The Reluctant Dragon (short story)
"The
Reluctant Dragon" is an 1898
children's story
by Kenneth Grahame,
originally published as a chapter in his book Dream
Days. It is Grahame's most famous short
story, arguably better known than Dream Days itself or the related The Golden Age.[1] It can be seen as a prototype to most modern stories in
which the dragon is a sympathetic character rather than a threat.[2]
Plot
The
story takes place in the Berkshire
Downs in Oxfordshire (where the author lived and where, according to legend, St.
George did fight a dragon).
In
Grahame's story, a young boy discovers an erudite, poetry-loving dragon living in the Downs above his home. The two become friends, but soon afterwards
the dragon is discovered by the townsfolk, who send for St George to rid them
of it. The boy introduces St George to the dragon, and the two decide that it
would be better for them not to fight. Eventually, they decide to stage a fake joust between the two combatants. As the two have planned, St
George harmlessly spears the dragon through a shallow fold of skin suggested by
the dragon, and the townsfolk rejoice (though not all of them, as some had
placed bets on the dragon winning). St George then proclaims that the dragon is
reformed in character, and he assures the townsfolk that the dragon is not
dangerous. So the dragon is then accepted by the people.
Reviews
One
scholar describes the book as "a story about language", such as the "dialect of the illiterate people", and the "literary aspirations of the
dragon".[3] The story also has an opening scene in which a little girl
named Charlotte (a character from Grahame's The Golden Age) and a
grown-up character find mysterious reptilian footprints in the snow and follow
them, eventually finding a man who tells them the story of the Reluctant
Dragon; two abridged versions (one by Robert D. San Souci
and illustrated by John Segal and another abridged and illustrated by Inga
Moore) both omit this scene. A New
York Times review by Emily
Jenkins notes that this framework is
somewhat long-winded and might cause some parents to worry about whether the
story can keep children's attention. However, she finds the unabridged version
preferable to both abridgments (although she says that "Moore retains the
pure joy of the author's descriptive passages").[4]
Peter
Green, in his 1959 biography of Grahame, writes that while the story can be
viewed as a satire like Don
Quixote, the characters can be seen on a
deeper level as representing different sides of the author himself: St. George
represents Grahame as a public servant who works for the Establishment while
the Dragon represents his anarchic, artistic, and anti-social side.[5]
Legacy
The
story served as the key element to the 1941 feature film with
the same name, from Walt Disney Productions. The story has also been set to music as a children's operetta by John
Rutter, with words by David Grant. In
1960, it was presented as a live-action episode starring John
Raitt as St. George, on the television
anthology The Shirley Temple Show. On 21 March 1968, Burr
Tillstrom and Kukla, Fran and Ollie starred in a puppet version on NBC. In 1970–1971, it formed part of the anthology television
program The
Reluctant Dragon and Mr. Toad Show.
In 1987, Cosgrove Hall Films
adapted it for Thames ITV. In 2004, Candlewick Press published the story as a
picture book, with dozens of illustrations by Inga
Moore. In 2008, Tony
DiTerlizzi wrote Kenny & the Dragon as a tribute to Grahame's story, including naming the two
heroes Kenneth and Grahame.
References
· · Blount, Margaret
(1974). Animal
Land: The Creatures of Children's Fiction. New York: William Morrow & Company. p. 117. ISBN 0-688-00272-2.
· · Lerer, Seth
(2008). Children's
Literature. University of Chicago Press.
p. 220. ISBN 0-226-47300-7.
· · Jenkins, Emily
(2004-10-17). "Abridging
'The Reluctant Dragon'".
The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-11-04.
·
Green, Peter (1959). Kenneth Grahame: A Biography. Great Britain:
John Murray. pp. 182–183.
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