Nonsense Books · Chapter
The Story of the Four Little Children Who Went Round the World explained
Four children—Violet, Slingsby, Guy, and Lionel—set sail around the world with a cat and a Quangle-Wangle.
What happens
Four children—Violet, Slingsby, Guy, and Lionel—set sail around the world with a cat and a Quangle-Wangle. They encounter absurd islands, a tree full of veal-cutlets and chocolate-drops, parrots whose tail feathers are stolen, a sea of ready-cooked soles, an orange tree storm, a cooperative Cauliflower, a malicious boy with a pumpkin, a field of mulberry-jam guarded by a sleeping ape, a Seeze Pyder that destroys their boat, and finally ride a Rhinoceros home, where they have it stuffed.
Themes in this chapter
Adventure and Exploration
The children set out to sail around the world, encountering fantastical lands and creatures.
Nonsense and Absurdity
Absurd elements include an island made of water, a tree 503 feet high, veal-cutlets and chocolate-drops, a cooperative Cauliflower, and a Seeze Pyder.
Social Absurdity and Conformity
The children's polite interactions with the Bluebottle-Flies and the Mice's sneezing response parody social conventions.
Characters to notice
- Violet
One of the four children; she knits frocks for fishes and inserts parrot feathers into her bonnet.
- Slingsby
One of the four children; he administers opium-drops to fishes.
- Guy
One of the four children; he asks the Mice for pudding and later shies his cap into it.
- Lionel
One of the four children; he cheers the party by standing on one leg and whistling.
- The Quangle Wangle
Elderly creature who cooks, steers, and later throws a pumpkin back at a boy; his right foot is injured by falling oranges.
- The Pussycat
The small cat that steers the boat and eats fish bones; she bites off parrot tail feathers.
Key passages
“So they bought a large boat to sail quite round the world by sea, and then they were to come back on the other side by land.”
They purchased a big boat to circumnavigate the globe by sea, planning to return overland.
Sets up the adventure premise.
“The boat was painted blue with green spots, and the sail was yellow with red stripes”
The boat had a blue hull with green dots and a yellow sail with red stripes.
Describes the whimsical appearance of the vessel.
“they found it was an island made of water quite surrounded by earth”
They discovered an island composed entirely of water, encircled by land.
A classic nonsense inversion of geography.
“the island was quite full of veal-cutlets and chocolate-drops, and nothing else”
The island was covered exclusively in veal cutlets and chocolate drops.
Absurd abundance of food.
“the Pussycat and the Quangle-Wangle crept softly, and bit off the tail-feathers of all the sixty-five parrots”
The cat and the Quangle-Wangle stealthily bit off the tail feathers of all sixty-five parrots.
Mischievous act leading to Violet's feathered bonnet.
“the sea, which was so entirely full of fishes that the boat could go on no farther”
The sea was so packed with fish that the boat could not proceed.
A sea of ready-cooked soles with shrimp sauce.
