- Paperback: 192 pages
- Publisher: Flamingo; New edition edition (2 Aug 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0006551513
- ISBN-13: 978-0006551515
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.2 x 1.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
501,241 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #40 in Books > Children's Books > Authors & Illustrators > G > Garner, Alan
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
A classic work of rural magic realism from one of Britain’s greatest children’s novelists
Four interconnected fables of a way of living in rural England that is now disappeared.
Craftsmen pass on, or withhold, secrets of their relationship with the natural world, which gives them the material from which they create useful and beautiful things. Smiths and chandlers, steeplejacks and quarrymen, all live and work hand in hand with the seasons, the elements and the land. There is a mutual respect and a knowledge of the magical here that somehow, somewhere was lost to us. These fables beautifully recapture and restore it to us.
And a very particular landscape, on the outskirts of industrial Manchester, is brought vividly to life.
From the Back Cover
Four interconnected fables of a way of living in rural England that has now disappeared.
Craftsmen pass on, or withhold, secrets of their relationship with the natural world, which gives them the material from which they create useful and beautiful things. Smiths and chandlers, steeplejacks and quarrymen – all live and work hand in hand with the seasons, the elements and the land. There is a mutual respect and a knowledge of the magical here that somehow, somewhere was lost to us. These fables beautifully recapture and restore it. And a very particular landscape, on the outskirts of industrial Manchester, is brought tangibly to this beautiful book’s pages.
Alan Garner is widely held to be the most distinctive and memorable writer of children’s literature that Britain has produced since the Second World War. With the publication in 1996 of 'Strandloper', he gained a wider audience for his work among adults, an audience who will find pleasures and rewards aplenty in this modern classic, republished here for the first time in Flamingo.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
34 of 34 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Alan Garner is very much the precursor of the current cross-over authors like Pullman and Haddon, but is still mystifyingly pigeonholed as a children's writer. Yes the lovely Weirdstone of Brisingamen, Elidor and Moon of Gomrath are classic books for 9-11 year olds, but everything he has written since the spooky Owl Service has become more complex and elusive.
The Stone Book Quartet has to be his finest book and I would suspect possibly one of the major landmarks of 20th century literature. It is a book of awesome power and depth, particularly considering its brevity, but I cannot imagine the child that would read it willingly. This is adult fiction, superbly crafted, pin-point observation and deeply sophisticated. It examines the cumulative layers of human change over four generations of a cheshire family through an oblique lens. Garner's not a kind writer and unswervingly peels back the layers of frailty (and strength) in his characters. I love the Stone Book Quartet unreservedly for its poetic prose and its precision - but I would not expect a child to 'get' it - well maybe a 16/17 year old at a push. I tried to read it when I was about 14, and drifted away from it completely - fortunately I came back to it as an adult. I hope many others will.
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This marvelous book, one of the finest works of fiction of the last quarter of the 20th century, presents one day in the life of each of four generations of a rural British family and ranges from about 1860 to the Battle of Britain. Each tale features a significant moment in the life of the featured child, a moment when a more profound connection is made with a member [or members] of a preceding generation, and in which the reader can see the continuance of tradition and family love. In distinction from Garner's works of the '60s, "Stone Book Quartet" is completely realistic and is worthy of standing alongside his Carnegie- and Guardian-award-winning "Owl Service."
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Alan Garner, author of the classics 'The Weirdstone of Brisinghamen' and 'The Moon of Gomrath' among others, here writes four connected stories, chronicling significant events in the lives of various craftsmen and their families in Cheshire over several generations. The four short stories can each stand alone, but the recurrence of families, places and even people links them together, so that overall we are given a picture of change and continuity in a small community.
Crafts such as those of stone-workers and blacksmiths are described, as one generation passes on secrets and wisdom to the next. People's thoughts on God, war, industry and other social issues are dealt with in passing, as the characters go about their lives.
A gentle but profound book, chronicling a place and an era, and showing beautifully how children move into the adult world as they learn the wisdom and the skills of their elders.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Clean, unadorned, allusive writing
I enjoyed Alan Garner's books when I was younger - not only the well-known The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Owl Service, but also the dense and resonant Red Shift (which has... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Jeremy Walton
A quiet and simple story
When I was younger, I loved the Alan Garner books I read because of their exciting stories, fantasy characters and mythic themes, all of which attributes are completely absent from... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Katie Stevens
Is there anything to this book?
I'm giving my own opinion on (yet another) completely overrated book, which is beginning to be something of a personal cause. Read more
Published on 10 July 2006 by Mr. D. J. Read
Delightful Evocation of Elemental Magic
The book is set in England in the 18th or 19th Century, where people are working by hand on various Elements (Stone, Wood, Metal etc,), and brings out the magic of the relationship... Read more
Published on 16 Mar 2006 by M. R. N. Shackelford
Surprising!
I first found the book, believing it had a connection to the fantasy books I have read earlier. As I read it, though, I was not in the least disappointed! Read more
Published on 23 Sep 2004 by B. Jonsson
A masterpiece
The first story "The Stone Book" (originally published by itself) is a real gem. Lyrical, thought-provoking, not a word wasted. Read more
Published on 3 Feb 2002
An excellent follow up
Alan Garner has yet again succeeded in capturing your imagination through the words in which he writes. Read more
Published on 16 Nov 2001
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