Five Children and It was published by T. Fisher Unwin in 1902, with illustrations by H.R. Millar. The novel follows five siblings (Cyril, Anthea, Robert, Jane, and baby Hilary, called “the Lamb”) who, during a summer holiday in Kent, discover a Psammead in a gravel pit — an ancient sand fairy, irritable and ugly, with telescoping eyes and a body like a furry spider. The Psammead can grant wishes, one per day, each lasting until sunset.
The genius of the novel is that every wish goes wrong. The children wish to be beautiful — and become unrecognizable to their own nursemaid. They wish for gold — and discover that Victorian shopkeepers won’t accept ancient coins from children. They wish to be able to fly — and are stranded on a church tower when their wings disappear at sunset. Each wish creates a problem that must be solved before dark, and the solutions require resourcefulness, quick thinking, and cooperation.
This structure — magic as complication rather than solution — was revolutionary. Earlier fantasy for children (George MacDonald, fairy tales) tended to use magic positively: wishes fulfilled, enchantments broken, good rewarded. Nesbit’s magic is trickster magic: it does what you ask, not what you want, and the gap between the two is the source of both comedy and narrative tension.
The Psammead itself is one of Nesbit’s finest creations: ancient, grumpy, vain about its appearance, resentful of the effort of wish-granting, and possessed of a sardonic wit that makes it one of the great comic characters in children’s literature.
Collecting Five Children and It
First edition (T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1902): Cloth binding, H.R. Millar illustrations.
Market values:
- First edition, fine: $800–$2,000
- Very good: $300–$800
- Good: $100–$300