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The Cuckoo Clock
Griselda, forced to move in with her aunts Grizzel and Tabitha, finds life so miserable that she throws a book at the cuckoo clock, which breaks. In return for persuading the cuckoo that she is sorry, the cuckoo takes her off to magical worlds. A classic fantasy tale originally published in 1877, the Wildside Press edition is a facsimile reprint complete with the original illustrations. Mrs. Molesworth has been called "the Jane Austen of the nursery" with good reason.
290 pages, Paperback
Published February 4, 2021
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About the author
Mrs. Molesworth
455 books22 followersMary Louisa Molesworth, née Stewart was an English writer of children's stories who wrote for children under the name of Mrs. Molesworth. Her first novels, for adult readers, Lover and Husband (1869) to Cicely (1874), appeared under the pseudonym of Ennis Graham. Her name occasionally appears in print as M.L.S. Molesworth.
She was born in Rotterdam, a daughter of Charles Augustus Stewart (1809–1873) who later became a rich merchant in Manchester and his wife Agnes Janet Wilson (1810–1883). Mary had three brothers and two sisters. She was educated in Great Britain and Switzerland: much of her girlhood was spent in Manchester. In 1861 she married Major R. Molesworth, nephew of Viscount Molesworth; they legally separated in 1879.
Mrs. Molesworth is best known as a writer of books for the young, such as Tell Me a Story (1875), Carrots (1876), The Cuckoo Clock (1877), The Tapestry Room (1879), and A Christmas Child (1880). She has been called "the Jane Austen of the nursery," while The Carved Lions (1895) "is probably her masterpiece."
Mary Louisa Molesworth typified late Victorian writing for girls. Aimed at girls too old for fairies and princesses but too young for Austen and the Brontës, books by Molesworth had their share of amusement, but they also had a good deal of moral instruction. The girls reading Molesworth would grow up to be mothers; thus, the books emphasized Victorian notions of duty and self-sacrifice.
Typical of the time, her young child characters often use a lisping style, and words may be misspelt to represent children's speech—"jography" for geography, for instance.
She took an interest in supernatural fiction. In 1888, she published a collection of supernatural tales under the title Four Ghost Stories, and in 1896 a similar collection of six tales under the title Uncanny Stories. In addition to those, her volume Studies and Stories includes a ghost story entitled "Old Gervais" and her Summer Stories for Boys and Girls includes "Not Exactly a Ghost Story."
A new edition of The Cuckoo Clock was published in 1914.
She died in 1921 and is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London.
[Wikipedia]
She was born in Rotterdam, a daughter of Charles Augustus Stewart (1809–1873) who later became a rich merchant in Manchester and his wife Agnes Janet Wilson (1810–1883). Mary had three brothers and two sisters. She was educated in Great Britain and Switzerland: much of her girlhood was spent in Manchester. In 1861 she married Major R. Molesworth, nephew of Viscount Molesworth; they legally separated in 1879.
Mrs. Molesworth is best known as a writer of books for the young, such as Tell Me a Story (1875), Carrots (1876), The Cuckoo Clock (1877), The Tapestry Room (1879), and A Christmas Child (1880). She has been called "the Jane Austen of the nursery," while The Carved Lions (1895) "is probably her masterpiece."
Mary Louisa Molesworth typified late Victorian writing for girls. Aimed at girls too old for fairies and princesses but too young for Austen and the Brontës, books by Molesworth had their share of amusement, but they also had a good deal of moral instruction. The girls reading Molesworth would grow up to be mothers; thus, the books emphasized Victorian notions of duty and self-sacrifice.
Typical of the time, her young child characters often use a lisping style, and words may be misspelt to represent children's speech—"jography" for geography, for instance.
She took an interest in supernatural fiction. In 1888, she published a collection of supernatural tales under the title Four Ghost Stories, and in 1896 a similar collection of six tales under the title Uncanny Stories. In addition to those, her volume Studies and Stories includes a ghost story entitled "Old Gervais" and her Summer Stories for Boys and Girls includes "Not Exactly a Ghost Story."
A new edition of The Cuckoo Clock was published in 1914.
She died in 1921 and is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London.
