If you have little girls who adore dolls and doll houses and setting up house for their dolls, they will relish this sweet little tale!

Tottie, Birdie, Mr. Plantaganet, Apple and their dog Darner are one happy, mixed match doll family, who belong to two sweet little girls who love them to pieces. The only thing that could make them happier is to have a house - a real, old-fashioned doll house - with a sampler couch, matching chairs, wallpapered walls and cozy beds.

This is their story, with some hardships, losses, and dreams fulfilled.

Illustrations by the talented Tasha Tudor!

Ages: 5 - 10

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“It is an anxious, sometimes a dangerous thing to be a doll. Dolls cannot choose; they can only be chosen; they cannot 'do'; they can only be done by”
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I much preferred teddy bears to dolls as a child. Dolls had those eyes that click clacked from side to side and followed you around a room. Horrifying…..


And The Dolls House, a twisted little children’s tale from Rumer Godden, would have in no way endeared them to me. At the heart of this story presides Marchpane. She might be dressed in frills and flounces but there is no heart in her body made of bone china


Cuckoo like, she moves into the doll’s house lovingly made for Tottie Plantagenet and her doll family. Marchpane bends the household to her will until she breaks it. Tottie and the human child Emily can see what is really happening but are powerless to prevent it proving that dolls and sometimes children cannot do but must be done by


A deceptively simple tale about families, but like all of my favourite children’s books, this has shade to offset the light…

This is the kind of book I loved as a child -- the inner lives of toys -- and at nearly fifty, my tastes haven't changed. A delightful story of a doll family, told in shifting third-person-limited points of view: the dolls' and their owners'. There is surprising and subtle wisdom here, too, and perfect illustrations by Tasha Tudor. Very glad I finally got around to this.

Okay, so . . . I didn't enjoy this book. It was pretty well-done, but just so sad. I know some people do like it; but personally, I would say that if you want to read Rumer Godden, try "The Kitchen Madonna" or "The Story of Holly and Ivy." They're much happier.

Interesting little book written mostly from the perspective of a mixed-matched family of dolls. I found myself a little nervous when I started to read it; probably stemming from an irrational fear of dolls I had when I was little. ;) So funny how those things hang on. There was suspense, sadness, joy, and a few little lessons thrown in. Enjoyable book, perfect for girls ages 8 and up.

Sweet.

This was a favorite of mine when I was a child. It's even more charming than I remembered.

The Plantagenets—a group of dolls of different types, made into a family by being thrown together and belonging to the same two girls—long for a proper doll house in this children's novel from Rumer Godden. Their wish is granted when the little girls, Emily and Charlotte, inherit a house from an elderly relative, and everything seems ideal at first. Tottie, a little farthing doll from 1846, is distressed by her experiences being loaned out to an exhibition, but is happy when she discovers she is not to be sold. But when Marchpane—a vain and cruel doll Tottie knew long ago—enters the scene, the Plantagenets find their happiness destroyed. Pushed aside in their own house, and disregarded by Emily, the elder of their two human girls, things go from bad to worse. Only an act of sacrificial love on the part of Birdie, a celluloid doll who is the mother of the Plantagenet family, sets things to rights...

Originally published in 1947, with illustrations by Dana Saintsbury, The Dolls' House was republished in the edition I read in 1962, with new artwork from Tasha Tudor. I have not seen the earlier edition, and therefore cannot speak to its appeal, but when it comes to the illustrations, this newer edition was simply charming! Tudor's black and white drawings, sprinkled throughout, are delightful, and greatly enhanced my reading experience. The story itself was fairly engaging, although nowhere near as appealing as some of Godden's other doll tales, such as n  The Story of Holly and Ivyn, which is a personal favorite. I tend to have an on-again off-again relationship with doll fiction, sometimes finding it very appealing and poignant, and then sometimes being indifferent to it. This was shaping up to be in the latter category, until the final few chapters, which were unexpected and quite melancholy. I think Godden does some interesting things here, playing with themes such as the longing for a home—the dolls are a mismatched group, and some have experienced misfortune, so I interpreted this longing not as materialism, as some reviewers have stated, but as a desire for safety—and the silliness of class divisions. After all, Marchpane is a refined and expensive doll, whereas Birdie is a "cheap" celluloid doll, but in the end, it is the latter who has true value. All in all, I'm glad to have read this one, even though it's not destined to become a personal favorite, and I would recommend it to readers who enjoy doll fiction.

Not for those young ones sensitive to tragedy, even of the doll variety. Told mostly through the perspective of a family of dolls, with parts thru the two little girls who are their owners.

*RECOMMENDED BY TEHILA R-F

the first thing i tought "why did we real this book at all" to me it was pointless because "ok i already knew how women were treated back then" but not i dont need to go OVER it again.

Menacing but Marchpane was not the hoped for villain


I discovered this book while reading Lucy Mangan's excellent "Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading" and decided I should find out what I missed as a child. I did quite enjoy the story - and the delightful feeling of menace - but found the characterisation rather thin, even bearing in mind that this is a children's book. I had expected Marchpane to be a truly memorable character but didn't think she was a patch on the Queen of Hearts, the White Witch or Cruella de Vil. I also wondered about a child's reaction to a very dramatic and upsetting (even to an adult fan of Stephen King) event which occurs towards the end of the book. (I won't reveal what happens; I am assuming if you are reading a review, you haven't yet read the story.) The nearest parallel would in some senses be Aslan's fate in "The Lion, the Witch and Wardrobe" which I remember was quite shocking to me as a child, yet the this book and the whole series of Narnia books were amongst my childhood favourites. Another concern is that although the story explores good and bad, it seems ultimately to convey the message that evil is rewarded.