This week I re-read (aloud) the James Thurber classic, The 13 Clocks. The fairy-tale-ish story of an ernest young prince disguised as a wandering minstrel, and of a beautiful damsel imprisoned by her cold-hearted guardian, and of an impossible quest . . . you get the picture. Toss in Thurber's whimsical humor, and you have The 13 Clocks!
Here is Thurber's depiction of the lovely Princess Saralinda:
The Princess Saralinda was tall, with freesias in her dark hair, and she wore serenity brightly like a rainbow. It was not easy to tell her mouth from the rose, or her brow from the white lilac. Her voice was faraway music, and her eyes were candles burning on a tranquil night. She moved across the room like wind in violets, and her laughter sparkled on the air, which, for her presence, gained a faint and undreamed fragrance.Later, the Prince and his magical companion known as The Golux are traveling through a dense forest, in a quest that will save the Princess Saralinda from a terrible fate. But of course, they get a little lost:
The brambles and the thorns gre thick and thicker in a ticking thicket of bickering crickets. Farther along and stronger, bonged the gongs of a throng of frogs, green and vivid on the lily pads. From the sky came the crying of flies, and the pilgrims leaped over a bleating sheep creeping knee-deep in a sleepy stream, in which swift and slippery snakes slid and slithered silkily, whispering sinful secrets.Hey, folks, read something for fun now and then. It's good for the soul! As Thurber himself wrote in the forward to this book, "Unless modern Man wanders down these byways occasionally, I do not see how he can hope to preserve his sanity."
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