[Wikipedia]
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
April 24, 2016
I didn't read this edition but a 1930 one with Walter Crane Illustrations (of which I would've liked more).
It was neither as preachy as much Victorian children's literature nor as exciting as the best. There were some obvious didactic efforts and some interesting or pretty scenes, but overall I found in a little dull.
As a child I would have liked best the brief visit to the cuckoo's house. As an adult I found most interesting the penultimate introduction of the little neighbor boy, Phil, and what it reveals about class assumption and gender.
There were a lot of pretty standard "girly" elements: Griselda meets the flower fairies and gets a pretty dress for a banquet (which, interestingly, turns out to be very boring) and the virtues promoted are the standard feminine ones of obedience, silence, politeness and lack of complaint in the face of illness, boredom, and pointless tasks.
Fine but definitely not an essential read unless one is researching less-well-known Victorian fantasy.
It was neither as preachy as much Victorian children's literature nor as exciting as the best. There were some obvious didactic efforts and some interesting or pretty scenes, but overall I found in a little dull.
As a child I would have liked best the brief visit to the cuckoo's house. As an adult I found most interesting the penultimate introduction of the little neighbor boy, Phil, and what it reveals about class assumption and gender.
There were a lot of pretty standard "girly" elements: Griselda meets the flower fairies and gets a pretty dress for a banquet (which, interestingly, turns out to be very boring) and the virtues promoted are the standard feminine ones of obedience, silence, politeness and lack of complaint in the face of illness, boredom, and pointless tasks.
Fine but definitely not an essential read unless one is researching less-well-known Victorian fantasy.
June 18, 2019
An equally charming and instructional fantasy story for young girls first published in 1877.
Miss Griselda becomes lonely after being sent to live with her great-aunts in their big house, where she finds friendship and learns a lesson or two about things from the magical cuckoo of an antique clock.
The magic involves being shrunk in size in order to fit inside both the clock and an ornate Chinese cabinet, taking a nighttime flight to the dark side of the moon and - the best part of the story - visiting Butterfly-land, where we discover how flowers are painted.
One scene in particular, where the butterflies adorn Griselda's dress and perform a kaleidoscopic dance for her, would look magnificent on film if adapted.
The lessons include the importance of obedience to your elders, keeping your temper, and some new perspectives that the cuckoo's magic provide to Griselda 'about far and near, and big and little, and long and short'.
These lessons are not too intrusive though, nor does the spirited Griselda entirely allow them to dampen her adventures.
Miss Griselda becomes lonely after being sent to live with her great-aunts in their big house, where she finds friendship and learns a lesson or two about things from the magical cuckoo of an antique clock.
The magic involves being shrunk in size in order to fit inside both the clock and an ornate Chinese cabinet, taking a nighttime flight to the dark side of the moon and - the best part of the story - visiting Butterfly-land, where we discover how flowers are painted.
One scene in particular, where the butterflies adorn Griselda's dress and perform a kaleidoscopic dance for her, would look magnificent on film if adapted.
The lessons include the importance of obedience to your elders, keeping your temper, and some new perspectives that the cuckoo's magic provide to Griselda 'about far and near, and big and little, and long and short'.
These lessons are not too intrusive though, nor does the spirited Griselda entirely allow them to dampen her adventures.
January 31, 2015
You can also see my review here.
‘The Cuckoo Clock’ is one of the children’s books I discovered fairly recently, due to a review Kirsty had once written on Goodreads. I didn’t have the opportunity to read it as a child, since it had never been translated into my first language, Greek (at least it hadn’t when I was a kid). However, thanks to a lovely challenge I discovered too late ( the Classic Children’s Literature Event 2015) and also thanks to my beloved library that had a copy of this book, I was able to read it despite the delay.
I was really excited to read this book, mainly because of the nice comments I had read about it, but also because I love such tales of fantasy and adventure as this one. From the very beginning of the story, a very familiar and heartwarming feeling engulfed me and even though I hadn’t read the book before, the entire experience felt so nostalgic, like revisiting an old friend you haven’t seen nor spoken to in years. I loved the atmosphere and all the ‘British-ness’ of the story; it made me long to travel inside the pages and locate myself at that very same time and place. Which, again, is a feeling I had as a child when I read those really good books.
