HOME | DD

Description
Edith Nesbit is reading The Enchanted Castle to the children at the Singers Hall at Neuschwanstein castle in Germany

About Edith Nesbit:

Edith Nesbit (1858-1924) was a British author and poet best known for writing children’s novels. She wrote stories that are both reality and fantasy in which her characters would go on a series of adventures throughout the stories, Nesbit was able to create a world of magic and inverted logic that was entirely her own. Nesbit’s books were pretty much the Disney of their day as they could be both interpreted and enjoyed in totally different ways by children and adults alike, she was truly the mother of children’s literature as her stories could be enjoyed by the entire family, she showed how much fun could be made bringing magic into the ordinary lives of children, Nesbit wrote The Railway Children, The Story of the Treasure Seekers, The Book of Dragons, The Magic City, Five Children and It, The Phoenix and the Carpet, and The Enchanted Castle. These stories are just like many children’s books and movies that we know and love but the one that is the most Wagnerian is The Enchanted Castle which was published in 1907.

The Enchanted Castle Plot:

The Enchanted Castle is about three children named Gerald, Jimmy and their sister Kathleen who live in a small town in England, they had to spend their entire summer at Kathleen’s boarding school since their cousin was sick so they could not go home, all of the students have left for the summer and so did the teachers except a French teacher named Mademoiselle who stayed at the school to look after the children, one day while they were having a picnic they came across a tunnel covered by pants in an embankment, the go through the tunnel and came across a large beautiful castle overlooking a lake and garden, Kathleen was certain that the castle was enchanted but Jimmy scoffed her. The Children walk through a hedge maze and find a princess sleeping on a bench, they wake her and she brings them inside the castle and shows them her treasure collection, and among the collection they find a ring, the princess told them that it makes them invisible, she puts it on and disappears, little did she know that she was really invisible. Gerald, Jimmy and Kathleen told her that they could not see her but she didn’t believe them, so Gerald showed her a mirror and to her surprise she saw that she was invisible, she confesses that she was not a princess at all but an ordinary girl that was pretending to be a princess named Mabel, she was living at the castle with her aunt who is the castles housekeeper. Mabel tried to take off the ring but it wouldn’t come off, so she stuck around with Gerald, Jimmy and Kathleen until they can figure out how to get the ring off, the next day there was a carnival in town, Mabel had an idea that Gerald would pretend to be a magician and that she would make the magic tricks look real so that they could get money for food. A crowd gathered around Gerald and he asked them to give him some coins, then he does the magic tricks while Mabel makes the coins disappear by putting them into her pocket and while also levitating them. Gerald then announced that he would disappear, but when he slipped up the crowd grew restless. As Mabel clasps her hands together, she felt that the ring was coming loose, she hides in the tent behind Gerald, takes off the ring and gives it to Gerald who puts it on and disappears. Mabel was visible again and she rendezvous with Kathleen and Jimmy while Gerald approached them and was invisible, he tried to take it off but to no avail. That night, Gerald takes Mabel back to the castle and while he was walking through the garden he saw that the statues came to life in the dark of the night, eventually the invisibility powers of the ring wore off,

