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Summary
Summary
Mariel of Redwall
Author Notes
Brian Jacques was born in Liverpool, England on June 15, 1939. After he finished St. John's School at the age of fifteen, he became a merchant seaman and travelled to numerous ports including New York, Valparaiso, San Francisco, and Yokohama. Tiring of the lonely life of a sailor, he returned to Liverpool where he worked as a railway fireman, a longshoreman, a long-distance truck driver, a bus driver, a boxer, a police constable, a postmaster, and a stand-up comic. During the sixties, he was a member of the folk singing group The Liverpool Fishermen. He wrote both poetry and music, but he began his writing career in earnest as a playwright. His three stage plays Brown Bitter, Wet Nellies, and Scouse have been performed at the Everyman Theatre.
He wrote Redwall for the children at the Royal Wavertree School for the Blind in Liverpool, where he delivered milk as a truck driver. His style of writing is very descriptive, because of the nature of his first audience, for whom he painted pictures with words, so that they could see them in their imaginations. After Alan Durband, his childhood English teacher, read Redwall, he showed it to a publisher without telling Jacques. This event led to a contract for the first five books in the Redwall series. He also wrote the Castaways of the Flying Dutchman series. He died on February 5, 2011.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-8-- Redwall Abbey is once again the center of a multistranded adventure. Independent of its predecessors, Redwall (1987), Mossflower (1988), and Mattimeo (1990, all Philomel), it follows the mousemaid Mariel in her quest for vengeance against the searat Gabool the Wild and his Rodent Corsairs, who imprisoned her father and left her to drown during a storm at sea. Tough and resiliant, she makes her way to Redwall, where she finds stalwart companions who will accompany her through the Mossflower woods back to Gabool's stronghold, where he is descending into madness. Meanwhile, the good creatures of Redwall are besieged by a renegade band of searats. Intrepid readers willing to tackle a book this long will be further impeded by the sections of dialect used to delineate class structure. Since the writing style is cliched, much of the action contrived to be cute, the characters one-dimensional, and the villains predictable vermin, readers may wonder ``why bother?'' Nor will they find illumination of human-animal kinship. Clever substitutions like ``anybeast,'' ``foremole,'' and ``every ratjack of ye'' serve only to remind that these animals are almost entirely human surrogates. Even the frequent references to woodland cuisine are tedious enough to become unappetizing. A book that's somewhat pretentious, and one that will appeal mainly to fans of Jacques's earlier medieval fantasies. --Margaret A. Chang, North Adams State College, MA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
A female protagonist, Mariel the mousemaid, lends a contemporary touch to the fourth installment in Jacques's Redwall series, which narrates epic events among the animals in the manner of Watership Down. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
The fourth of the adventurous Redwall sagas features a new heroine - a gritty warrior mouse maiden who seeks revenge against the dreadful pirate Gabool - and the usual kindly monks, loyal companions in arms, and heavily humorous, dialect-spewing laborers. The fighting and the feasting are conducted with enthusiasm. The series has not lost its remarkable level of energy. From HORN BOOK 1992, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
In volume four of the Redwall Abbey saga, peace is threatened when Mariel--a fierce young mousemaid who's lost her name but kept her hatred for Gabool, the pirate rat king--arrives worn and half-starved. After recovering her memory under the kind care of the Abbey animals, Mariel sets forth to settle accounts with Gabool, accompanied by Dandin, descendent of Martin the warrior mouse; Tarquin L. Woodsorrel of the ``long patrol'' of intrepid hares; and Durry Quill, an adventurous young hedgehog. Led by an old poem uncovered by Dandin; menaced by needle-beaked herons, masked weasels, and loathsome toads; and helped by unexpected allies, they make their way to Gabool's stronghold- -where his vicious band is in disarray and Gabool himself has been driven mad by the booming of the bell he stole from Mariel and her bellsmith father, en route to Lord Rawnblade Widestripe, badger hero. After hair-raising adventures, Mariel--with friends, father, a band of escaped slaves, and Rawnblade--defeats Gabool and recovers the bell. Astonishing stuff: the by-now expected mixture of cliché piled on cliché; British music-hall dialects and humor; rhapsodies on raspberries, nuts, and delectable-sounding forest concoctions; characters that epitomize their class origins but sometimes rise above them; and plots from Sabatini by way of Tolkien--all combine in a satisfying ripsnorter of an adventure. Mariel marries Dandin, peace returns to Redwall, and it would be churlish to complain. (Fiction. 9+)
Booklist Review
Gr. 5-7. Jacques regains the momentum and power of Redwall [BKL Je 1 87], which faltered somewhat in Mossflower [BKL N 1 88] and Mattimeo [BKL Ap 15 90], in his fourth entry in the now beloved saga about the animals of Redwall Abbey. Set in time between Redwall and its prequel, Mossflower (the story of Martin the Warrior), this episode tells how the great Joseph Bell is brought to the abbey. Writing with a grand storytelling verve, the author follows the adventures of Mariel (the daughter of Joseph the bellmaker), who, with the help of Martin's spirit and her knotted rope called Gullwacker, becomes a warrior in her own right. Thrown into the ocean to die by the savage pirate rat Gabool the Wild (who has stolen the bell and imprisoned her father), the feisty mousemaid not only survives, but also makes her way to the abbey from whence she leads a small band against Gabool and his minions. As always, Jacques maintains a strong sense of good versus evil--the evil doers are totally malicious, avaricious, ugly, murderous, willing to go to any lengths to achieve their goals; the good exhibit courage, love, compassion, comradeship, humor, but are ready to go into battle, even if it means killing, to protect what they hold dear. And as always, Jacques' characters are fully developed and true to their natures; his dialectal dialog resounds with wit; the plot is filled with action, drama, and larger-than-life violence; and good conquers all. A satisfying tale with wide appeal that extends beyond its intended audience. ~--Sally Estes