The main character of the story, Griselda, was a girl I found myself liking and empathizing with from the beginning (though no apparent reason for empathy existed). Her curiosity and fascination with everything new the cuckoo exposed her to, as well as the moments of boredom and distress she experienced (without being a spoilt little kid that desires things to be done in her own way), very well reminded me of a plethora of my favourite childhood book heroines, and that alone was enough to make me develop a great liking towards her character. The ethic and moral messages were spread throughout the story, and Griselda herself comes to realise certain things by the end, and thus we watch her character develop.
I really enjoyed the descriptions of the places the cuckoo travelled to with Griselda, but I felt that there could perhaps be some more adventure in them. The edition I borrowed from the library was a beautiful 1954 hardback that, apart from the wonderful design of cuckoos and butterflies on the cover, also included some marvelous pictures in between the text. Reading adult novels for more than ten years now, I had forgotten the magic a children’s chapter book with pretty drawings can evoke.
‘The Cuckoo Clock’ is a book I really wish I had read when I was little, since I’m sure I would have thoroughly enjoyed it and it would have added to my childhood experiences and longing for devouring great books. It was such books, full of mythical creatures, adventure and fairies that made me fall in love with fantasy literature in the first place. However, I’m really glad I had the chance to read it now, at least, since it helped me remember this nostalgic feeling of reading good literature as a kid and being fascinated by it.
‘The Cuckoo Clock’ is one of the children’s books I discovered fairly recently, due to a review Kirsty had once written on Goodreads. I didn’t have the opportunity to read it as a child, since it had never been translated into my first language, Greek (at least it hadn’t when I was a kid). However, thanks to a lovely challenge I discovered too late ( the Classic Children’s Literature Event 2015) and also thanks to my beloved library that had a copy of this book, I was able to read it despite the delay.
I was really excited to read this book, mainly because of the nice comments I had read about it, but also because I love such tales of fantasy and adventure as this one. From the very beginning of the story, a very familiar and heartwarming feeling engulfed me and even though I hadn’t read the book before, the entire experience felt so nostalgic, like revisiting an old friend you haven’t seen nor spoken to in years. I loved the atmosphere and all the ‘British-ness’ of the story; it made me long to travel inside the pages and locate myself at that very same time and place. Which, again, is a feeling I had as a child when I read those really good books.
The main character of the story, Griselda, was a girl I found myself liking and empathizing with from the beginning (though no apparent reason for empathy existed). Her curiosity and fascination with everything new the cuckoo exposed her to, as well as the moments of boredom and distress she experienced (without being a spoilt little kid that desires things to be done in her own way), very well reminded me of a plethora of my favourite childhood book heroines, and that alone was enough to make me develop a great liking towards her character. The ethic and moral messages were spread throughout the story, and Griselda herself comes to realise certain things by the end, and thus we watch her character develop.
I really enjoyed the descriptions of the places the cuckoo travelled to with Griselda, but I felt that there could perhaps be some more adventure in them. The edition I borrowed from the library was a beautiful 1954 hardback that, apart from the wonderful design of cuckoos and butterflies on the cover, also included some marvelous pictures in between the text. Reading adult novels for more than ten years now, I had forgotten the magic a children’s chapter book with pretty drawings can evoke.
‘The Cuckoo Clock’ is a book I really wish I had read when I was little, since I’m sure I would have thoroughly enjoyed it and it would have added to my childhood experiences and longing for devouring great books. It was such books, full of mythical creatures, adventure and fairies that made me fall in love with fantasy literature in the first place. However, I’m really glad I had the chance to read it now, at least, since it helped me remember this nostalgic feeling of reading good literature as a kid and being fascinated by it.
April 2, 2020
The Cuckoo Clock is a fantasy novel first published in 1877. Griselda has just come to live with her two elderly aunts, and she is lonely. One day she angrily throws a book at the cuckoo bird noting the time in the clock and she is startled to see the cuckoo quickly withdraw into the clock. The bird ceases to tell the time, and everyone in the house is sad. Griselda sees she needs to make things right with the bird and she does. The bird helps Griselda's loneliness and teaches Griselda the things she needs to know and takes Griselda on fantastical adventures.
One of the 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up.
One of the 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up.
