Baron Trump's Marvellous Underground Journey by Ingersoll Lockwood - HTML preview

Little Giant Boab and His Talking Raven Tabib

PRESS NOTICES

NEW YORK TRIBUNE. “‘The Wonderful Deeds and Doings of Little Giant Boab and his Talking Raven Tabib’ takes higher rank than any other book of the season intended for young people, and is indeed even cleverer than its amusing predecessor, which recounted the adventures of Baron Trump and his delightful dog Bulger. In this story of a mighty young Spanish giant, Tabib, the raven, plays the guiding, protecting, and humorous part taken by Bulger in Mr. Ingersoll Lockwood’s first story, and his somewhat cynical shrewdness and hearty affection for his master make the ‘little gentleman in black’ a very winning figure. With the humorous tone of the book is blent a sweet and kindly spirit that much enhances the charms of its wild adventures.”

CRITIC, NEW YORK. “‘Boab’ is short for Boabdil de Clavigero, and the appellative ‘Little Giant’ but faintly indicates the prodigies of strength and valor performed by this marvellous child, in an elaborately erudite introduction, bristling with indisputable citations in black-letter from sixteenth-century travellers, our clever author seeks to dispel any possible doubt as to the real existence of his hero. Ingenious Mr. Lockwood! don’t you know that the day is past when we youngsters used to query ‘Is it true?’ Few will concern themselves, as they follow with breathless eagerness the career of this precocious boy, to discover the dividing line between fact and fancy. There seems to be no limit to the author’s imagination, and Boab is brought bravely out of one combination of perils only to be involved in another still more alarming. Nothing is impossible to his strong arm and quick wit, and whether shouldering a massive castle-door, or tripping up El Gran Capitan and pinning him to the floor with a two-ton statue, or vanquishing the frightful man-bat, or getting ahead of the wall of living stones, or driving the cardinal through night and tempest, over the mountains to the Malaga, he is in all the same plucky, invincible, good-natured little fellow—with whom every year will be loth to part. Fun, novelty, satire, pathos—these are a few of the elements that make this a most attractive book for the young.”

BROOKLYN STANDARD UNION. “It is a pretty hard thing to invent a really new fairy tale, so completely has the ground been gone over by the old veteran story-tellers; but in ‘Little Giant Boab’ Mr. Lockwood has given the young folk a tale which is in many respects original, which contains many new situations and ingenious inventions, which is whimsical to the last degree, full of subtle humor and rollicking fun. It is a delightful tale, that will be quite as successful as ‘Little Baron Trump and his Wonderful Dog Bulger,’ which made such a hit last season. The funny and wonderful doings of Giant Boab and his raven, with the humorous account of Boab’s ancestors, his appearance in Queen Isabel’s court, his feats of strength, his exploits in the Spanish camp, together with all his subsequent journeyings, will be read and listened to and talked over in many a household during the coming holidays. The illustrations, too, are in admirable keeping with the spirit of the story, and fitly supplement as well as adorn the text. Giant Boab is destined to be a formidable rival to Baron Munchausen himself.”

BOSTON BEACON. “Ingersoll Lockwood has seized an old Moorish legend and made use of it to furnish a first-rate fairy tale which will delight the children almost as much as older folk are delighted with ‘Don Quixote.’ Little Giant Boab is as interesting a character as Hop O’ My Thumb of English birth, and incidental to his adventures valuable insight into the customs and ways of Spain is afforded. The book has many wood-cuts by Clifton Johnson. Mr. Lockwood displays astonishing versatility, unlimited powers of invention, unfailing humor, and a satirical purpose which seems to be so closely interwoven with the whole narrative that its force depends altogether on the reader’s capacity of comprehension. Like Swift’s ‘Gulliver’ tales, the stories of the exploits of the Little Giant will be a source of unending entertainment to the young, while their elders will relish the clever manner in which all sorts of human weaknesses are exhibited in the light of wholesome ridicule. Mr. Clifton Johnson has added a large number of illustrations admirably suited to the text.”

ZION’S HERALD. “This is a fairy tale which will especially delight the children. Tabib was a sly and cunning bird, but Boab was a good and brave boy; and putting these two together and setting them off, to take together whatever adventures may befall them, is sure to create a fascinating interest in them for the young. And then, too, the pictures are so many, and in many cases so funny, that this will be another source of pleasure to the reader.”