The 13 Clocks: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

I have loved this book for its zaniness and charm since my brother read it to me when I was 10. In high school I adapted it for the stage and we acted it out against a stylized background of clock faces pinned to the red velvet curtain. Reading it to my daughter, I saw the occasional Shakespearean references for the first time. The illustrations by Marc Simont are sublime. One of us later made it an important part of a young adult novel she wrote. The Golux has been my model of the ideal magical helper we all aspire to.

"Once upon a time, in a gloomy castle on a lonely hill, where there were thirteen clocks that wouldn't go, there lived a cold, aggressive Duke, and his neice, the Princess Saralinda." Well. that first line has just about everything you need to start off a fairy tale, doesn't it? And it only gets better from there. The New York Review has just reissued Thurber's classic, paired with the illustrations by Marc Simont, with a new introduction by Neil Gaiman. The 13 Clocks is as full of fairy tale as you can get, with a Princess, the evil Duke, and, of course, a Prince. But there's also a Golux, who seems wise, but who sometimes makes things up and is extremely forgetful, the 13 clocks, an old woman who cries jewels, and the Todal ("The Todal looks like a blop of glup. , , , It makes a sound like rabbits screaming, and smells of old, unopened rooms.") The story, although it's exciting and scary and thrilling, isn't even the best part. No the best part, as far as I'm concerned is the words that make up the story itself and the poetical way Thurber weaves them together. It's not really poetry, yet, at the same time, it is. This story, like poems, uses those glittery, evocative, slippery wonderful words -- like "brambles and thorns and "bonged the gongs of a throng of frogs, all green and vivid on their lily pads." Words like "gleep" and "made of lip" and "impudence" and "savage clash of swords." -- that together imbue the tale with feeling and delight. + This is truly a wonderful story and one that simply begs to be read aloud.

If you like The Last Unicorn and Alice in Wonderland, you’ll probably like James Thurber’s fairy tales. His work is a fun mix of the wordplay of Lewis Carroll and the beautiful, sometimes half-poetic prose of Peter S. Beagle, plus the gentle satire that can be found in both of those. The 13 Clocks is light enough to read in a day or two, but also unique enough to stick with you for a lot longer than that. It seems like a typical fairy-tale conundrum: a wicked Duke is trying to prevent his niece, Princess Saralinda, from marrying, because he is always cold and her hand is the warmest in all the castle. He sets her suitors impossible tasks and kills them when they can’t complete them. But one day, a young minstrel named Xingu decides to try and thwart the Duke. With the help of the Golux, Xingu may be able to not only win the hand of the Princess Saralinda, but get the 13 stopped clocks in the Duke’s castle up and running as well. The 13 Clocks looks a lot like a kids’ book, what with its slim girth, large print, and color illustrations. A kid would definitely enjoy it, but adults shouldn’t ignore it, either. The writing is clever and fun enough, as Neil Gaiman says in his introduction to the book, that you’ll look for any excuse to read it aloud. Take this quote from the Golux: “I resemble only half the things I say I don’t. The other half resemble me.” Or this description of an ancient hag’s abode: “It was cold on Hagga’s hill, and fresh with furrows where the dragging points of stars had plowed the fields … There was a smell, the Golux thought, a little like Forever in the air, but mixed with something faint and less enduring, possibly the fragrance of a flower.” Now, what grown-up wouldn’t be a child again to live on words like that? That’s why The 13 Clocks works as well as it does. It may have some predictable qualities – well-used plot, stock heroes and villains (except the Golux, who will live on forever in my heart) – but the language is superb, and the pictures aren’t bad, either. (Thurber, known for his endearingly less-than-stellar drawing skills, didn’t illustrate this book; he had Marc Simont do it because his eyes were getting bad.) It’s a great gift for anyone who loves words, even if that person is yourself.

A delicious fairy tale for adults. Thurber's prose is seductive and vivid and a treat to read aloud. Children will get the story,but adults will relish the words and the humor.

I have been reading this book repeatedly since I was about eight, and it never fails to be a delight. Thurber's description, that he was trying to write an old-fashioned story in which the good guy gets the princess and the bad guy loses is accurate, but it doesn't tell the whole story. James Thurber pulls out all the stops in his writing with rhymes, alliteration, imaginative similes, and sly (but always squeaky-clean) descriptions. Take note of all the references to Gilbert & Sullivan songs that are dropped in passing, as well as the author's penchant to take popular sayings and stereotypes and tweak them or turn them on their heads. The story is beautiful. The writing is a stylistic fireworks show that never seems to become stilted or dense. The characters are lovable, hateable, scary, or funny in turns (witness especially the grisly and unimaginable Todal, which gleeps. Yes, really. Read it, and you'll see). It's short. It's beautifully illustrated. And it's ever so hard to put down. If you're a fan of fairy stories, or of good English style, or of humor, or of the innocently macabre, you will soon find this one of your all-time favorite books. I cannot recommend it too much.

If you love reading fairy tales, then you will want to purchase a copy of "The 13 Clocks". James Thurber's fantasy is one you will also want to share with your children or grandchildren. Containing all the elements of a classic fairy tale - from "...Once upon a time ..." to the princess in distress and her wicked captor, the Duke - the writing elevates this book to classic status. Imaginary creatures, a heroic prince disguised as a commoner and humorous situations all add to "The 13 Clocks" appeal. Like Stephen King's "The Eyes of the Dragon" and William Goldman's "The Princess Bride", this book is more than a fairy tale - it is an extraordinary piece of literature. Thurber's use of rhymes within conversations, the alliteration, and the convoluted conversations of the Golux, reminiscent of Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First?" routine, is masterful. "The 13 Clocks" is a wonderful book and one that I will definitely be recommending to friends.

I bought this because Neil Gaiman wrote the intro and highly recommended it. It's ok. Cute and the language is interesting and I do agree with him that it would be fun to read aloud. I wasn't blown away though.

Had to collect this book. One of the all-time classics!

Probably one of the most original books, ever! Should be on everyone's bookshelf. Read and reread, gift to everyone you like & envy those who are reading it for the first time.

Ordered with Wordery and got it weeks ahead of when was expected! Cannot wait to read it!

This was a book I discovered in the school library back in the 1970s. That copy, I think I remember, was reversable -- so if you held it the right way up it was "The 13 Clocks", whereas upside down and back to front, it was "The Wonderful O". What child could resist? Sadly, this edition, probably slightly later, is a more traditional imprint (or my memory has invented the upside-down aspect, equally possible!) but everything else is as I remember it. Fun, in a "let's subvert the fairytale format" sort of a way, and although I'd forgotten much of the story in the last forty-cough years, it was all instantly familiar and I was as delighted by it as I remember being back then. It seems a little sad that the world has moved on and not kept Thurber in people's minds but I'd recommend this to anyone who is, or ever has been, a child.

The book was good. It got delivered on time

Probably the best children 's book ever written for adults!