Black Hearts in Battersea
Nightbirds on Nantucket
Joan Aiken
Houghton Mifflin
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Black Hearts in Battersea and Nightbirds on Nantucket are the second and third books in prolific
author Joan Aiken's ongoing Wolves Chronicles series (or, as it's sometimes called, The King
James III series), set in an alternate nineteenth century where the Stuarts still sit on the English throne,
and the House of Hanover (which in reality was brought in to rule England in the 1700's) constantly and futilely
plots to replace them. The earlier novels in the series are less overtly fantastical than the later ones, which
involve Arthurian legend, mythical lands, and other fairytale marvels; nevertheless, their madcap plots, quirky
characters, towering perils, and hairsbreadth escapes work the spellbinding magic that's the essence of the best
children's fantastic fiction.
In Black Hearts in Battersea, Simon (the orphan of the first book in the series, The Wolves of Willoughby
Chase) comes to London to study painting. He's supposed to live with his friend and mentor, Dr. Gabriel Field;
but when he gets to Field's lodgings, the doctor is nowhere to be found, and the landlords--a distinctly peculiar
couple named Twite--insist they've never heard of him.
Puzzled, Simon takes lodgings with the Twites, and enrolls at the Marius Rivière Academy of Painting. He
takes the Twites' neglected, sharp-tongued daughter Dido under his wing, and makes the acquaintance of the Duke
and Duchess of Battersea, where he's delighted to find his childhood friend Sophie, now serving as the Duchess's
maid. Meanwhile, his suspicions of the Twites are increasing by the hour--quite justifiably, it turns out, for
the Twites are the masterminds of a dastardly Hanoverian scheme to overthrow King James III. With the help of Sophie,
Dido, and the students of the Rivière Academy, Simon sets out to save the day, precipitating a series of
adventures that culminate in some very unexpected revelations about his own identity.
Black Hearts in Battersea proceeds at a breakneck pace, propelled by improbable dangers, fortuitous discoveries,
and astonishing coincidences. In Aiken's world, nothing happens randomly: chance meetings on the street will always
prove important later, and even the items characters carry in their reticules have significance. Eccentric villains
abound, and equally eccentric heroes. Each character has his or her own distinctive voice: one of the delights
not just of this book but of the series as a whole is Aiken's ear for dialogue, from the fractured English of Dr.
Furneaux, headmaster of the Rivière Academy, to Dido's Cockney slang.
Like the other Wolves novels, Black Hearts in Battersea is very funny. One never doubts that
Simon and his friends will prevail, and that everything will turn out right in the end. Yet the dangers Sophie
and Simon and Dido encounter are real, and bring them face to face with true human evil. Aiken is especially concerned
with the mistreatment of children; one of the hallmarks of her villains is that they are cruel to young people.
This portrayal of the dark side of human nature, and the fact that the characters must possess not just cleverness
and luck, but genuine strength of spirit in order to overcome the obstacles they confront, lends the series a depth
beyond its clever amusements.
The resourceful Dido Twite returns in Nightbirds on Nantucket. Saved from a watery grave by the crew of
the whaling vessel Sarah Casket, Dido finds herself unexpectedly on the way to Nantucket Island. The ship is captained
by the otherworldly Jabez Casket, who is preoccupied by his hunt for a huge pink whale. Also on board are Nate,
a friendly cabin-boy, Mr. Slighcarp, the ship's shifty first mate, Dutiful Penitence, Captain Casket's timid daughter,
and a threatening female stowaway wearing bottle-green boots.
On Nantucket, Dido and Penitence are left in the care of Captain Casket's sinister sister, Aunt Tribulation. Aunt
Tribulation is almost too horrid to be true, and Dido can't imagine how she'll stand it until she can find a ship
to take her back to England. But then she and Penitence stumble upon a group of mysterious men lurking in the forest,
led by Mr. Slighcarp. Could they possibly have anything to do with the pair of bottle-green boots Dido found hidden
in the attic? It turns out that Dido has stumbled into the middle of another Hanoverian plot. She must rally all
her cleverness to foil it, with help from Penitence, Nate, and the pink whale herself.
Not quite so madcap as its predecessor, Nightbirds on Nantucket still has plenty of topsy-turvy action and
adventure, and the usual cast of endearing and improbably eccentric characters. The Nantucket setting is vividly
realized, and Captain Casket's obsessed pursuit of Rosie, the pink whale, amusingly echoes Moby Dick (there's
even a lesson on whaling, though thankfully it lasts only a few pages).
Dido, a secondary player in the previous book, comes into her own here. Aiken has said that she did not originally
intend for Dido to survive the shipwreck in Black Hearts in Battersea, but changed her mind as a result
of a letter from a young reader begging her not to let Dido drown. Readers may be grateful to that anonymous letter-writer,
for Dido is one of the great heroines of children's literature--confident, ingenious, self-sufficient, and possessed
of a sharp understanding of those around her that enables her to make her way even when her situation seems most
dire. She takes no guff from anyone, faces good fortune and hardship with equal aplomb, and stands always on her
sense of honor.
Dido's exploits are chronicled in several subsequent books, which take her to far stranger lands and into even
more fearful perils. Like Black Hearts and Nightbirds, they're well worth seeking out.
Copyright © 2000 Victoria Strauss
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