan by architect John Drinkwater and his fey wife Violet Bramble (daughter of a spiritualist reverend) to the tale’s culmination, in which Daily Alice’s generation and their offspring permanently populate and renew the fading realm of the fairies.
The Drinkwaters all know that they share some secret destiny, although the women more gracefully play their parts and the men tend toward confusion or even irritation. The gifts of the fairies are not all benevolent, as Violet and John’s son August discovers. His wish that all women love him leads to his supposed death and actual metamorphosis into Grandfather Trout, giver of ambiguous advice. Violet’s illegitimate son Auberon is hurt by lack of contact with “them” and the secret from which he feels excluded. John Storm “Doc” Drinkwater, Daily Alice’s father, benefits from his ability to understand animals talking, becoming a successful writer of children’s books.
A tarotlike deck is handed down from Violet to her daughter Nora, from her to Doc’s wife Aunt Sophie, and finally to Daily Alice’s sister Sophie, from whom the cards are stolen. Smoky has an affair with Sophie, and she and Daily Alice learn to share his love, but Sophie’s illegitimate child by cousin George Mouse is taken by the fairies and trained as a messenger, with a horrific changeling left in its place. Smoky and Daily Alice’s three daughters, like the Fates, calmly do their needlework and know everything. Edgewood crumbles, but Smoky revives it by repairing a perpetual motion orrery; however, he dies shortly before his crossover to fairyland. Daily Alice becomes the spirit, almost goddess, of that limitless microcosm.
Most of the novel’s action is at Edgewood, but not all of it. George Mouse establishes an improbable farm in a block of ruined Manhattan buildings. There, Smoky and Alice’s son, Auberon, loves and loses Sylvie (and her twin brother, Bruno). Eventually, after Auberon experiences life as a homeless bum and then as a television writer, he and Sylvie reunite as king and queen of fairyland. Ariel Hawksquill, a magician who teaches Auberon the Art of Memory, introduces the only events in the story of national scale. She realizes that politician Russel Eigenblick (eventually elected president of the United States) is actually Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, returned from centuries of waiting until needed. The depictions of life in “the City,” though rarely supernatural, are as awesome and odd as the more fantasy-based events centered at Edgewood or concerning Ariel Hawksquill.