The next day, Gerald, Mabel, Jimmy and Kathleen spent the day with the Mademoiselle and they talked about the castle and its owner Lord Yalding who was a nobleman that fell in love with a beautiful girl but his uncle refused to let him marry her. Soon after his uncle died and left all of his wealth to his son while Lord Yalding was left with the castle, eventually Lord Yalding was drowning in debt and he could no longer afford to live at the castle so he left and lived in exile and poverty. That night, the children performed a play of Beauty and the Beast for Mademoiselle and the maid servant Eliza, they also made seven scarecrows for an audience. In the play Gerald played the Beast and Mabel played Beauty while wearing the same dress that she wore before when she was pretending to be a princess, Jimmy and Kathleen played the minor parts. As the play went on Gerald used the ring as a prop in the play while returning it to Mabel. He told her that the ring would grant any wish, and when they reached the climax only Mademoiselle and Eliza clapped and then Mabel made her mistake and said that she wished that the scarecrows were alive, suddenly they came to life and clapped and cheered before walking into the hallway, the scarecrows or Ugly Wuglies acted like a bunch of tourists that were looking for a hotel, Gerald and Mabel played along and took them to the castle, they hid them in a secret passage at one of the temples but as they were about to seal them up the Ugly Wuglies tried to push the door to the passage way open. Gerald and Mabel pushed the door as hard as they could until a man arrived and helped them close the door, they explained to the man who is the new caretaker that they would come back and check on them. The next morning when the children returned to the temple they found the caretaker lying on the ground beaten and bruised, A strange man approached them, revealing that he was one of the Ugly Wuglies but now he was a real man named Mr. Ugly. Jimmy was scared so Mabel gave him the ring and it made him feel brave. Mr. Ugly explained that he did find a hotel in the passageway but when he returned to tell the others he saw them trying to push the door, then he saw them beat up the caretaker, when he opened the door. Gerald and Mable watched over the caretaker until he came around and walked away while Kathleen and Jimmy went to look for the other Ugly Wuglies, they found that they were piles of clothes, brooms and hockey sticks and paper faces. Then just as Gerald, Mabel and Kathleen were discussing how to get rid of Mr. Ugly, Jimmy wished that he was rich, and suddenly his wish came true and he became wealthy, he also grew older and older until he was a big and tall man wearing an expensive suit and top hat. Millionaire Jimmy and Mr. Ugly board a train to bound for London, and Gerald went with them to get the ring back, he explains his plan to Mr. Ugly who agrees to help, while eating at a restaurant millionaire Jimmy shows Mr. Ugly the ring who drops it, Gerald grabs the ring and wishes that they were back at the castle. Gerald and Jimmy were teleported back to the castle and Jimmy was a child once again.

Later that afternoon the children went into the treasure room to return the ring saying that they should have not messed with it, then they disused what made the ring magical, they deduce that the ring does what they say it would do when wearing it, when Mabel said that it was an invisibility ring it made her invisible, and during the play Gerald said that it was a wishing ring. Then Mabel claimed that the ring would make the person wearing it four meters high and she grew taller and taller, Soon Mabel was four meters high and was as tall as a giraffe. However, she didn’t grow much in width, so she was very skinny. Mabel crawled out into the garden and hid herself in the trees and bushes, Kathleen took the ring and just as she went to retrieve the Ugly Wuglies clothes which was hidden inside a large statue of a dinosaur, she wished that she was a statue and turned into a marble statue, she could not movie or speak but she could still breathe and hear the others, Gerald took the ring off of Kathleen’s finger and gave it to Mabel and they covered her with the Ugly Wuglies clothes to keep her warm before going home, that night Kathleen felt that she could move again and she found that the dinosaur statue was moving too, it walked towards the lake, Kathleen jumps out of the dinosaur statue and ran towards the bushes where Mabel was still asleep, she wakes her and Mabel shrinks down to her normal size, Mabel then points out that Kathleen was still a statue and that she can see her move because of the magic of the ring, The girls walked over to the lake and meet a statue of Apollo who had just been swimming in the lake, He asks Mabel how she can see him and she shows him the ring. Apollo then tells Mabel that she should become a statue herself, Mabel was not so sure that she would want to wish since she would not know how long it will last, then Apollo tells her to set a time limit for the rings power. Mabel then removed her shoes and socks and makes a wish that she would be a statue until dawn, she turns into a statue and they jump into the lake and swim with Apollo to an island in the middle of the lake, on the island they see other statues of the Greek gods and goddesses having a feast by a colonnade pool, while feasting the wondered where Gerald and Jimmy were and Hermes landed besides them and told them that he saw the boys at the garden looking for them, Apollo said that they could wish for them to come to the feast, so Kathleen made the wish to turn them into statues until dawn and Apollo sends Hermes to find Gerald and Jimmy and bring them to the island. Then Gerald and Jimmy arrived having been turned into stone, during the feast the children told the gods and goddesses their story and Apollo explained that the ring was the heart of the magic of the enchanted castle, just as he was about to tell them the magic of the ring they saw the sun rise over the treetops and the gods and goddesses dispersed and ran towards the lake and before Hermes left he told the children to go to the temple of the strange stones in two days and then they would find out. As the sun rose higher, the children turned back to normal, but the temple and the pool disappeared, and they found themselves knee deep in bramble bushes and tall grass, it was very cold and they shivered and were miserable, to their horror they realized they didn’t have the ring since Kathleen let the goddess Psyche borrow it, they explored the island until they found a tunnel that leads to a temple with lots of murals and columns and there was the statue of Psyche with the ring on her finger, Gerald removes the ring and gives it to Kathleen who wishes that no one knew that they were out that night, and that they were still in bed, the wish came true and they found themselves fast asleep.

