The Blue Bird for Children Read online

  Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Jen Haines and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

  Transcriber's Note: Inconsistencies in spelling e.g. color/colour,neighbor/neighbour have been left as in the original.

  The Land of Memory]

  THE . BLUE . BIRD Bluebird] FOR CHILDREN Bluebird]

  THE . WONDERFUL . ADVENTURES OF . TYLTYL . AND . MYTYL . IN SEARCH . OF . HAPPINESS

  BY GEORGETTE LEBLANC [MADAME MAURICE MAETERLINCK]

  EDITED AND ARRANGED FOR SCHOOLS BY FREDERICK ORVILLE PERKINS

  TRANSLATED BY ALEXANDER TEIXEIRA DE MATTOS

  Publisher Logo]

  SILVER . BURDETT & COMPANY BOSTON . NEW YORK . CHICAGO . ATLANTA DALLAS . SAN FRANCISCO

  COPYRIGHT, 1913 BY THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY

  COPYRIGHT, 1913 BY DODD, MEAD & COMPANY

  COPYRIGHT, 1914 BY SILVER, BURDETT & COMPANY

  This School Edition of The Blue Bird for Children is affectionately dedicated to the School Children of America

  Georgette Leblanc (Madame Maurice Maeterlinck)

  _To The Teacher_

  "The Blue Bird, inhabitant of the _Pays Bleu_, the fabulous blue country of our dreams is an ancient symbol in the folk lore of Lorraine and stands for happiness."

  One of the strongest pieces of imaginative writing for children thatthe past decade has produced and one of the most delicate andbeautiful of all times, is "The Blue Bird," by Maurice Maeterlinck,written as a play, and very successfully produced on the stage.

  Georgette Leblanc (Madame Maurice Maeterlinck), has rendered this playin story form for children, under the title "The Children's BlueBird," and in this form it has now been carefully edited and arrangedfor schools.

  Maurice Maeterlinck was born in Ghent, Belgium, August 29, 1862.Although trained for the practice of the law and moderately successfulin it, he very early became dissatisfied with the prospect of a careerat the bar. In 1887, the young man moved to Paris and turned hisattention to writing. Shortly after, at the death of his father,Maeterlinck returned to Belgium where he has since resided most of thetime. His career as an author practically began in 1889, when hepublished two plays. At this time he was quite unknown, except to asmall circle, but soon, because of his remarkable originality, we findhim being called "The Belgian Shakespeare," and his reputation firmlyestablished.

  Amidst his Belgian roses he continued to work and dream, and upon hisyouthful dreams he built his plays. They are all shadowy, brieftranscripts of emotion, and illustrate beautifully his unity ofpurpose, of mood and of thought. Whether in philosophy, drama orpoetry, Maeterlinck is exclusively occupied in revealing or indicatingthe mystery which lies only just out of sight beneath the ordinarylife. In order to produce this effect of the mysterious he aims atextreme simplicity of style and a very realistic symbolism. He allowslife itself to astonish us by its strangeness, by its inexplicableelements. Many of his plays are really pathetic records of unseenemotions.

  Of all his writings, it is conceded that "The Blue Bird" makes thestrongest appeal to children. Maeterlinck has always had much incommon with the young. He has the child's mysticism and awe of theunknown, the same delight in mechanical inventions, the same gift of"making believe."

  In "The Blue Bird" Maeterlinck takes little account of external fact.All along he has kept the child's capacity for wonder; all along hehas preserved youth's freshness of heart. He has, therefore, neverlost the key which unlocks the sympathies of childhood; he stillpossesses the passport that makes him free of the kingdom ofFairyland.

  This story of "The Blue Bird" may remind one somewhat of "Hansel andGretel," for here Maeterlinck, like Grimm, shows to us the adventuresof two peasant children as they pass through regions of enchantmentwhere they would be at the mercy of treacherous foes, but for the aidof a supernatural friend. But the originality, the charm and theinterest of "The Blue Bird" depend on the way in which the author,while adapting his language and his legends to the intelligence ofyouthful readers, manages to show them the wonders and romance ofNature. He enlists among his characters a whole series of inanimateobjects, such as Bread, Sugar, Milk, Light, Water, Fire and Trees,besides the Cat, the Dog and other animals, investing them all withindividuality,--making for instance, with characteristic bias, the Dogthe faithful friend of his boy and girl companions and the Cat theirstealthy enemy.

  We may not understand his characters, we may not be informed whencethey came or whither they move; there is nothing concrete orcircumstantial about them; their life is intense and consistent, butit is wholly in a spiritual character. They are mysterious with themystery of the movements of the soul.

  All through the story we are led to feel that Maeterlinck's spirit isone of grave and disinterested attachment to the highest moral beauty,and his seriousness, his serenity and his extreme originality impresseven those who are bewildered by his graces and his mysticism.

  "The Blue Bird" will forever live among Maeterlinck's greatest worksand will linger long in the memory of all children, continuingthroughout their lives to symbolize that ideal of ideals, truehappiness,--the happiness that comes from right seeking.