E. F. Benson 2 hr 16 min read

A small boy passes through a blue door into a dream-logic wonderland of flame-cats, living game-cupboards, and Miss Muffet's spider.

E. F. Benson's 1918 children's fantasy, illustrated by H. J. Ford, sends young David into a Carroll-esque realm of nursery-rhyme surrealism. A charming period piece of Edwardian juvenile fantasy from a master better known for ghost stories. Read it for whimsical dream-adventure in the tradition of Alice, from an unexpected hand.

In its time

Published in 1918, during the 1910s, lost worlds and interplanetary adventure.

Reading it

2 hr 16 min read (a novella, a full arc in one sitting or two).

Illustrated by

H. J. Ford