And I don't think the Marlows would ever been popular like Blyton or Ransome either.
I agree. I think the relative difficulty and extreme darkness of the Marlowverse would probably always have stopped them from becoming mainstream children's classics. RMF is an outstanding book, but it's almost sui generis -- only in the crudest sense can it be compared to 'issues books', I think. And her handling of literary and religious themes is, I entirely agree with you, very sophisticated throughout: TPB and TPATR benefit extraordinarily from having read a lot of Shakespeare (something increasingly few child readers will have done, if there even are any new child readers of AF? other than children of existing fans); optimally the complete works. I don't think it's by any means impossible to enjoy her at a more casual level, but getting the most out of her requires either pre-existing wide reading (and knowledge of religious history, etc. -- not only twentieth-century but sixteenth- and seventeenth-), or the willingness to do a lot of running & finding out. It's great if you like this kind of allusive style! I do, and I'd hazard many, even most, at trennels do -- but it's almost died out of children's lit., as far as I can tell. There used to be so much more of it, albeit rarely as well done as AF.
Re: Rowan's decision
I agree. I think the relative difficulty and extreme darkness of the Marlowverse would probably always have stopped them from becoming mainstream children's classics. RMF is an outstanding book, but it's almost sui generis -- only in the crudest sense can it be compared to 'issues books', I think. And her handling of literary and religious themes is, I entirely agree with you, very sophisticated throughout: TPB and TPATR benefit extraordinarily from having read a lot of Shakespeare (something increasingly few child readers will have done, if there even are any new child readers of AF? other than children of existing fans); optimally the complete works. I don't think it's by any means impossible to enjoy her at a more casual level, but getting the most out of her requires either pre-existing wide reading (and knowledge of religious history, etc. -- not only twentieth-century but sixteenth- and seventeenth-), or the willingness to do a lot of running & finding out. It's great if you like this kind of allusive style! I do, and I'd hazard many, even most, at trennels do -- but it's almost died out of children's lit., as far as I can tell. There used to be so much more of it, albeit rarely as well done as AF.