Gnomes (book)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Gnomes, originally published in Dutch in 1976 as Leven en werken van de kabouter (Template:Lit), then released in English in 1977, is a fiction book written by Wil Huygen and illustrated by Rien Poortvliet. The book explains the life and habitat of gnomes in an in-universe fashion, much as a biology book would do, complete with illustrations and textbook notes.
The book was well received by critics. Huygen's writing, which mixed physiology with fiction, and Poortvliet's drawings, which used a natural style and watercolor, were both praised. Gnomes sold almost a million units after its first year of being published in the United States. Its financial success led to the creation of several spin-off books about the same fictional creatures, as well as many other products, such as toys, clothing and games.
Synopsis
The book is written like a biology book, describing the habitat of the mythical creatures known as gnomes (Dutch: kabouter). In the book, Huygen and Poortvliet say they've spent at least twenty years observing them and call their study the "first work of consequence on the subject to be published since Wunderlich's bulky and dubious treatise De Hominibus Parvisimis appeared in 1580".
It describes every aspect of the mythical creatures. They are very small ("weight less than one pound and stand six inches high") and can live upwards of 400 years. The female gnome is generally smaller than her male counterpart, and her clothing is grey instead of blue. A gnome pregnancy takes 12 months, and they always have twins, who live with their parents for at least a hundred years.
The gnomes also used to live in society alongside humans, especially in Europe, but due to pollution and deforestation they've slowly retreated to their secret homes. The book ends with a message, asking people to stop attacking one another, as well as reminding human society to stop destroying the environment.
Themes
According to Adams and van Straten, the protagonist of the book embodies the "shared world view and values" of the authors: the gnomes revere nature and are tempered creatures. They show "the moral didacticism of Poortvliet", who loved nature since his youth and was an advocate for "selectful (sic) and respectful hunting." The gnomes from the book are also guided by Huygen's "medical compassion", as described by Poortvliet.
In an article about 1977 environmentalist literature, George H. Siehl highlighted Huygen's book, alongside The Foxes' Union (1977), for its "unique approach to providing natural history cum environmental message" and noted that the "brief closing chapters make the environmental message explicit". For Siehl, one of the most important aspects of those books was how they represented the natural world: "the style is so subtle, so effective, that most standard approaches to the subject matter will never match it." Siehl also noted that Gnomes shared some similarities to economist E. F. Schumacher's book Small Is Beautiful (1973).
Additionally, the gnomes in the book are based on the Dutch "kabouter", a word that was also associated at the time to a "nascent environmental movement" happening in Amsterdam.
See also
