REREAD: Journey to the River Sea
Nov. 8th, 2020 02:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllJourney to the River Sea: Eva Ibbotson (Macmillan, 2002)
I’ve now reached the Ibbotson children’s books I own on my rereading of her books. This is, in a way, a romance for children – sharing the Brazilian setting and echo of fairy tales of ‘A Company of Swans’. The heroine is the orphaned Maia, and though her relationship with the hero, Finn, is platonic, he comes across as a younger version of many of Ibbotson’s heroes and it’s strongly suggested that when they grow up, they’ll have adventures together. It’s also never clarified exactly how old the children are. Clovis, who’s about the same age as the other two, is struggling with his voice breaking, but that varies from boy to boy.
But arguably the central relationship in this book or even its love story (other than between Maia and Brazil) is between Maia and her governess. Maia’s first impression of tall Miss Minton is not that promising, but the born teacher becomes 'Minty', as Maia is transplanted to a new world, and instead of finding love with her relations, finds rebuffs and estrangement. But how much can she rely on her? Minty is slow to communicate her affection and, more importantly, her plans with Maia, with disastrous results.
But to summarise the story, orphaned Maia is informed by her lawyer guardian that she’s to leave her London school, where she has been spending her holidays, to go live with cousins, the Carters, in Brazil. The promise of adventure in the rainforest and being part of a family again appeal to Maia, who has a gift for friendship as well as singing. Miss Minton will travel with her and teach her and her twin cousins on arrival. On the way there, they befriend a child actor – Clovis, who has a much less adventurous spirit than Maia.
What Maia and Miss Minton find when they arrive at Manaus is…not what Maia hoped. Mr Carter has a very peculiar hobby, his wife is obsessed with cleanliness and doing things the British way, and Maia’s cousins are stupid and selfish. (I felt sorrier for them than the author perhaps intended because with their parents and upbringing, they had little opportunity to be nice children, although Ibbbotson also offers counter examples of nice children who had terrible upbringings throughout the book.)
Nonetheless, Maia befriends Indians, finding out why the Carters’ servants are sullen, and makes a real friend in Finn, who may be autocratic enough to drug people who get on his nerves, but loves and understands nature – natural history is a big part of the book. He requires Clovis and Maia’s help…
I think I experienced this as a more scattered book than I did the first time around; there’s so much going on, with chapters separated into parts.
At the very beginning, when we meet Maia in her school, run by two sisters, I was thinking of ‘The Little Princess’, though it’s a good school run by wise and kind women. It’s ‘Little Lord Fauntleroy’ that gets referenced most. Clovis’s theatre troupe is to put on an adaptation at the theatre in Manaus and there is an echo of the plot here.
Although it’s not limited to Brits abroad, the narrow and racist respectability the shabby Carters aspire to is parodied and shown to be noxious, from insisting on eating the tinned foods imported from abroad instead of feasting on the fresh food of the land to the symbolic corset Miss Minton is forced to wear, even in cruel heat. It’s what stifles Maia, denying her affection and is often shown to run counter to her and other characters’ best interests. There is a strong theme of justice being meted out in the book. The story mainly follows the children, but not exclusively, and the glimpses we get of Miss Minton’s past life are particularly poignant, as she too finds treasures on the shores of the rivers of Brazil.
[Edited for flow and typos 5/8/23.]
I’ve now reached the Ibbotson children’s books I own on my rereading of her books. This is, in a way, a romance for children – sharing the Brazilian setting and echo of fairy tales of ‘A Company of Swans’. The heroine is the orphaned Maia, and though her relationship with the hero, Finn, is platonic, he comes across as a younger version of many of Ibbotson’s heroes and it’s strongly suggested that when they grow up, they’ll have adventures together. It’s also never clarified exactly how old the children are. Clovis, who’s about the same age as the other two, is struggling with his voice breaking, but that varies from boy to boy.
But arguably the central relationship in this book or even its love story (other than between Maia and Brazil) is between Maia and her governess. Maia’s first impression of tall Miss Minton is not that promising, but the born teacher becomes 'Minty', as Maia is transplanted to a new world, and instead of finding love with her relations, finds rebuffs and estrangement. But how much can she rely on her? Minty is slow to communicate her affection and, more importantly, her plans with Maia, with disastrous results.
But to summarise the story, orphaned Maia is informed by her lawyer guardian that she’s to leave her London school, where she has been spending her holidays, to go live with cousins, the Carters, in Brazil. The promise of adventure in the rainforest and being part of a family again appeal to Maia, who has a gift for friendship as well as singing. Miss Minton will travel with her and teach her and her twin cousins on arrival. On the way there, they befriend a child actor – Clovis, who has a much less adventurous spirit than Maia.
What Maia and Miss Minton find when they arrive at Manaus is…not what Maia hoped. Mr Carter has a very peculiar hobby, his wife is obsessed with cleanliness and doing things the British way, and Maia’s cousins are stupid and selfish. (I felt sorrier for them than the author perhaps intended because with their parents and upbringing, they had little opportunity to be nice children, although Ibbbotson also offers counter examples of nice children who had terrible upbringings throughout the book.)
Nonetheless, Maia befriends Indians, finding out why the Carters’ servants are sullen, and makes a real friend in Finn, who may be autocratic enough to drug people who get on his nerves, but loves and understands nature – natural history is a big part of the book. He requires Clovis and Maia’s help…
I think I experienced this as a more scattered book than I did the first time around; there’s so much going on, with chapters separated into parts.
At the very beginning, when we meet Maia in her school, run by two sisters, I was thinking of ‘The Little Princess’, though it’s a good school run by wise and kind women. It’s ‘Little Lord Fauntleroy’ that gets referenced most. Clovis’s theatre troupe is to put on an adaptation at the theatre in Manaus and there is an echo of the plot here.
Although it’s not limited to Brits abroad, the narrow and racist respectability the shabby Carters aspire to is parodied and shown to be noxious, from insisting on eating the tinned foods imported from abroad instead of feasting on the fresh food of the land to the symbolic corset Miss Minton is forced to wear, even in cruel heat. It’s what stifles Maia, denying her affection and is often shown to run counter to her and other characters’ best interests. There is a strong theme of justice being meted out in the book. The story mainly follows the children, but not exclusively, and the glimpses we get of Miss Minton’s past life are particularly poignant, as she too finds treasures on the shores of the rivers of Brazil.
[Edited for flow and typos 5/8/23.]
