The English language has gone through some transformations in usage and meaning since the days of Queen Victoria, and in that time wonder has become more a question then a feeling. A person is more apt to wonder about something than to feel wonder in the everyday course of their life these days. That's where Mr. Gaiman comes to our rescue - he can genuinely create a world where wonder is an everyday occurrence and we can experience it simply by reading his words.
There are no major intellectual breakthroughs in his books, no difficult emotional barriers to overcome, just the easing of the toils of the mind and the heart for a short while, which in itself is a wonder all its own. Though I must warn you — these books can have a strange effect on those who read them, which spills out into their world in unexpected ways. But I have yet to see any evidence of that. Although it would be nothing to wonder at if it were true.
Article comments
1 - Snarkattack
Fab review! Doesn't it make you feel all wide-eyed and expectant as one once did in childhood upon hearing of such places and people?
My copy is the graphic novel version illustrated by Charles Vess and the art is just sumptuous.
I hear they are planning to make a film adaptation of this, I pray it's not true. Something's bound to get...mucked up.
2 - Katie McNeill
I was looking at this online somewhere the other day and now I'll just have to pick it up
3 - Natalie Bennett
This article has been selected for syndication to Advance.net, which is affiliated with newspapers around the United States. Nice work!
4 - Defying Gravity since 1993
After reading the novel a million and one times i decided that Stardust is possibly the best book ever written. The film version isn't that bad either but i would have liked to have seen the film to follow the book a little better - especially the end of it. The film is too nice and childlike yet the novel is a bit more grown up (for example, Tristan dies at the end of the novel but in the film he and Yvaine live happily ever after in the sky) I think the way Neil Gaiman drew on fairytales and intergrated them into the novel was superb and the use of imagery and gentle reminders that the novel isn't as nice as it seems (like the unicorn dieing) is brilliant! Excellent read! I would recomend it to anyone!