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A deliciously wicked, utterly amusing assault on Muddled Thought, Pompous Phrases, and other Scholastic Evils.
Once upon a time in a forest of rotting crabapple trees and quaking aspens that were dying of Parkinson's disease there lived a nasty pedant-magician named Snodrog. This Snodrog, whose house is made of old bed slats, spends his days posing logical problems to victimize unfortunate passersby.... Fortunately for everyone, a kindly old gentleman, Sir Bertram Crabtree-Gore, enlists a Shuffly to foil the nefarious Snodrog. A monstrous duel ensues. Someone is turned into a very unattractive ticker tape machine. Other happenings follow, too humorous to mention here.
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You gotta wonder what a Shuffly would be like as a pet? You also have to love his outlook on life: "Wanna play?"
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Snodrog is one nasty little bugger: if you fall into his traps then he pronounces, all snarkily and mysterious-like, that "YOU DON'T EXIST!"
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Suddenly the air got colder, and a black cloud appeared - the black cloud that you saw before, since Snodrog was, at bottom, a cheapskate. Only this time the cloud looked like an overdone hamburger, and it hovered low over the Shuffly's head. A faint whirling began, and it roe till the noise was like that of a badly adjusted metal lathe. From the cloud roared a blizzard of Irrelevant Facts, and it swirled around the inert creature till he looked like a spiny snowball. Then Snodrog's devious machine spread under the Shuffly's unsuspecting feet a glistening patina of Generalizations, and the immobilized hulk slid the hill into the valley below, ricocheting off trees with a sound like wet sponges being slapped on kitchen sinks.
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The first and only book to feature Sir Bertram, Snodrog, and the Shuffly. It was written during Bellairs’ days in Chicago.
Sir Bertram was cast in Bellairs' short story, The Paranoid Sunglasses, as the wearer of vomit-colored sunglasses that revealed and ridiculed that character's fears. The piece was never published.
Did you know: John Bellairs himself appears in the parade of former flimsies, as does illustrator Marilyn Fitschen and Saint Fidgeta?
Like St. Fidgeta before it, The Pedant and the Shuffly originally sold for $2.95, as shown on the inside flap of the dust jacket. And like St. Fidgeta, the original edition of this book can command high prices online.
Portions of the book were presented during the 1987 Mythopoeic Society conference; Bellairs was on hand and “professed himself charmed.”
Jacket design by Susan Jeffers.
Can you find the necktie hidden in one of the many illustrations? How about the soda bottle?
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| Stats |
Author: John Bellairs (30)
Published: February 1968
Chapters: NA
Pages: 79
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| Awards |
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| Adaptations |
1987 - Mythopoeic Conference
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| Allusions |
None known. |
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| Dedication |
To Dale Fitschen, for unbelievably good editing sense, endless suggestions, and seven years of friendship.
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