The Silver Skates
Page 28
With Hans’s selflessness, Gretel’s unshakeable equanimity in the face of all the harshness and drudgery of much of her early existence, and Peter and Hilda’s empathy for those less fortunate than themselves, The Silver Skates is an eloquent clarion call in the cause of sense, humility and virtue. Yet it staunchly refrains from lapsing into mere instruction or sentimentality, and remains an enthralling and gripping read right up to the turning of the very last page.
The Characters
Hans Brinker
The young hero of the tale, Hans is a dutiful son, brother and friend. Though he lives in poverty, and must endure numerous difficulties and hardships, his first thought is always for others, and he is a happy boy who always sees the best in people.
Gretel Brinker
The younger of the two Brinker children, Gretel is always looked after by her beloved brother Hans. She often feels left out of things, as Hans and Dame Brinker try to protect her from the full extent of certain difficulties. Gretel must help around the house rather than attend school, and she is shunned by most of the local children, but in Annie Bouman she has a true friend, and Hilda van Gleck – an older girl and the daughter of a prominent family – tries to help her whenever she can.
Meitje Brinker
Often referred to as Dame Brinker, Meitje has raised Hans and Gretel by herself since her husband’s terrible accident ten years ago. They have very little money, and it is a ceaseless struggle to survive. Yet Meitje is a kind and loving mother, and a devoted nurse to her husband.
Raff Brinker
Once a wonderful father to the young Hans and the baby Gretel, Raff is suddenly injured while working on the dykes. With his memory lost and mental faculties affected, he lies in the family cottage, unable to recognize his wife or children. Yet with the help of the great Dr Boekman, there is hope that Raff might recover and be reunited with his family.
Peter van Holp
The eldest son of a wealthy and prominent local family, Peter is a kind-hearted, generous and noble boy. He dislikes the snobbery of some of his peers, and is one of the few to see past Hans’s tattered clothing and instead focus on the admirable qualities that he possesses. He leads his friends on a trip to The Hague, on which they have many adventures.
Hilda van Gleck
Like Peter, Hilda belongs to an august family, yet she too cares more for character than circumstance. She desires to help Hans and Gretel, and is a kind and caring friend to the latter.
Dr Boekman
A legendary physician, Dr Boekman has a reputation as a cantankerous and difficult man, and his patients normally consist of the wealthy and the powerful. He has suffered a tragedy in his life, and was not always a cross and short-tempered man.
Annie Bouman
Gretel’s best friend, Annie Bouman is a wilful but kind local girl who spends much of her time nursing her grandmother. Yet away from that sickbed, she is playful and a little mischievous, and Gretel is not the only Brinker who is fond of the beautiful Annie Bouman.
Lambert van Mounen
One of the local schoolfellows who embarks on the trip to Haarlem, Leiden and The Hague, Lambert speaks fluent English, and therefore acts as a translator for the English boy Benjamin Dobbs. It is through the conversations of Lambert and Ben that much of the Dutch history in the novel is presented.
Carl Schummel
A proud and surly boy, Carl is unpleasant to those he considers beneath him. He is loath to allow the Brinkers to skate in the race, due to their low social status, and he spreads unkindness and division wherever he goes.
Jacob Poot
Another of the boys who travels to The Hague, Jacob is a kindly and peace-loving individual. He is rather overweight, and struggles to keep up with the rest of the boys when skating from city to city. He suffers from the unfortunate habit of continuously having accidents.
Benjamin Dobbs
Ben is Jacob’s English cousin. He is extremely knowledgeable about Dutch history, yet he is also proudly English, and he and Lambert, though firm friends, frequently argue about certain aspects of the two countries’ histories.
Ludwig van Holp
Peter’s younger brother, Ludwig accompanies the older boys on their adventure. He is sensitive about being treated as the baby of the group.
Rychie Korbes
The daughter of one of the leading men of Amsterdam, Rychie is a spoilt and proud girl who, like Carl, is firmly against peasant children such as Annie, Gretel and Hans competing for the silver skates. She is in many ways the opposite of her kind and generous friend Hilda.
Katrinka Flack
Katrinka is a beautiful girl with a joyous tinkling laugh. She glides through life, and yet she is somewhat vacuous, and is influenced for good or bad by her stronger-willed friends Rychie and Hilda.
Janzoon Kolp
A troublesome local lad who killed a stork living on top of the Brinker cottage. He likes Annie Bouman a great deal, but the feeling is not reciprocated.
Other Unforgettable Siblings
in Children’s Literature
As each successive generation of children discover The Silver Skates, new readers fall in love with the Brinker children, Hans and Gretel. Their qualities are what we all aspire to, and no matter how much we love our friends, our brothers and our sisters, a little part of each of us would very much enjoy having Hans and Gretel in our lives. Such true, classic literary characters have an enduring and timeless appeal, and our beloved Hans and Gretel are as beguiling today as they were in 1865.