January 10, 2013
I read this because somewhere I heard that this was a childhood favorite of Agatha Christie. Since I like both Christie and Britih children's books of that era, I thought I'd give it a try. The frame story of a little girl taken on adventures by a cuckoo in a clock is chrming. Yhe overall tone of the book is a little too didactic for my taste. (The moral of all the episodes seems to be, "Don't break rules and don't complain, even in your private thoughts.")
October 17, 2011
The Cuckoo Clock is great bedtime reading. Just enough happens to hold your attention but not so much that it prevents you from falling asleep.
I also appreciate how despite its age, this story dosnt feel out of date or old fashioned. The themes of lonlienss, friendship, and growing up are timeless.
I also appreciate how despite its age, this story dosnt feel out of date or old fashioned. The themes of lonlienss, friendship, and growing up are timeless.
August 30, 2025
So many Victorian children's novels lean too hard into the moralizing aspect, undercutting the story. And some of Mrs. Molesworth's books do fall into that trap, but this one does not, and it's a delightful little literary fairy tale about a little girl named Griselda, lonely as the only child in her great-aunts' old house. She befriends a magic cuckoo in a cuckoo clock made by her great-great-grandfather, and while he does teach her lessons, it's more of an adventure than a treatise. It's a lovely book.
November 9, 2011
This was written back in the day when the sole intent of writing literature for children was to improve their character and persuade them to behave! The cuckoo in this story is surprisingly stern and nagging, but the story is still filled with great imaginative moments - a ball in the land of nodding mandarins, a dress made of live butterflies, and a visit to a desolate landscape on the far side of the moon.
Another highlight of the book is a realistic and flawed heroine. Griselda is prone to very human temper tantrums, fits of crankiness, boredom and caprice. Her passions, actions, and judgements are representative of the way children really think and behave. Books from this era are too often populated by unbelievably virtuous children and have an unbendingly stern Christian message, however Mrs. Molesworth is one of the better writers of her generation and this is surprisingly readable after all these years (135!).
A little historical perspective:
Victorian literary fairy tales tend to have a conservative moral and political bias. Under their charm and invention is usually an improving lesson: adults know best; good, obedient, patient, and self-effacing little boys and girls are rewarded by the fairies, and naughty assertive ones are punished. In the most widely read British authors of the period - Frances Browne, Mrs. Craik, Mrs. Ewing, Mrs. Molesworth, and even the greatest of them all, George MacDonald - the usual manner is that of a kind lady or gentleman delivering a delightfully disguised sermon. Only Lewis Carroll’s Alice books completely avoid this didactic tone.¹
The Cuckoo Clock was published 12 years after Alice's adventures, and while it is continents away from that book's anarchic nonsense, there are a few similarities between the two works' rather petulant and headstrong heroines.
Mrs. Molesworth also unfortunately gave rise to a late Victorian literary character commonly known as the 'Beautiful Child' with her book Carrots (1876), most noteworthy now for its cloying baby-talk. The 'Beautiful Child' cult, which historian Humphrey Carpenter calls "crude and sugary", reached its apex ten years later with Frances Hodgson Burnett's Little Lord Fauntleroy, which "swept across America like a plague"², sentencing countless little boys on both continents (A.A. Milne among them) to long hair in ringlets, and velvet jackets with lace collars.
Mrs. Molesworth's Carrots was written just a year before The Cuckoo Clock, but thankfully in the latter work the preciousness is confined to the baby-talk of the younger boy Griselda meets near the end of the book. The Cuckoo Clock remains the most enduring (and reprinted) of Mrs. Molesworth's books for children.
In conclusion: As moralistic as the tone is in this book, it is still a rather enchanting read with many imaginative magical episodes. Will be more appealing to younger children, who might not be as repelled by the cuckoo's rather humourless and condescending speeches as older children might be.
(to see gorgeous illustrations by E.H. Shepard and others check out my blog post at http://rarestkindofbest.wordpress.com...)
