... no, don't go in there! Oh well, too late. note
Book of Brownies
is one of the earlier works of esteemed British writer Enid Blyton, and one of her breakthrough masterpieces in literature.
Taking place in Fairyland (well, it's a Blyton book...), the story revolves around the misadventures of three brownies, Hop, Skip and Jump living together in Crab-apple Cottage.
The birthday of Princess Peronel is happening soon, and everyone living in Fairyland is invited... saved for the trio of brownies, because they haven't been behaving well. Rather than making a resolution to behave better this year, the brownies instead decide to attend the party anyways, posing as court magicians, when they come across a kindly old witch who offers to sell them a magic basket that can make objects disappear and re-appear at will.
Unfortunately, it ends up backfiring big time for the trio — remembering the old witch's advice, that they are to tap the magic basket "thrice for commoners, seven for royalty", when the naive Princess Peronel asks to be a volunteer for the magic show, she ends up getting whisked away. The kindly old witch? That's actually Witch Green-Eyes, the sworn enemies of Fairies everywhere, and she is holding the Princess as a hostage. In a rage, the Fairy King ends up exiling the trio out of Fairyland, until they can find their inner "goodness".
And thus Hop, Skip and Jump sets off on an adventure to find the princess and prove their worth to be re-accepted by Fairy society, on a trip that sends the trio bounding through enchanted forests, a Land of Giants, a Land of Clever Folks, and facing off against evil wizards of all sorts.
This book is noted to be the first appearance of the Saucepan Man, a relatively minor ally of the brownies who would a decade later show up in Blyton's The Faraway Tree trilogy as a major character.
An abridged re-telling (that doubles as a mini-review) can be found here.
The Tropes of Brownies:
- All for Nothing: Subverted in the ending: Hop, Skip and Jump, having spent the entire book looking for their bottled "goodness" as well as Princess Peronel, eventually rescues the princess from Witch Green-Eyes, only for the witch to recapture them, and they're forced to surrender their bottles in exchange for the witch leaving. But with the Princess rescued, the Fairy King is more than willing to forgive them, thus cancelling the brownies' exile allowing them back to Fairyland.
- The Atoner: Hop, Skip and Jump, after realizing their mischief had led to Princess Peronel being abducted by Witch Green-Eyes, sets out to redeem themselves by saving the princess. And along the way, collect proof of their "goodness" to present to the Fairy King.
- Banishing Ritual: How the brownies defeat the Golden Dwarf and rescue the Saucepan man, by finding an incantation and saying it aloud in the Dwarf's presence, causing the Dwarf to vanish permanently. It's a long, long, long incantation however ( Kerolamisticootalimarcawnokeeto) so the brownies decide to split it into three, memorize a third each, and say it in sequence. It works.
- Batman Gambit: How the brownies managed to escape from the wizard; when the wizard insists he is far more powerful than the Red Goblin, by showing off his Sizeshifting abilities by turning big, Hop goads him with, "But can you shrink?"... the wizard retaliates by shrinking to the size of a dime, at which point Hop grabs the wizard, shoves him into a bottle, and seals it.
- Big, Thin, Short Trio: The three brownies, Hop, Skip and Jump, in that order, with Hop as the eldest and de-facto main character.
- A Birthday, Not a Break: Princess Peronel gets kidnapped right in the middle of her birthday celebration.
- Bizarrchitecture: The evil wizard's cottage contains a door that disappears as soon as the brownies enter. And the building itself is constantly moving, everywhere.
- Character Development: All three brownies, as the adventure goes on, which is pretty much the point of the book. They become less mischievous, more responsible, Took a Level in Kindness, and the eldest, Hop, started showing Big Brother Instinct towards the younger brownies, Skip and Jump.
- Depraved Dwarf: One of the book's last villains, the Golden Dwarf, who abducted the Saucepan Man just as he's started becoming chummy with the three brownies. The three brownies have the choice of abandoning their friend for the princess, but they decide that they SHOULD rescue the Saucepan Man first.
- Evil Wizard / Evil Witch: Book contains both tropes:
- Witch Green-Eyes, the Big Bad responsible for the brownies' predicament by using them as pawns to kidnap Princess Peronel as her hostage. subverted in the final encounter, however; when the brownies, and the escaped Princess, gets recaptured, the brownies offers their bottled goodness in exchange for their freedom. Turns out Green-eyes is willing to make the trade and leave them alone afterwards, allowing the heroes to leave unscathed.
- Shortly after being banished from Fairyland, the brownies tried looking for directions in a cottage, only to realize (too late) that the cottage's owner is a hostile sorcerer who wants the brownies as his slaves.
- The Exile: The fate of the three brownies, Hop, Skip and Jump at the end of the first chapter, and they must redeem themselves by saving the princess.