The next day, Jimmy, Kathleen and Mabel went to the castle to have a picnic with the Caretaker, when they told him about the ring he wished that his best friend was with him, then Gerald came with Mademoiselle and then they stared at each other lovestruck then the caretaker reveals himself as Lord Yalding and that the girl he loved was Mademoiselle all along, after his uncle refused to let them get married, Mademoiselle was robbed bind by her guardian of all of her dowry so she had to get a job as a teacher, she still loved Lord Yalding but she thought that he forgot all about her when he was looking for her all along and it was the magic of the ring that reunited them at long last. The next day, Lord Yalding invited the children and Moselle to the castle, but unfortunately, he still could not afford to live at the castle and during their lunch Jimmy suggested selling all of the jewels in the treasure room. Lord Yalding didn’t believe them so they decided to prove it, but when Mabel tried to push the button to reveal the hidden shelves she couldn’t find it, Lord Yalding still didn’t believe them and demanded to give him the ring, but Gerald had the ring, so they went to get him, however when Gerald came into the room Mabel found the button and the jewels appeared, Lord Yalding took the ring and that night he saw the same things that the children saw the night before, he met the gods while in the form of a statue and they told him to go to the of the strange stones the next night, the next day He told Mademoiselle that he had gone mad and that their relationship would not work because he thought that he had gone mad seeing the tings he saw, Gerald told her everything he saw was true. The next evening the children and Mademoiselle went to the temple of strange stones where they found Lord Yalding, he tells them to go away but Mademoiselle said that she had gone mad too and the couple reconciled just as a beam of light of the full moon shines through the stones, they saw all of the statues from the garden come towards them and then Mademoiselle understands what was going on and she said they have to go to the same temple on the island, they went to the island and into the temple, Mademoiselle explains that the castle was built by Lord Yalding’s ancestor long ago for the woman he loved who was Mademoiselle’s ancestor and her ancestor gave him the ring as a token of their love, some of the castle was built properly while some was built by the magic of the ring, but unfortunately Mademoiselle’s ancestor died before the castle was finished which is why the castle was enchanted, Mademoiselle decided to break the spell by making a last wish, she wished that the magic by the ring was undone and that the ring would be her engagement ring, then the spell of the castle was broken, some parts of the castle were missing since they were built by magic. Lord Yalding used the treasure to pay his debts and he became very wealthy, by the end of the summer Lord Yalding and Mademoiselle were married, and they and the children lived happily ever after.

Wagnerian elements in The Enchanted Castle:

Edith Nesbit wrote in lots of elements that are similar to Richard Wagner’s operas and his life in The Enchanted Castle and the one theme that is Wagnerian is the magic ring. Nesbit’s ring is much different then Wagner’s ring whereupon that it was a magic ring that does anything the person wearing it says while Wagner’s ring is much more powerful and even dangerous. Anyone who possessed it shall be cursed, it would bring upon one’s downfall or demise, most of the characters in the Ring cycle wanted the ring because they think it would give them power. All of Nesbit’s characters used the ring in The Enchanted Castle and have been upon its magical spell, Mabel used the ring to make her invisible, make her tall and she made a few wishes. Gerald used the ring to make him invisible and to teleport from London to the castle, Jimmy used the ring to wish that he was a millionaire and he grew up instantly, Kathleen used the ring to turn herself into a statue and to teleport them all back into their beds, Lord Yalding used the ring to make himself a statue and learn about the temple from the gods, and Mademoiselle used the ring to beak the spell of the castle.