_____________________________
¹ Lurie, Alison. Don’t Tell the Grown-ups. (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990) p. 99
² Carpenter, Humphrey. Secret Gardens: The Golden Age of Children’s Literature. (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1985) p. 108
Another highlight of the book is a realistic and flawed heroine. Griselda is prone to very human temper tantrums, fits of crankiness, boredom and caprice. Her passions, actions, and judgements are representative of the way children really think and behave. Books from this era are too often populated by unbelievably virtuous children and have an unbendingly stern Christian message, however Mrs. Molesworth is one of the better writers of her generation and this is surprisingly readable after all these years (135!).
A little historical perspective:
Victorian literary fairy tales tend to have a conservative moral and political bias. Under their charm and invention is usually an improving lesson: adults know best; good, obedient, patient, and self-effacing little boys and girls are rewarded by the fairies, and naughty assertive ones are punished. In the most widely read British authors of the period - Frances Browne, Mrs. Craik, Mrs. Ewing, Mrs. Molesworth, and even the greatest of them all, George MacDonald - the usual manner is that of a kind lady or gentleman delivering a delightfully disguised sermon. Only Lewis Carroll’s Alice books completely avoid this didactic tone.¹
The Cuckoo Clock was published 12 years after Alice's adventures, and while it is continents away from that book's anarchic nonsense, there are a few similarities between the two works' rather petulant and headstrong heroines.
Mrs. Molesworth also unfortunately gave rise to a late Victorian literary character commonly known as the 'Beautiful Child' with her book Carrots (1876), most noteworthy now for its cloying baby-talk. The 'Beautiful Child' cult, which historian Humphrey Carpenter calls "crude and sugary", reached its apex ten years later with Frances Hodgson Burnett's Little Lord Fauntleroy, which "swept across America like a plague"², sentencing countless little boys on both continents (A.A. Milne among them) to long hair in ringlets, and velvet jackets with lace collars.
Mrs. Molesworth's Carrots was written just a year before The Cuckoo Clock, but thankfully in the latter work the preciousness is confined to the baby-talk of the younger boy Griselda meets near the end of the book. The Cuckoo Clock remains the most enduring (and reprinted) of Mrs. Molesworth's books for children.
In conclusion: As moralistic as the tone is in this book, it is still a rather enchanting read with many imaginative magical episodes. Will be more appealing to younger children, who might not be as repelled by the cuckoo's rather humourless and condescending speeches as older children might be.
(to see gorgeous illustrations by E.H. Shepard and others check out my blog post at http://rarestkindofbest.wordpress.com...)
_____________________________
¹ Lurie, Alison. Don’t Tell the Grown-ups. (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990) p. 99
² Carpenter, Humphrey. Secret Gardens: The Golden Age of Children’s Literature. (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1985) p. 108
July 3, 2016
Little Griselda is far from the "patient Grizel" of the fairy tale. The magic cuckoo out of her great-grandma's clock tries to teach her to be a good little Victorian girl: not to ask too many questions, to do her lessons, not to grumble, and above all to obey without question, at once. Fortunately Griselda has too much of what my grandma used to call "original sin" to turn into the simpering little miss that was the ideal of 19th century children's stories. Unfortunately, just about time things look like getting interesting, either she wakes up and "it was all a dream" or the book comes to an end. I would much preferred to read about her adventures with little Phil, and maybe a few lessons woven in along the way. The "magic travels" really aren't up to all that much, and that comes from someone who loves old-fashioned children's classics. The end is just chopped short, again as if the author were bored with it. I can see why.
April 28, 2011
Although perhaps not the most riveting book for a 21 year old to read, it tapped into the adventurous young girl in me who would have given anything to travel into the expansive worlds of my grandmother's eclectic decor. Reading of the strange world of the Mandarin figures, the exciting ascension into the hauntingly beautiful setting of the moon, and the ethereal and industrious world of the butterflies, put me in a sort of light dream state as I read, each scene containing an oneiric sort of quirkiness.
February 19, 2012
This is one of the most under-rated and least known of all the classic children's books -- and it's wonderful. Charming, well-written, imaginative, it takes you back to another era of fantasy. Highly recommended.
September 7, 2014
Adorable children's book. While it uses a fantasy-like style and great imagination to tell the story, I wouldn't class it in the fantasy genre. Thoroughly enjoyable.
