Tom's Midnight Garden
When the clock struck thirteen is a children's book by Philippa Pearce. It appeared in 1958 under the English title Tom's Midnight Garden and received in the same year the prestigious Carnegie Medal in Literature. The book is considered a masterpiece of English children 's literature. It was translated into many languages and adapted for radio, television, cinema and theater.
Summary
When Tom Long's brother Peter ill with measles, the vacation plans fall into the water: Instead of building a tree house in the garden, Tom needs to Uncle Alan and Aunt Gwen in quarantine so that it does not infect. These live in a small apartment in a former manor house that has no garden, as Tom finds disappointed. The landlady is the older, reclusive woman Bartholomew. For him there is nothing to do except crossword puzzles to solve, puzzles to merge, and Aunt Gwen's to read old girls books. Why is it incredibly boring, and he also shall not leave the house to infect anyone he feels unhappy and imprisoned. Aunt Gwen spoiled him though with delicious meals, but that just leads to the fact that he can not sleep at night because of his full stomach and the lack of movement. He often lies awake for hours, and when he stopped beating one night the old grandfather clock downstairs 13, he goes down and notes that the back door no longer results in the small backyard, but in a large, sunny garden. There he meets another lonely child called Hatty, who can see him as only one. They play together in the garden. Tom discovers that he can go through doors and walls and do not hurt when he falls from a tree; Hatty therefore considers it to be a ghost. During their adventures together will it gradually becomes clear that these take place in the Victorian era. Hatty is during visits Toms times younger, sometimes older, but as the story unfolds it slowly develops into a young woman. Tom's brother Peter is healthy again, but Tom is now trying to return herauszuzögern in to continue playing with Hatty in the garden. Shortly before his return home he has the last encounter with Hatty: They run on the frozen river Cam ice; since he has no skates, they were left to him by Hatty in the closet. The story ends with the fact that Tom finally Mrs. Bartholomew visited that met him in the garden as a small Hatty.
Genesis
In the late 1950s the mill house had to be sold, in which Pearce had grown up. Pearce was concerned that neither the garden would still survive the house. She wandered through the garden and making notes about everything that grew there. She wrote When the clock struck thirteen and moved into the stories her father about his own childhood in order to bring the past to light. He was in Hattys age when he drove during the chill from 1894 /95 to the River Cam from Cambridge to Ely skate. Tom and Hatty make the same journey in the book.
Allusions and references
The historical part of the book is set in the grounds of a villa that is similar to the house in some detail in which the author was growing up: The mill in Great Shelford, near Cambridge. Cambridge is in the book to Castleford, but without university. At the time when she wrote the book, the author lived again in Great Shelford, opposite the Mill House. The House of Kitson's probably based on a house in Cambridge, near which Pearce studied during their time at university.
The book deals with questions about space, time and reality. We are a while in the dark as to who exactly is the mind; in the garden it is always day, and mostly good weather; Hatty develops into a young woman, but Tom is the same age; Hatty and Tom do not agree which one of them is a spirit, and who is a living person; last gives the impression that the garden is the reality that has become childhood memories of an old woman. These themes also appear in her other books, particularly those about ghosts. The last meeting taking place between Tom, still a child, and the elderly Hatty, is considered one of the most moving moments of children's literature.
The theories used in the book about the time go partly back to JW Dunne's influential work An Experiment with Time, which also inspired other writers such as JB Priestley.
Awards and nominations
The book with the illustrations by Susan Only 1958 won the prestigious Carnegie Medal. 2007, it was listed by the judges of the Carnegie Medal as one of the ten most influential children's books of the past 70 years.
Film, Television and Theatre
The BBC filmed the book three times, in 1968, 1974 and 1988 ( Original Air Date 1989). A film with Anthony Way in the lead role was produced by Hyperion Pictures and BS24 1999. 2000 David Wood adapted the book for the stage.