What the Eggs Have To Say:

"Characters like my parents and I were a big part of didactic fantasy literature of the eighteenth century. While fairy tales were frowned upon, many children's stories did have an element of fantasy in them, and this usually involved animals or inanimate objects who could communicate.

Two forms of communication were very common. First, the animal or object might communicate directly with the audience, as I am doing now. In addition, animals or objects might communicate with each other in the story. For instance, I have just called out for help from my mommy and daddy, who heard me and hopefully will rescue me before this nasty little boy crushes me before I have a chance to break out of this shell.

The third kind of communication was fairly rare in eighteenth century literature. An animal or object character very rarely spoke directly with any human characters. Perhaps eighteenth century readers thought this was far too imaginitive."5

Forward Text

Back to text

What Little Tom has to say

What the poor boy has to say

What the Eggs have to say