Their relationship – a loving elder sibling looking after the younger one – is common in children’s literature, yet there are all manner of sibling dynamics in evidence in the books that each of us know and love from our childhood. Here are two of the most famous sets of siblings:
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950), written by C.S. Lewis, was the first novel to be published in what became The Chronicles of Narnia series. The four Pevensie siblings – Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy – have been evacuated from London during the Second World War to avoid the Blitz. They live with an old professor in Dorset, and Lucy, the youngest, hides in a large wardrobe while the children are playing a game. Through this magical wardrobe, Lucy enters the land of Narnia and meets a faun named Mr Tumnus. Returning to the professor’s house, Lucy finds that her siblings do not believe her tale of a mysterious land on the other side of the wardrobe, and Edmund teases and ridicules her for telling such a story. The next time she visits Narnia, Edmund follows her, and he meets the White Witch, who calls herself the Queen of Narnia. Later, when Lucy again attempts to tell the two elder siblings of her adventures, Edmund denies that Narnia exists, claiming that Lucy is making it all up. Peter and Susan are worried and confused by Lucy’s behaviour, and when they consult the professor, they are surprised when he takes Lucy’s side. Soon all four children enter Narnia, and they find themselves in a dangerous world torn by war, and many adventures await them before they can hope to return through the wardrobe.
Edmund is the second youngest Pevensie child, and he has a difficult relationship with his siblings. He often tells lies, and he can be unkind and thoughtless, caring little for the feelings of others. He frequently picks on his little sister Lucy, and his claim that she is lying about Narnia even after he has visited it is particularly callous and cruel. The White Witch understands his character, promising that she will make him a prince and plying him with magical Turkish delight. Edmund betrays his siblings, yet he is not a wicked person. He is a young child at the beginning of the book, and he is spoilt and selfish, yet as the narrative progresses it is clear that Edmund has a conscience, and is not unkind. He develops and matures over the course of the book more than any other character, and shows himself to be a good brother after all.
Little Women
Little Women (18
68–69) by Louisa May Alcott follows the lives of the four March sisters – Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. With their father having lost all his money, and serving as a chaplain in the Civil War, the two elder March siblings, Meg and Jo, have to work to provide for the family. Amy and Beth are both of school age, but only Amy is in formal education, because Beth is too shy, and she stays at home and helps their mother with the housework. These four very different girls all face their own struggle to find their place in the world. Meg, the eldest and most beautiful of the sisters, longs to be wealthy and have a large house and servants, and she envies the good fortune of others. Jo, the protagonist, is a strong and wilful girl, with a fiery temper. She is passionate about literature and dreams of becoming a writer. Beth is kind, gentle, quiet and shy, and she frequently acts as a peacemaker when her sisters are arguing. Her greatest love is music, and she adores playing the piano and singing. Amy, the youngest, is somewhat spoilt and vain, and she hopes to make a career out of her artistic talents.
The sisters’ close family ties begin to be severed when Meg marries John Brooke, and they start a family of their own. Jo is also proposed to by Laurie, yet she does not return his love. Instead, she travels to New York to work as a governess, and she pursues her ambition of being a writer. It is while she is in New York that she meets Professor Bhaer, whose intelligence and moral nature intrigue her. Meanwhile, Amy accompanies the sisters’ wealthy aunt in a trip through Europe, where she attempts to cultivate and refine her artistic skill. Beth, who often helps an impoverished local family called the Hummels, catches scarlet fever from the Hummels’ baby. Jo tends and nurses Beth night and day, and refers to her beloved sister as her “conscience”.
Little Women is one of the great coming-of-age novels. Both its beauty and the fascination it continues to exert today lies, to a great degree, in the acutely observed characterization of the sisters and their relationship with one another. They all have positive and negative character traits, and all have their dreams and ambitions while they are growing up. As readers, we share their experiences as they make their way through life, and perhaps one of the reasons why we feel so intimately connected to the sisters is that many aspects of the novel are based on Louisa May Alcott’s own experiences growing up with her sisters in New England. Consequently, there is an acute sense of realism pervading the novel: familiar family dynamics are played out, and the sisters face the same struggles that we all do – though, of course, there are many differences between the 1860s and the twenty-first century.
Test Yourself
Are you as skilled at quizzes as Hans is on his skates? Try this multiple-choice quiz to find out. The answers are on p. 308.
