''The Story of the Treasure Seekers'' is a novel by

E. Nesbit Edith Nesbit (married name Edith Bland; 15 August 1858 – 4 May 1924) was an English writer and poet, who published her books for children as E. Nesbit. She wrote or collaborated on more than 60 such books. She was also a political activist an ...

first published in 1899. It tells the story of Dora, Oswald, Dicky, Alice, Noel, and Horace Octavius (H. O.) Bastable, and their attempts to assist their widowed father and recover the fortunes of their family. The novel's complete name is ''The Story of the Treasure Seekers: Being the Adventures of the Bastable Children in Search of a Fortune''. The original edition included illustrations by H. R. Millar. The

Puffin Puffins are any of three species of small alcids (auks) in the bird genus ''Fratercula''. These are pelagic seabirds that feed primarily by diving in the water. They breed in large colonies on coastal cliffs or offshore islands, nesting in crev ...

edition (1958) was illustrated by Cecil Leslie. Its sequels are ''The Wouldbegoods'' (1901) and ''The New Treasure Seekers'' (1904). The story is told from a child's point of view. The narrator is Oswald, but on the first page he announces: "It is one of us that tells this story – but I shall not tell you which: only at the very end perhaps I will. While the story is going on you may be trying to guess, only I bet you don't." However, his occasional lapse into first person, and the undue praise he likes to heap on himself, makes his identity obvious to the attentive reader long before he reveals it himself.

Publication

The Bastables stories from ''The Story of the Treasure Seekers'' were first published between 1894 and October 1899 in an assortment of periodicals: ''Nister's Holiday Annual'', the ''

Illustrated London News ''The Illustrated London News'' appeared first on Saturday 14 May 1842, as the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine. Founded by Herbert Ingram, it appeared weekly until 1971, then less frequently thereafter, and ceased publication in ...

'' and its supplement ''Father Christmas'', ''

The Pall Mall Magazine ''The Pall Mall Magazine'' was a monthly British literary magazine published between 1893 and 1914. Begun by William Waldorf Astor as an offshoot of ''The Pall Mall Gazette'', the magazine included poetry, short stories, serialized fiction, and ge ...

'', and the ''

Windsor Magazine ''The Windsor Magazine'' was a monthly illustrated publication produced by Ward Lock & Co from January 1895 to September 1939 (537 issues). The title page described it as "An Illustrated Monthly for Men and Women". It was bound as six-monthly ...

''. The order in which the chapters appeared was changed for the one-volume publication in 1899. Some of them also underwent extensive rewriting.

Influence on other literature

''The Story of the Treasure Seekers'' was the first novel for children by E. Nesbit. This and her later novels exerted considerable influence on subsequent English children's literature, most notably

Arthur Ransome Arthur Michell Ransome (18 January 1884 – 3 June 1967) was an English author and journalist. He is best known for writing and illustrating the ''Swallows and Amazons'' series of children's books about the school-holiday adventures of childre ...

's books and

C. S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University (Magdalen College, 1925–1954) and Cambridge Univers ...

' ''

The Chronicles of Narnia ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' is a series of seven high fantasy novels by British author C. S. Lewis. Illustrated by Pauline Baynes and originally published between 1950 and 1956, ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' has been adapted for radio, telev ...

''. Lewis notes in the first chapter of ''

The Magician's Nephew ''The Magician's Nephew'' is a fantasy children's novel by C. S. Lewis, published in 1955 by The Bodley Head. It is the sixth published of seven novels in ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' (1950–1956). In recent editions, which sequence the books ...

'' that the portion of the action of that book that takes place in this world happens at the same time as that of the Treasure Seekers. The American writer

Edward Eager Edward McMaken Eager (June 20, 1911 – October 23, 1964) was an American lyricist, dramatist, and writer of children's fiction. His children's novels feature the appearance of magic in the lives of ordinary children. Most of the ''Magic'' series ...

was also influenced by this and other Nesbit books, most notably in his Half Magic series, where he mentions the Bastable children and other Nesbit characters as heroes of his characters. Nesbit's influence on other British and American children's literature rests largely on the following motifs: her protagonists are a set or sets of siblings from a separated or incomplete family. The events of the story take place while the children are isolated as a group,for example, while on holiday. Through magic or complex imaginative play, the children face perils that they overcome through

pluck Pluck or plucking may refer to: Removal * Plucking (hair removal), the removal of hair, fur, or feathers * Feather-plucking, a behavior in birds * Plucking post, as used by birds of prey to dismember their prey * Plucking (glaciation), a process ...

. Another notable feature is the depiction of the realistic quarrels and faults of the children.

J. K. Rowling Joanne Rowling ( "rolling"; born 31 July 1965), also known by her pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author and Philanthropy, philanthropist. She wrote ''Harry Potter'', a seven-volume children's fantasy series published from 1997 to ...

, writer of

Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...

, ranked Nesbit as one of her favourite authors, and ''The Story of the Treasure Seekers'' as her favourite of Nesbit's books. British writer

Michael Moorcock Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939) is an English writer, best-known for science fiction and fantasy, who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has work ...

later used the character, or at least the name, of

Oswald Bastable Oswald Bastable is a fictional character created by Michael Moorcock. He is the protagonist in ''The Warlord of the Air'', ''The Land Leviathan'', ''The Steel Tsar'', and appears in other stories too. Origin in Nesbit's Oswald Bastable E. Nesb ...

for the hero and first-person narrator of his trilogy ''

A Nomad of the Time Streams ''A Nomad of the Time Streams'' is a compilation volume of Michael Moorcock's early steampunk trilogy, begun in 1971 with '' The Warlord of the Air'' and continued by its 1974 and 1981 sequels, ''The Land Leviathan'' and ''The Steel Tsar''. T ...

'', published from 1971 until 1981, an influence on the nascent genre of

steampunk Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that incorporates retrofuturistic technology and aesthetics inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. Steampunk works are often set in an alternative history of the Victorian era or ...

TV adaptations

The book has been made into TV series three times, in 1953, 1961, and 1982. It was made into a television movie as '' The Treasure Seekers'' in 1996.
File:Treasureseekers.jpg, Puffin Classics edition File:P297 (Treasure Seekers).jpg, Illustration by

Gordon Browne Gordon Frederick Browne (15 April 1858 – 27 May 1932) was an English artist and a prolific illustrator of children's books in the late 19th century and early 20th century. He was a meticulous craftsman and went to a great deal of effort to e ...

File:P059 (Treasure Seekers).jpg, Illustration by

Lewis Baumer Lewis Christopher Edward Baumer (8 August 1870 – 25 October 1963) was best known as an English cartoonist who worked for more than fifty years for the British magazine ''Punch'', from 1897. He was also a portrait and still life painter, pastell ...

References

External links

The Story of the Treasure Seekers
from the Full Text Archive * * Also at Project Gutenberg:
''The Wouldbegoods''
– sequel
''New Treasure Seekers''
– sequel
''Oswald Bastable and Others''
– with 4 more Bastable stories {{DEFAULTSORT:Story of the Treasure Seekers, The 1899 British novels Novels by E. Nesbit English novels British children's novels Novels set in London British novels adapted into films 1890s children's books