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The Conscience Pudding
A chapter from Nesbit's novel, The New Treasure Seekers, detailing the Bastable children's Christmas adventure with a pudding.
48 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1899
60 people want to read
About the author
E. Nesbit
1,030 books997 followers
Edith Nesbit
(married name Edith Bland; 15 August 1858 – 4 May 1924) was an English author and poet; she published her books for children under the name of E. Nesbit.
She wrote or collaborated on over 60 books of fiction for children, several of which have been adapted for film and television. She was also a political activist and co-founded the Fabian Society, a socialist organisation later connected to the Labour Party.
Edith Nesbit was born in Kennington, Surrey, the daughter of agricultural chemist and schoolmaster John Collis Nesbit. The death of her father when she was four and the continuing ill health of her sister meant that Nesbit had a transitory childhood, her family moving across Europe in search of healthy climates only to return to England for financial reasons. Nesbit therefore spent her childhood attaining an education from whatever sources were available—local grammars, the occasional boarding school but mainly through reading.
At 17 her family finally settled in London and aged 19, Nesbit met Hubert Bland, a political activist and writer. They became lovers and when Nesbit found she was pregnant they became engaged, marrying in April 1880. After this scandalous (for Victorian society) beginning, the marriage would be an unconventional one. Initially, the couple lived separately—Nesbit with her family and Bland with his mother and her live-in companion Maggie Doran.
Initially, Edith Nesbit books were novels meant for adults, including The Prophet's Mantle (1885) and The Marden Mystery (1896) about the early days of the socialist movement. Written under the pen name of her third child 'Fabian Bland', these books were not successful. Nesbit generated an income for the family by lecturing around the country on socialism and through her journalism (she was editor of the Fabian Society's journal, Today).
In 1899 she had published The Adventures of the Treasure Seekers to great acclaim.
She wrote or collaborated on over 60 books of fiction for children, several of which have been adapted for film and television. She was also a political activist and co-founded the Fabian Society, a socialist organisation later connected to the Labour Party.
Edith Nesbit was born in Kennington, Surrey, the daughter of agricultural chemist and schoolmaster John Collis Nesbit. The death of her father when she was four and the continuing ill health of her sister meant that Nesbit had a transitory childhood, her family moving across Europe in search of healthy climates only to return to England for financial reasons. Nesbit therefore spent her childhood attaining an education from whatever sources were available—local grammars, the occasional boarding school but mainly through reading.
At 17 her family finally settled in London and aged 19, Nesbit met Hubert Bland, a political activist and writer. They became lovers and when Nesbit found she was pregnant they became engaged, marrying in April 1880. After this scandalous (for Victorian society) beginning, the marriage would be an unconventional one. Initially, the couple lived separately—Nesbit with her family and Bland with his mother and her live-in companion Maggie Doran.
Initially, Edith Nesbit books were novels meant for adults, including The Prophet's Mantle (1885) and The Marden Mystery (1896) about the early days of the socialist movement. Written under the pen name of her third child 'Fabian Bland', these books were not successful. Nesbit generated an income for the family by lecturing around the country on socialism and through her journalism (she was editor of the Fabian Society's journal, Today).
In 1899 she had published The Adventures of the Treasure Seekers to great acclaim.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
December 9, 2017
We saw this in the window of our favourite second hand book shop on our way to a Christmas tree festival. The cover and illustrations are beautiful and the story was a great Christmas short read.
The Bastable children are alone for Christmas, mother died last year and father has had to go abroad to look for his business partner who has dissapeared along with a lot of their money. Left with the thought of no plum pudding and a miserable Christmas the children set out to make their own pudding from ingredients bought with dubiously procured funds.
The descriptions of their efforts to tackle what is a difficult first recipe for children to attempt was hilarious, we really enjoyed the mix ups with washing the raisins and the holly in the sauce. Their earnest attempts to make amends for their ill gotten pudding was suprisingly funny too, we really liked this author's sense of humour.
The Bastable children are alone for Christmas, mother died last year and father has had to go abroad to look for his business partner who has dissapeared along with a lot of their money. Left with the thought of no plum pudding and a miserable Christmas the children set out to make their own pudding from ingredients bought with dubiously procured funds.