1. What is the name of the area in which the Brinkers live?
A) Haarlem
B) Leiden
C) Broek
D) The Hague
2. In Chapter 2, of what does the author claim that there are “at least ninety-nine hundred” in Holland?
A) Large windmills
B) Pairs of clogs
C) Bunches of tulips
D) Types of waffle
3. In Chapter 4, what is it that Hilda asks Hans to do for her?
A) Give her a skating lesson
B) Carve her a wooden chain
C) Help her father with their new summer house
D) Deliver a message to Dr Boekman
4. In Chapter 10, which of these boys is not among the company that sets off on their skating trip?
A) Ludwig van Holp
B) Jacob Poot
C) Lambert van Mounen
D) Voostenwalbert Schimmelpenninck
5. Which of these is one of Ben’s heroes?
A) Rembrandt van Rijn
B) Desiderius Erasmus
C) Pieter van der Werff
D) Maarten Tromp
6. In Chapter 21, what is the name of the inn the boys stay in?
A) The Red Lion
B) The White Hart
C) The Black Bull
D) The Multicoloured Badger
7. In Chapter 36, what does Dr Boekman insist that Raff Brinker should have to eat and drink?
A) Fresh meat, white bread and Malaga wine
B) Potatoes, salmagundi and fresh coffee
C) Cured meat, brown bread and Marsala wine
D) Potato salad, herrings and Dutch ale
8. Who is it that pays seven guilders for Hans’s skates?
A) Janzoon Kolp
B) Hilda van Gleck
C) Lambert van Mounen
D) Annie Bouman
Answers
1–c
2–a
3–b
4–d
5–c
6–a
7–a
8–d
scores
1 to 3 correct: You have stumbled at the beginning of the big race! 4 to 6 correct: Not too bad – you are gaining on the leaders! 7 to 8 correct: You’ve crossed the line first! The silver skates are yours!
Glossary
ad infinitum “To infinity” (Latin)
almanac An annual handbook containing information of general or specialist interest
anisette A liqueur flavoured with aniseed
artificer An artisan or craftsman
astral lamp A lamp with the oil contained in a ring, so that it throws uninterrupted light on what is beneath it
automaton A moving mechanical device
baby house A doll’s house
battledore A wooden implement used in the washing process to smooth out clothing
beaux The plural form of “beau” – a boyfriend or male admirer
bed-cord A cord used to stretch the sacking of a bed
blunderbuss An old-fashioned short gun with a wide bore
boor A peasant
brig A ship or vessel
brown study Thoughtful absent-mindedness
bulwark A defensive wall
burgher A citizen of a town or city
burgomaster The mayor
caper To dance, leap or skip in a frolicsome way
carillon A set of bells playable by manual action or machinery
cat’s cradle A children’s game in which patterns are created within a loop of string held between the fingers of each hand
chamois A goat-antelope found in mountainous areas
chilblain A painful swelling or itching on the hand caused by exposure to the cold
churn-dasher Someone who turns the churn dash (the appliance used to move the milk backwards and forwards in the churn)
clapper A rattle that emits a loud noise when shaken
cog wheels A toothed wheel which engages with another and thus transmits motion
colt A young male horse
cornice An ornamental moulding around the walls of a room, just below the ceiling
crozier A hooked staff carried by bishops
damask Silk or linen fabric with elaborate designs
deacon An ordained minister below the rank of a priest; in some Protestant Churches, it is a layperson (someone who has not been ordained) who assists a minister
deal Fir or pine wood
dog cart A two-wheeled cart for driving in, drawn by horses. Also a small cart drawn by dogs – a practice prohibited in England in 1854, but continued in other European countries
doublet A close-fitted jacket worn by men between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries
dray A cart used for carrying heavy loads
dry goods An American term for textile fabrics
father confessor In the Catholic Church, a priest who hears one’s confession
fillet A band or ribbon worn in the hair
fillip To propel using the f
inger and thumb
firebrick A brick capable of withstanding intense heat
firedog Decorative metal supports for the wood burning in a fireplace
firepot A pot in which fuel is burned
florin In the Netherlands, a guilder
freshet The flood of a river due to melting snow or rain; a surge of fresh water running to the sea
gall Bitterness
gaper A stone or wooden head, often of a Moor, placed in front of buildings in the Netherlands to indicate the presence of a pharmacy
gossamer A fine substance made of cobwebs, often seen floating in the air, particularly in autumn
hoity-toity An exclamation expressing surprise
homoeopathic A form of medicine which treats ailments with tiny doses of natural substances known to cause the same symptoms
hop-o’-my-thumb A dwarf
hosier A manufacturer or seller of stockings, socks and tights
inundation A flood
jackknife A knife with a folding blade
John Bull Used in the novel simply to mean an Englishman, it usually refers to a personification or stereotype of an Englishman
Juggernaut An enormous force. The term comes from the image of the Hindu god Krishna carried in procession on a large chariot
kwartje A Dutch coin worth twenty-five cents
latchet A lace which fastens an item of footwear
mandarin Used in two ways in the novel: a Chinese figure in traditional dress which, once touched, nods its head for some time; and an official in the Chinese civil service
Mechlin lace Lace from Mechelen (formerly known as Mechlin) in Belgium, characterized by patterns outlined in heavier thread