Once on a Time

My 1962 Copy

Thirteen years ago, I wandered the stacks of UVA's Alderman Library while working on a research project. Tucked in a dusty shelf, I found some treasures. The world knows A.A. Milne for his Winnie the Pooh books. I know A.A. Milne for Once on a Time. It wasn't until I read this book that I fell in love with this man's writing style, and I think he deserves a place next to P.G. Wodehouse in the British author hall of fame.

Once on a Time used to be difficult to find. I remember cleaning out Half.com's 1980's copies for my Brit Lit class in 2005. My favorite version, by far, is the 1962 copy with illustrations by Susan Perl.

Why do I enjoy this book so much? It truly is the perfect storm of witty dialogue, droll characters, humorous illustrations, and enchanting plot line. In the note from the Publisher, Milne says:

This is not a children's book. I don not mean by that. . . 'Not for children,' which has an implication all its own. Nor do I mean that children will be unable to appreciate it. . . . But what I do mean is that I wrote it for grown-ups. More particularly for two grown-ups. My wife and myself.... This is a Fairy Story; and it is a Fairy Story for grown-ups because I have tried to give some character to the people who wander through its pages. Children prefer incident to character; if character is to be drawn, it must be done broadly, in tar or whitewash. Read the old fairy stories and you will see with what simplicity, with what perfection of method, the child's needs are met. Yet there must have been more in Fairyland than that. . . . Life in Fairyland was not so straightforward as the romancers pretend. The dwellers therein had much our difficulties to meet, much our complex characters wherewith to attack them. Princes were not all good or bad; fairy rings were not always helpful; magic swords and seven-league boots not the only necessary equipment for fighter and traveler. The inhabitants of that blessed country were simpler than we; more credulous; but they were real men and women. I have tried to do justice to them.

The Countess attempts to convince Princess Hyacinth that she is funding a large army... when it is in fact only Woggs running around a group of trees repeatedly.

Milne even when so far as to call Once on a Time his best work. It's so hard to sell this book to others. I find that Milne agrees with me there (again from the preface):

...But as you can see, I am still finding it difficult to explain just what sort of book it is. Perhaps no explanation is necessary. Read in it what you like; read it to whomever you like; it can only fall into one of the two classes. Either you will enjoy it, or you won't. It is that sort of book.

If ever a prince deserved to be turned into a rabbit/lion/thingish thing... it was Udo.

This is true. My senior students seven years ago loved the book. I've heard from several of them through the years and this book, along with The Code of the Woosters, remains at the top of their favorite list. But then, I shared it with a book club and had mixed reactions. Most did not understand the book. To me, this book is not to be understood. It just is.

I'm planning on working this back into my Brit Lit rotation next year. Now that the book is public domain, I'm going to add it to my anthology I'm putting together with iBooks Author.