The descriptions of their efforts to tackle what is a difficult first recipe for children to attempt was hilarious, we really enjoyed the mix ups with washing the raisins and the holly in the sauce. Their earnest attempts to make amends for their ill gotten pudding was suprisingly funny too, we really liked this author's sense of humour.
December 23, 2018
Determined to have some sort of Christmas celebration, the first year after their mother's death, the Bastable children get into quite a pickle in this hilarious holiday tale. With their father called away on a business matter, and maid/cook Matilda ignoring them for the most part, they are free to pursue their idea of making a real Christmas pudding. Their well-meaning but highly unusual methods make for a pudding that tastes of soap and hair oil. Then a terrible discovery is made: H.O. (Horace Octavius) misrepresented the situation to the wealthy neighbors from whom he obtained the money for the ingredients, making them believe they were giving charity to poor children. Convinced that the honor of the house of Bastable is at stake, Oswald insists that they must make sure the pudding goes to the intended recipient: the children of the poor. But will their "conscience pudding" be so uneasy to unload...?
I'm afraid that I covered myself in disgrace today, at the splendid Rose Reading Room of the New York Public Library, where I go to read those titles that cannot be taken out of the library, but must be perused on the premises. Reading E. Nesbit's The Conscience Pudding, a chapter from her novel The New Treasure Seekers , which is the third of her stories about the adventures of the Bastable children, I found myself continually reduced to helpless, hastily stifled giggling. I'm sure I must have appeared quite maniacal to some of my table mates, as I attempted to swallow my hilarity (to no avail), but I simply couldn't help myself. The scenes in which the children make the pudding! The one in which Oswald waxes poetic about family honor! Most of all, the one in which they inflict a slice of pudding on a hapless beggar, only to meet with an angry response - all of these had me snickering, chortling, laughing out loud. A delightful book, humorous and heartwarming, with a true child's perspective, this reminded me of everything I love about E. Nesbit's work! It's been many years since I read the Treasure Seekers series, and I don't recall them as vividly as some of the author's others, but based on this slim short story sample, I will have to revisit them.
It's worth noting that, in addition to its other splendid qualities, this title is illustrated by the marvelous Erik Blegvad, whose artwork is simply delightful. As the original novel from which the story is taken was illustrated by H.R. Millar (I believe), that makes hunting down this individual chapter worthwhile, if for no other reason than to peruse Blegvad's illustrations. Recommended to Blegvad fans, Nesbit fans, and anyone who enjoys humorous children's fiction.
I'm afraid that I covered myself in disgrace today, at the splendid Rose Reading Room of the New York Public Library, where I go to read those titles that cannot be taken out of the library, but must be perused on the premises. Reading E. Nesbit's The Conscience Pudding, a chapter from her novel The New Treasure Seekers , which is the third of her stories about the adventures of the Bastable children, I found myself continually reduced to helpless, hastily stifled giggling. I'm sure I must have appeared quite maniacal to some of my table mates, as I attempted to swallow my hilarity (to no avail), but I simply couldn't help myself. The scenes in which the children make the pudding! The one in which Oswald waxes poetic about family honor! Most of all, the one in which they inflict a slice of pudding on a hapless beggar, only to meet with an angry response - all of these had me snickering, chortling, laughing out loud. A delightful book, humorous and heartwarming, with a true child's perspective, this reminded me of everything I love about E. Nesbit's work! It's been many years since I read the Treasure Seekers series, and I don't recall them as vividly as some of the author's others, but based on this slim short story sample, I will have to revisit them.
It's worth noting that, in addition to its other splendid qualities, this title is illustrated by the marvelous Erik Blegvad, whose artwork is simply delightful. As the original novel from which the story is taken was illustrated by H.R. Millar (I believe), that makes hunting down this individual chapter worthwhile, if for no other reason than to peruse Blegvad's illustrations. Recommended to Blegvad fans, Nesbit fans, and anyone who enjoys humorous children's fiction.
December 10, 2022
Delightful and sometimes humorous. A short Christmassy morality tale.
September 20, 2017
This is such a fun book! I love Edith Nesbit's other stories about the Bastables, and this little Christmas story portrays the Bastable children at their best...determined, bumbling, and filled with a great wish to help their father and uphold their family name.
