Mistress Masham's Repose

Written by T.H. White · Illustrated by Fritz Eichenberg

A girl discovers tiny exiles on her estate, risking their safety from greedy eyes.

4.0/5 Goodreads · 1,956 ratings

272 pages

$15.99Save 6%

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Bookroo's summary

Young Maria, orphaned and curious, stumbles upon a hidden world of tiny people on her crumbling estate. These Lilliputians, exiled from their homeland, face new dangers as Maria's clumsy kindness and her guardians' greed threaten their secret existence. Can Maria protect them from exploitation, or will their sanctuary become a trap? As alliances form and tensions rise, Maria must navigate a delicate balance between friendship and betrayal in a world where size doesn't determine strength.

From the publisher

“She saw: first, a square opening, about eight inches wide, in the lowest step…finally, she saw that there was a walnut shell, or half one, outside the nearest door…. She went to look at the shell–but looked with the greatest astonishment. There was a baby in it.” So ten-year-old Maria, the orphaned mistress of Malplaquet, discovers the secret of her deteriorating estate: On a deserted island at its far corner, in the temple long ago nicknamed Mistress Masham’s Repose, lives an entire community of people–“the People,” as they call themselves–all only inches tall. With the help of her only friend–the absurdly erudite Professor–Maria soon learns that this settlement is no less than the kingdom of Lilliput (first seen in Gulliver’s Travels) in exile. Safely hidden for centuries, the Lilliputians are at first endangered by Maria’s well-meaning but clumsy attempts to make their lives easier, but their situation grows truly ominous when they are discovered by Maria’s greedy guardians, who look at the People and see only a bundle of money.

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