Summary
Summary of Dick, Marjorie and Fidge
Dick, Marjorie and Fidge at a glance
Summary: 8 min to read
- Reading time
- About 2 h 20 min1 h 50 min fast, 2 h 45 min slow
- Length
- 33,400 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1903by G. E. Farrow
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
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Key ideas
Key idea 1
Curiosity carries the children into adventure
When Marjorie wakes Dick to investigate a noise, little Fidge rushes ahead with a wooden spade. They find the sea inside their house and turn an overturned breakfast table into a boat. Dick becomes captain, and the children sail away without asking how any of this can happen.
Their curiosity soon brings a responsibility they never wanted. After meeting a vain Dodo, they learn that they must bring him to the palace within a week. A magical warrant gives them powers, but the threat behind their task remains mysterious.
Key idea 2
Another approach can open the way
The gnomes turn the children's first experiment with the warrant into a trick.
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Key idea 3
Wrong turns become new roads
The children seize a bird's webbed feet, hoping to catch the Dodo, but find themselves being towed by a wild goose.
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Key idea 4
A frightening punishment becomes harmless
A skipping Skipper and sailors who spin actual wool carry the travelers onward.
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Key idea 5
Official nonsense creates real trouble
A prescription for a change of air gives Marjorie hope of getting home: the Dodo is advised to visit the Crystal Palace.
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Key idea 6
Literal words make the jokes
Words keep slipping away from their expected meanings.
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Key idea 7
Kindness matters more than pride
The Dodo depends on appearances.
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Key idea 8
The narrator shares the laughter
The narrator speaks as though his young readers are sitting nearby.
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Key idea 9
Curiosity and kindness guide the journey
What begins with seawater in a house becomes an unwanted quest for a Dodo in white kid gloves.
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Who it’s for
This book suits readers who love nonsense and wordplay like Alice in Wonderland, children who enjoy talking animals, and grown-ups who like reading aloud a cheerful Victorian story.
What this book is
Would you wake your brother at dawn because something is banging downstairs? Marjorie does, and the noise leads her, Dick, and little Fidge to a flooded breakfast room. The sea has come in through the French windows, and the table floats upside down with its legs in the air.
Dick, Marjorie and Fidge was written by G. E. Farrow, an English author of playful fantasies for young readers in the Victorian age. He talks to his readers as if they sat beside him. You get a quick, funny trip from a smugglers' cave to the seabed, the North Pole, a tropical shore, and the Crystal Palace.
In this summary
- 1Curiosity carries the children into adventureFree
- 2Another approach can open the way
- 3Wrong turns become new roads
- 4A frightening punishment becomes harmless
- 5Official nonsense creates real trouble
- 6Literal words make the jokes
- 7Kindness matters more than pride
- 8The narrator shares the laughter
- 9Curiosity and kindness guide the journey
A flooded house sets three children sailing
The story opens before breakfast. Marjorie hears a banging below and wakes her brother Dick, who is thirteen. Little Fidge races past them with a wooden spade, hoping to catch burglars. At the foot of the stairs they find the sea inside the house.
Nobody is frightened. Dick makes himself captain, Marjorie sits under an awning made of a tablecloth, and Fidge becomes the Bosun, rowing with his spade. The table drifts out into the garden, past rosebushes growing out of the water. The children never ask what pushes it along. They accept it the way you accept things in a dream.
At the garden gate they meet the Dodo, floating on a chair in gloves and a blue bow. He boasts that he is extinct and says it is handy, because servants can tell unwelcome callers that you are extinct. Then he sails off.
The table carries them to a smugglers' cave, where gnomes lower a rope ladder. Dick says such things do not exist nowadays, and the gnomes shriek with laughter. An Ambassador arrives on an ostrich. The Dodo, a gift from the Grand Panjandrum, has escaped, and because the children saw it, they have one week to bring it to the palace or be subtransexdistricated. His warrant lets them change size, float, and live underwater by simply wishing.
The children meet every wonder with curiosity first and worry second.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
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Check yourself
Why must the children search for the Dodo?
Right. “The Dodo, a gift from the Grand Panjandrum, has escaped, and because the children saw it, they have one week to bring it to the palace or be subtransexdistricated.”Not quite. “The Dodo, a gift from the Grand Panjandrum, has escaped, and because the children saw it, they have one week to bring it to the palace or be subtransexdistricated.”
What creates almost every joke in the book?
Right. “Almost every joke in the book comes from taking a word literally.”Not quite. “Almost every joke in the book comes from taking a word literally.”
What quality does the book quietly value against pride and pomp?
Right. “Pride and pomp are funny, while simple kindness is the quiet virtue of the book.”Not quite. “Pride and pomp are funny, while simple kindness is the quiet virtue of the book.”
Go deeper: the whole of Dick, Marjorie and Fidge
About 2 h 30 min to read.Start freePaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 33,400 words
- Reading timeAbout 2 h 20 min
Questions about Dick, Marjorie and Fidge
What is Dick, Marjorie and Fidge about?
Three children float out of a flooded house on a table, meet a talking Dodo, and receive a warrant from a Little Panjandrum's Ambassador ordering them to find the bird within a week. Their search takes them under the sea, through the Earth, and to a Crystal Palace.
Who is the Little Panjandrum?
He is a pompous ruler whose Ambassador sends the children after the Dodo. He speaks only in nonsense syllables, travels under a State Umbrella, and judges cases by spinning that umbrella, which is why he is the book's main figure of fun.
What does subtransexdistricated mean?
It is an invented word for a fearsome punishment the Ambassador threatens. Nobody in the book can say what it is, and the Dodo describes it only in more nonsense words, which makes the threat sound dreadful and funny at once.
Is Dick, Marjorie and Fidge a true story, and when was it written?
No, it is an invented fantasy by the English author G. E. Farrow, written in the Victorian age. Real places such as the Crystal Palace and London appear, but the Dodo, gnomes, and talking fish belong to the author's imagination.
Is Dick, Marjorie and Fidge easy to read aloud?
Yes, it suits reading aloud, because the chapters are short and the story moves through lively dialogue. Each creature has a distinct voice, and the riddles, rhymes, and wordplay give listeners plenty to enjoy and spot together.
Cite this edition
Farrow, G. E. Dick, Marjorie and Fidge. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/dick-marjorie-and-fidge.
Farrow, G. E. (2026). Dick, Marjorie and Fidge. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/dick-marjorie-and-fidge (Original work published 1903)
Farrow, G. E. Dick, Marjorie and Fidge. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/dick-marjorie-and-fidge.
@book{farrow2026dick,
author = {Farrow, G. E.},
title = {Dick, Marjorie and Fidge},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/dick-marjorie-and-fidge},
note = {First published 1903}
}
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