December 3, 2021
I actually ended up quite enjoying this. I like the idea of an everyday object being actually magical and whisking one away to magical places. Griselda was actually quite annoying and sulky which grew tiresome but also yay Victorian child that is not always perfect. The Castle in the Lough at the end was a weird fairy story. I like that there was a question about the rewards of young men in these type of tales. Not a big one but it’s there.
May 4, 2023
3.5🌟 A lovely old-fashioned story about a little girl named Griselda and her fairy-tale adventures with a cuckoo bird. I'm not a huge fan of fairy-tales, but this one was better than most. It had very cozy descriptions of the home and surroundings, which were wonderful. I know I would have appreciated it more if I'd read it as a child (as I feel with many vintage children's books). There was an additional Scottish mini story at the back of the book and I really liked it. It was a surprising highlight of the book. Not sure if I'll read it again, but I was happy that I did.
March 22, 2012
This reminded me of the old fairy tales I used to read when very young. It was cute and took me back. I'm not quite sure how well it would go over with children today, there's a lot of the standard for the time preachiness about being good and obedient. The adventures with the cuckoo were imaginative.
November 21, 2007
I remember my grandmother reading this book aloud to me as a child. I wanted so badly to go into a cuckoo clock and have adventures! Author also wrote "The Tapestry Room", which has a similar style.
March 9, 2011
This fantasy book was really, really good. The little girl goes on magical trips with the cuckoo in the cuckoo clock. It kept us in suspense wondering where she would go next and if she would ever find fairyland....
My son asked if we could start it again.
My son asked if we could start it again.
November 3, 2014
I kinda liked this. I can't pinpoint why, I liked the whole idea of children traveling to different places and getting to experience "fairylands" that adults have lost the ability to see/travel too. It kind of makes the child seem like a super-human or something.
sony-or-android
June 15, 2016Want to read because it was a favorite of the girls in The Golden Name Day, one of my favorite childhood books.
December 13, 2019
Välillä vähän rasittavan kasvatuksellinen, mutta toisaalta kivan seikkailullinen ja satumainen kirja. Jos tämä olisi suomennettu olisi kertojanääni varmaan ärsyttänyt minut hengiltä, mutta englanniksi olin lähinnä vain ilahtunut siitä, että tajusin sävyt. Ihan hauskaa vaihtelua.
May 15, 2007
I was very young when I discovered this book at the library and it's still magical. If you've never read it, treat yourself!
Read
June 10, 2012Didactic, but really interesting view of what fiction for children was for at a particular historical moment.
November 11, 2012
This is such a lovely book! Very sweet, fun, and gentle. I'd love to read more by Mrs. Molesworth, because this book was just lovely.
November 28, 2012
This is the first "proper book" I ever read. It enchanted me as a child and 42 years later, I looked for a copy on Amazon and fell for its magic all over again. Delightful.
January 8, 2019
Sweet. Not my style. found the same way I found Family From One End Street.
March 1, 2018
Actual rating: 3.5
October 6, 2018
The Gutenberg version includes the short story “The Castle in the Lough”.
October 12, 2025
Read for Victober 2025. A magical cuckoo takes a lonely girl to visit fantastical places. A nice book to teach children to be obedient and kind. I read the edition illustrated by CE Brock.
A piece of trivia: Mary Louisa Molesworth, a late 19th-century children's author, was nicknamed "the Jane Austen of the nursery". This nickname was given to her because she wrote realistic children's stories that, like Austen's novels, offered keen social observation, albeit for a young audience. She was known for her popular and influential books, which often blended realism with fantasy and addressed themes of duty and self-sacrifice
A piece of trivia: Mary Louisa Molesworth, a late 19th-century children's author, was nicknamed "the Jane Austen of the nursery". This nickname was given to her because she wrote realistic children's stories that, like Austen's novels, offered keen social observation, albeit for a young audience. She was known for her popular and influential books, which often blended realism with fantasy and addressed themes of duty and self-sacrifice
March 7, 2020
I read this as a child. Who knows what I would think of it now, but as a seven year old, I was enthralled. The illustrated old book I read was the perfect thing to find in my grandparents old house on a dull Saturday afternoon. There is something wonderful, when you are young, about reading of a lonely child alone, who has an adventure. Think Alice in Wonderland or the Secret Garden and you get the appeal.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews