A young lad, staying with his doctor uncle and ex-nurse aunt during his summer holidays, discovers the entrance to a system of caves and, with four friends, decides to explore them. It must have been written in a time when such breath-taking foolhardiness was tolerated, even the uncle merely gives advice. But the character of each of the lads is tested to the full as they get into difficulties.
Memorable moments:
- "It was the kind of fear which seldom takes you in everyday life. It comes in dreams, in those nightmares when desperate things happen and you are the last living creature in a world that is breaking up and the fragments falling into bottomless chaos. Fear like that is something solid. It is made of steel, and has a razor's edge. At the same time it is cast and vague, shapeless as fog, and it smothers you with its horror. It is shameful, too; it breaks your pride and makes you crave to hide yourself away from your fellow men like a leper." (Ch 8)
- "He seemed to have got so far beyond the stage of being sorry for himself, that other people had to be sorry for him." (Ch 14)
This is a boys' adventure story which is very strong on describing the cave system and very good at showing the interactions of five young lads and pretty good at talking about some very fundamental human emotions.
An interesting historical note: In Chapter 16 John talks about the Piltdown skull and clearly considers it authentic. It was exposed as a forgery in 1953 but this book was published in 1950.
No comments:
Post a Comment