Books › The 13 Clocks
The 13 Clocks
First published 1950 · 128 pages
A delightfully absurd, word-drunk fairy tale that begs to be read aloud.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like stepping into a theatrical, slightly spooky, and utterly enchanting fever dream. It is a brisk, propulsive fairy tale that subverts the genre with wry humor and a deep, infectious love for language. The atmosphere is eccentric and cozy-dark, wrapping the reader in a world where time has frozen and logic is delightfully skewed. What truly sets the experience apart is the prose itself—a musical, rhythmic marvel full of hidden rhymes, alliteration, and invented words that practically demand to be spoken aloud. It moves from a cold, stagnant dread to a triumphant, warm liberation. This is a treasure for anyone who delights in clever wordplay, absurdist humor, and the sheer, unadulterated joy of storytelling.
- Mood
- eccentric
- enchanting
- cozy-dark
- absurdist
- Tone
- wry
- playful
- satirical
- theatrical
- whimsical
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- the magic of storytelling · absurdity of tyranny · power of language · overcoming impossible odds
- The writing
- Highly rhythmic and musical, packed with hidden internal rhymes, alliteration, and delightful invented words.
- The arc
- Begins in a cold, stagnant atmosphere of cartoonish dread and builds to a triumphant, warm liberation.
- Who it's for
- Readers of all ages who delight in clever wordplay, subversive fairy tales, and the sheer joy of reading aloud.
Content notes
- mild cartoonish peril
About the book
"There has never been anything like this before, and there will never be anything like this again...[Thurber] takes such delight in the words. It's like it's written by somebody who wants to infect you with his love of words. There are poems hidden in the text. There are places where it wanders into rhyme and out again. There are all of the invented words. The story itself is nonsense in the finest possible way." —Neil Gaiman, interviewed in The Wall Street Journal
Description from Open Library.
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