Mabel Murple and Beautifull Cassandra

My husband and I took our daughter to Word on the Street last weekend, where we heard Sheree Fitch read her very funny books Sleeping Dragons All Around and Mabel Murple. Both books have recently been reissued by Nimbus, the latter with beautiful new illustrations by Sydney Smith.

Mabel Murple’s house was purple
So was Mabel’s hair
Mabel Murple’s dog was purple
A purple poodle named Pierre.

Our daughter loves the books so much that she was inspired to make up her own poem:

Mabel Murple all around
Mabel Murple fell on the ground
Pink and purple all around.

We also love Sheree Fitch’s poem “Toes in My Nose,” another one that’s great for inspiring variations on similar rhymes.

I like the way fearless Mabel Murple rides her purple skateboard and her purple motorbike “through muddy purple puddles,” goes skiing on purple snow (and “jumpled purple moguls”), and eats a purple feast that includes “Mabel Murple’s purple maple syrple” before going home to her purple bed. The energy and daring of this heroine remind me of Jane Austen’s story “The Beautifull Cassandra,” which she wrote when she was about twelve. Young Cassandra leaves home for a series of independent adventures. She meets a viscount and a girl named Maria, but continues on her way by herself. She eats six ice creams at once and she orders a coachman to drive her to Hampstead and back, and in both cases she refuses to pay. At the end she returns home and whispers to herself, “This is a day well spent.”

Like Cassandra, Mabel Murple gets into “purple trouble” and enjoys it thoroughly. There are no consequences for getting into trouble in either story. People “skedaddle” when they see Mable Murple the “Skateboard Skallywag” coming, but she’s also the “purple motorbiker / Whom everybody loves.” The only advice she gets from a grown-up is from the ski instructor who tells her to “Sloooow down!”—and even then, she is the one who asks for advice. Cassandra runs away from the coachman and even “knocked down the Pastry Cook” whose ice creams she has eaten, yet in the end she is simply “pressed to her Mother’s bosom by that worthy woman.” Neither girl is admonished for her unconventional behaviour. The main difference is that while Mabel Murple is brave and a little wild, she doesn’t harm anyone, whereas Cassandra not only runs away without paying for her food or her travels, but also assaults the Pastry Cook. Of course, Mabel Murple is a children’s book intended for publication, while “The Beautifull Cassandra” was written primarily for the amusement of the author’s sister (Cassandra), and was not published until long after Jane Austen’s death.

There’s an edition of “The Beautifull Cassandra” illustrated by Juliet McMaster, or you can find the text on the Republic of Pemberley website.