Posted by Dave Thewlis on April 01, 2002 at 15:14:15 from 148.78.249.10:
In Reply to: Re: "The Fantasy Stories" posted by Robert Hill on March 27, 2002 at 21:08:03:
The earliest work on Peter Duck shows it being a story within a story, the S&As on holiday with Captain Flint in an old wherry over the winter holidays and crafting the story. Later Ransome abandoned that structure and kept PT as a separate book. But in SD (at least) there are references to the S&As writing the book. So the presumption of PD being a "fantasy" story is well-founded. Assigning ML to that category I think comes from parallels to PD such as them being on a protracted voyage (their 100th port) which wouldn't be too likely for schoolchildren under most scenarios, and gives a flavor of overall fantasy as opposed to the "in and out" bits (such as being explorers or cormorants) in the other books. I don't think one needs to work at things like being shot at or "realer threats" to perceive the distinction.
I have never thought of GN as being a "fantasy" book myself.
I don't think I divided them between "real" and "fantasy" when reading them as a child.