Marianne Dreams (Faber Children's Classics)
by Catherine Storr

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Book Reviews of Marianne Dreams (Faber Children's Classics)

Book Review: Enter the Dreamworld...
Summary: 5 Stars

Written in 1952, Marianne Dreams tells the story of a ten-year old girl who becomes very ill on her birthday. Proud to have finally ridden a horse, young Marianne suddenly realizes that she doesn't feel well, and upon the visit of the family physician (back in the days when house calls were common, of course) she is sent to bed for several weeks.

It is while she is recuperating that she finds The Pencil, as she describes it, buried in a box full of buttons that her grandmother collected when she was a girl. Bored with staying in bed and restricted from moving about, Marianne begins to draw with The Pencil. Later that evening, an empty field appears in her dreams.

Marianne doesn't connect The Pencil to her dreams until much later, and by that point, she has drawn a terrifying nightmare for herself, including an empty house and its sick occupant, a boy named Mark whom Marianne has heard about from her tutor. Mark has polio, and the disease has ravaged his body to the point where he cannot walk. In Marianne's dreams, Mark sits in the window seat, watching the huge stones and misshapen flowers below.

Marianne cannot get inside the house, though, until she draws a door with The Pencil. She cannot get upstairs to Mark until she draws a staircase. When she does all of this in reality in her drawing pad, and then sees the results in her dreams, Marianne finally makes the connection and begins to provide Mark with various luxuries: a bed with warm covers, a shelf full of books, games, and food. She spends her dreams with Mark, talking and playing cards. And watching the watchers.

What I remember most of this story are the watchers, the huge stones outside the house. Marianne drew them as simple rocks at first; later, when she became angry with her illness, her family, and even Mark, she added eyes to the rocks, and they became the watchers of her dreams. Always staring at the house, mysteriously moving closer, and uttering shadowy threats, the stones terrified me as much as they scared the children in Storr's book.

Eventually, the children escape the house. I won't tell you how, because it must be read and enjoyed, with all of the suspense a thriller can afford its audience.

Catherine Storr's writing is fluid and elegant; unlike most young adult novels which are produced in the 90s, her text is simply exquisite in design, form, and presentation. I didn't get the feeling I was reading a children's book. The feelings and situations, the dilemmas and terrors... all of that came through her words with absolute clarity. So much so, that, some fifteen years later, certain scenes in the book still terrify me.

Marianne Dreams was made into a movie called Paperhouse staring Glenne Headley and Ben Cross in 1989. In the movie, Marianne's father takes on the role of the tormentor in Marianne's dreams, and while the movie is enjoyable and scary, it's not truly faithful to the original text.

Somewhere along the journey from Germany to the US, I lost my copy of Marianne Dreams. I don't know what prompted the desire in me to read it again, but it took me several months to locate a bookstore in England who would see and ship it to me here in the US. Of course, now Amazon.Com has provided us with a wonderful link to UK stores, so anyone can purchase this book now. I highly recommend doing so, too... it's a great scare and a great book. You won't be disappointed.

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