Reviewing "The House of Arden" by E. Nesbit

After reading Harding’s Luck and realizing halfway through it was a sequel, I decided I’d better go ahead and read the original story, The House of Arden, while the plot was fresh in my memory. Written by E. Nesbit, both books follow the adventures of children who magically time-travel into somewhat major events in English history, including the Gunpowder Plot, the Napoleonic Wars, and even meeting Henry VIII and Queen Anne (Boleyn).

In The House of Arden the history lesson quality is stronger than in Harding’s Luck, with siblings Edred and Elfrida Arden discovering that they can time travel by reciting poetry and dressing in period costumes. Their goal is the same as in Harding’s Luck: the once-influential and wealthy Arden family has fallen on hard times, having to rent out rooms in their small cottage as their ancestral castle crumbles into ruins. 

They are helped in their adventures by a white mole (as represented on the Arden family crest), called the Mouldiwarp. Apparently “mouldwarp” is an archaic term for “European mole,” so the name is not representative of anything else. This magical mascot of the family can be summoned by “poetry” (it’ll settle for anything that rhymes, even though it does seem to have sophisticated taste) and will help the children out of pretty much any predicament (not without complaining, however).

Interestingly the mole has a “country” accent, such as saying “ye” instead of “you”—when Nesbit remembers, that is. There are several scenes where she forgets to alter the spelling of the Mouldiwarp’s dialog to reflect his different pronunciation. The Mouldiwarp also appears in Harding’s Luck, joined by two others called the Mouldierwarp and the Mouldiestwarp—Nesbit is much more consistent with her vernacular dialog in the sequel, though she didn’t really introduce what these magic mole creatures were and (as I hadn’t read The House of Arden yet) I had no clue what was going on. But the reason I do think the accent is interesting is because it reminded me of the moles from Brian Jacques’ Redwall series. I wonder if this was a subtle homage to Nesbit on Jacques’ part.

The House of Arden and Harding’s Luck weave together a surprisingly complex plot, with the Arden family threading in and out from history. In a way both books tell the same story from two different angles. Unlike Dickie Harding, Edred and Elfrida are not perfect little protagonists, as they argue and each have their own strengths and weaknesses. For instance, Elfrida has a tendency of showing off her knowledge of history (or trying to change historical events), which sometimes backfire and land her in the Tower of London. They also have a habit of forgetting their mission to find the Arden treasure and thus save their family’s future, or of having misplaced priorities: as it turns out, the treasure might not be the most precious prize to be won in this adventure.

While there were annoying parts from both books—Harding’s Luck has an overly perfect hero, and The House of Arden has a few parts that are melodramatic or self-referential to other E. Nesbit works—I would say that TOGETHER the stories form an intricate plot that uses magic and science fiction to teach the importance of history in general and of one’s family in particular.