Dream Days

In Dream Days, childhood is a realm of fierce private obsessions, where each child claims a world of his or her own. Edward worships the British Army, the narrator loses himself in American frontier lore and pirate dreams, Harold can sniff out birds' nests and invent explosions, and Selina, improbably, lives in naval history so vividly that Nelson and Trafalgar feel as immediate to her as the autumn leaves around her. These fantasies are comic, grand, and deeply revealing, especially when Selina's patriotic reverie drives her to turn a small fire into a triumphant bonfire, only to be punished for her recklessness. Around her, the children's play collides with adult sorrow: Aunt Eliza's discipline, Martha's grief for her drowned sailor brother Billy, and the sting of Edward's ingratitude all darken the household. Yet the book keeps returning to the child's refusal to accept limits—whether slipping away from tedious social visits, imagining oneself a victorious general or pirate captain, or opening an old illustrated volume that seems to unlock a hidden city glowing with ceremony and color. Funny, wistful, and sharply observant, these scenes celebrate imagination as both escape and rebellion. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.