- Fire-Forged Friends, While the brownies are already close due to being living under one roof, this trope definitely applies to the three brownies and the princess, and the Dragon-bird too.
- Forced Transformation: The Red Goblin, in classic fairytale "evil fair folk" style, can turn his victims into animals, transforming Skip and Jump into mice with a single curse. Hop, who is pretending to be another powerful wizard, have to force the Goblin into undoing the spell by revealing the evil wizard, trapped in a bottle, threatening to do the same to the Red Goblin. Thankfully it works.
- Fungus Humongous: The brownies use giant mushrooms◊ from an enchanted forest as impromptu umbrellas. Later on they used another as a boat◊.
- Giant Flyer: The Dragon-bird. Besides carrying the brownies to Witch Green-Eye's hideout and later carrying the brownies — plus the princess — to escape, the epilogue even states that after all the adventures are done, the Dragon-bird would occasionally come over for a visit, and carry his new friends for a ride every now and then.
- Godzilla Threshold: Hop, Skip, Jump, and the mermaid they've rescued, is being pursued by the Red Goblin. But Hop still have the bottle containing the imprisoned evil wizard, so he uncorks the bottle as soon as the Red Goblin catches them, and since the wizard hates the Goblin more than the brownies... cue the two old enemies battling each other whilst the brownies made their escape.
- Heel–Face Turn: The Dragon-bird, a henchman of the Golden Dwarf who kidnaps "exotic" people for the Dwarf's magic rituals, turns out to be a prisoner of the Dwarf. As soon as Hop, Skip and Jump caused the Dwarf to be banished, the Dragon-bird thanks the trio for freeing him, and later offers them a ride to find Witch Green-Eyes.
- It's the Journey That Counts: Basically the entire point of the adventure; the brownies, upon exile, must rescue Princess Peronel and uncover their inner "goodness" to be accepted into fairyland once more. But by doing three good deeds — saving the mermaid, the girl trapped in the Land of Clever People and the Saucepan Man — they have proven themselves to be good, after all. And although they ultimately lose their bottled goodness to Witch Green-Eyes, by delivering the Princess back to Fairyland they have successfully convince the King of their goodness, and thus they are pardoned from exile.
- Kidnapping Bird of Prey: The Dragon-bird kidnaps the Saucepan Man by swooping and grabbing him in its talons.
- Moving Buildings: The wizard's house, the first location the brownies enter and ends up being imprisoned in; thanks to Hop, they managed to trap the wizard in a bottle and escape, but as they open the door they realize the house had moved from the forest to a beach.
- Our Goblins Are Different: The Red Goblin in this book, for instance? He's a powerful goblin sorcerer who's The Dreaded, even compared to a fellow Evil Wizard.
- Our Mermaids Are Different: After escaping from the Wizard, the brownies end up in the Red Goblin's cottage, where they find a mermaid forcefully transformed into a human, with huge, ugly oversized feet. They made it their priority to rescue the mermaid and deliver her back to the sea, at which point her curse is then broken turning her back to a mermaid.
- The Phoenix: The Dragon-Bird, a phoenix-like monster serving the Golden Dwarf. Who's actually a neutral character imprisoned by the Dwarf, and supports the heroes after the brownies defeat the Dwarf for good.
- Platonic Life-Partners: Hop, Skip and Jump are unrelated, with the book stating they're just friends staying in the same house. But their relation are more like brothers, and they genuinely care for each other.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The Fairy King is in the right to banish the three brownies after their mischief inadvertently results in his daughter, Princess Peronel, getting kidnapped by Witch Green-Eyes. But the brownies atoned for their mistakes by rescuing the princess and find their inner "goodness", both which they succeed; but the brownies are forced to surrender their goodness in exchange for the princess. But nevertheless, once the princess is safe, the Fairy King is more than willing to cancel the banishment for the brownies to return, and even let the brownies occasionally visit the princess in the weekends!
- Rhymes on a Dime: The citizens from the Land of Clever People speaks like this, all the time, in order to emphasize their cleverness. This even applies to visitors, for the land's denizens only allow outsiders as clever as they are — failure to speak in rhymes is punishable by public spanking.
- Rhyming Wizardry: Most of the spells and incantations are cast in rhymes by blending sentences in English with nonsensical verbs, from Witch Green-Eye's magical transporting basket note to the Wise Man's Castle Creation Spell, the magic mushroom spell note and the incantation needed to activate a Flying Broomstick note .
- Unwitting Pawn: The brownies to Witch Green-Eyes, basically. Their adventure is kicked off when the witch tricks them into becoming her accomplices to kidnapping Princess Peronel.
- Wizard Duel: The wizard vs. the Red Goblin. The winner isn't confirmed by the book, though — the brownies made their escape by the sea with the stranded mermaid soon after.