December 14, 2017
The Bastable children steal my heart yet again with this touching Christmas story. There is mischief and misguided efforts and so much pure childhood in this story, as with all of Nesbit's stories that feature the Bastable children. I love their naïveté and their generous hearts and I just want to hug them all and take them all in and be the mama they so desperately need.
December 25, 2025
This was a Christmas gift from a sweet student. As soon as I knew the Bastable children were involved, I knew it would be delightful and full of mishaps and mayhem. That proved to be true. But all turned out well in the end to make for a comical and warm read on Christmas Eve.
October 31, 2021
This charming story is an excerpt from The New Treasure Seekers, featuring the Bastable children who are trying to make a good Christmas in the year after they lost their mother. Their father is away on business and the only adult in the house is the irascible Matilda, who has promised them a plain pudding for a Christmas treat. But the children want Christmas to be as it always was and work in secret to make a grand Christmas pudding.
But the idea goes awry when the older children realize that the money that was collected was begged off strangers by H.O. (Horace Octavius), who told people he was collecting funds for poor people. The honour of the family must be restored! The ensuing adventure is delightful and laugh out loud. A true Christmas treat.
But the idea goes awry when the older children realize that the money that was collected was begged off strangers by H.O. (Horace Octavius), who told people he was collecting funds for poor people. The honour of the family must be restored! The ensuing adventure is delightful and laugh out loud. A true Christmas treat.
December 20, 2019
When this was recommended to me as a good Christmas read-aloud, I was assured that we didn't have to have read any of the other Bastable books yet to appreciate it (we haven't gotten to them yet). But apparently, this is an excerpt from one of the novels. So while it was a sweet little story, without any context or knowing the characters, I felt quite disconnected from everything that was going on, and L struggled to pay attention.
I do look forward to reading the Bastable series with the girls and being able to place this episode in its proper context.
I do look forward to reading the Bastable series with the girls and being able to place this episode in its proper context.
August 3, 2021
Turtle: great!
December 27, 2016
When I saw an E. Nesbit title I was unfamiliar with, I quickly searched my library system for a copy. It turns out this is an excerpt from New Treasure Seekers. The pen and ink drawings by Erik Blegvad are a lovely embellishment.
I love the six Bastable children and highly recommend all the books about them. No Elsie Dinsmore types, this is a family that squabbles and evades, yet has a sharply honed sense of honor. And pudding matters. I looked back at the first Bastable book (Treasure Seekers); on the first page, currant pudding and sago pudding have been described.
In this book, Mother has died, Father was absent; the General (the kids' name for the servant, Matilda, who does everything) was instructed to make a good plain pudding for Christmas. Far from cheering the children, the prospect of plain pudding cast a pall. They decide to make a plum pudding, secretly, in the nursery. This is the story of that pudding: where they take it and where it took them.
It is funny, but a two-syllable-chuckle sort of funny as opposed to a chortle or guffaw funny.
I love the six Bastable children and highly recommend all the books about them. No Elsie Dinsmore types, this is a family that squabbles and evades, yet has a sharply honed sense of honor. And pudding matters. I looked back at the first Bastable book (Treasure Seekers); on the first page, currant pudding and sago pudding have been described.
In this book, Mother has died, Father was absent; the General (the kids' name for the servant, Matilda, who does everything) was instructed to make a good plain pudding for Christmas. Far from cheering the children, the prospect of plain pudding cast a pall. They decide to make a plum pudding, secretly, in the nursery. This is the story of that pudding: where they take it and where it took them.
It is funny, but a two-syllable-chuckle sort of funny as opposed to a chortle or guffaw funny.
January 2, 2014
This was a great heartwarming and funny story about a family of children making the best of a lean Christmas year.
Note that this story was originally published in 1899 and contains references to "minstrel shows" and several uses of the n-word as a descriptor so you'll want to use caution and sensitivity when sharing the story with friends and family.
Note that this story was originally published in 1899 and contains references to "minstrel shows" and several uses of the n-word as a descriptor so you'll want to use caution and sensitivity when sharing the story with friends and family.
February 16, 2017
I can't even begin to tell you how adorable this little story is. The characters, the setting, the plot ... all wonderful.
~Kellyn Roth, Reveries Reviews
~Kellyn Roth, Reveries Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews