![]() ![]() They play peaceably, predator and prey, in the great fictional kingdoms, or sometimes, as in Charlotte's Web, they try very hard not to be killed and eaten. They take bedtime baths, hear bedtime stories, and kiss their parents goodnight. Children's books are filled with humans in animal guise. Of course, I must be careful insisting on Charlotte's non-human character. ![]() The tradition of great non-human characters has always been a potent oneand it was and continues to be an important book to me. Of all the responses I've gotten to We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, I was most pleased by a reviewer who identified Charlotte's Web as its progenitor. It was the first book in which I experienced the death of a character I don't think I'd understood such a thing was even possible and I know I couldn't have managed Little Women, much less the relentless Tess of the D'urbervilles, all those years later if Charlotte's Web hadn't toughened me up. I can still remember the moment when, having caught the tremor in her voice, I looked up, saw her face, and realised with great shock that clever, generous Charlotte might die. Charlotte's Web was first read to me by my mother. ![]()
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