The part in The Enchanted Castle where Lord Yalding lived in exile was pretty much what Wagner has been through most of his life. Wagner fled Germany after the Dresden Uprising in 1849 and lived in exile in Switzerland, France, and Italy. Like Lord Yalding, Wagner was drowning in debt and he had to flee from his creditors, eventually Wagner returned to Germany and became a millionaire after King Ludwig paid all of his debts and bankrolled his projects. Lord Yalding returned to the castle and became a millionaire after selling all of the jewels in the treasure room. The castle itself is just like King Ludwig’s castle of Neuschwanstein, it’s a castle that is ripped out of the pages of a fairy tale, Ludwig Built the castle in honor of Wagner but Wagner never saw it because he died before it was finished, Ludwig died too before the castle was finished, this is just like the story that Mademoiselle tells about how The Enchanted Castle was built by Lord Yalding’s ancestor for her ancestor and like Wagner and Ludwig dying before the castle was finished, Mademoiselle’s ancestor died before The Enchanted castle was finished too.

Description
Edith Nesbit is reading The Enchanted Castle to the children at the Singers Hall at Neuschwanstein castle in Germany

About Edith Nesbit:

Edith Nesbit (1858-1924) was a British author and poet best known for writing children’s novels. She wrote stories that are both reality and fantasy in which her characters would go on a series of adventures throughout the stories, Nesbit was able to create a world of magic and inverted logic that was entirely her own. Nesbit’s books were pretty much the Disney of their day as they could be both interpreted and enjoyed in totally different ways by children and adults alike, she was truly the mother of children’s literature as her stories could be enjoyed by the entire family, she showed how much fun could be made bringing magic into the ordinary lives of children, Nesbit wrote The Railway Children, The Story of the Treasure Seekers, The Book of Dragons, The Magic City, Five Children and It, The Phoenix and the Carpet, and The Enchanted Castle. These stories are just like many children’s books and movies that we know and love but the one that is the most Wagnerian is The Enchanted Castle which was published in 1907.

The Enchanted Castle Plot:

The Enchanted Castle is about three children named Gerald, Jimmy and their sister Kathleen who live in a small town in England, they had to spend their entire summer at Kathleen’s boarding school since their cousin was sick so they could not go home, all of the students have left for the summer and so did the teachers except a French teacher named Mademoiselle who stayed at the school to look after the children, one day while they were having a picnic they came across a tunnel covered by pants in an embankment, the go through the tunnel and came across a large beautiful castle overlooking a lake and garden, Kathleen was certain that the castle was enchanted but Jimmy scoffed her. The Children walk through a hedge maze and find a princess sleeping on a bench, they wake her and she brings them inside the castle and shows them her treasure collection, and among the collection they find a ring, the princess told them that it makes them invisible, she puts it on and disappears, little did she know that she was really invisible. Gerald, Jimmy and Kathleen told her that they could not see her but she didn’t believe them, so Gerald showed her a mirror and to her surprise she saw that she was invisible, she confesses that she was not a princess at all but an ordinary girl that was pretending to be a princess named Mabel, she was living at the castle with her aunt who is the castles housekeeper. Mabel tried to take off the ring but it wouldn’t come off, so she stuck around with Gerald, Jimmy and Kathleen until they can figure out how to get the ring off, the next day there was a carnival in town, Mabel had an idea that Gerald would pretend to be a magician and that she would make the magic tricks look real so that they could get money for food. A crowd gathered around Gerald and he asked them to give him some coins, then he does the magic tricks while Mabel makes the coins disappear by putting them into her pocket and while also levitating them. Gerald then announced that he would disappear, but when he slipped up the crowd grew restless. As Mabel clasps her hands together, she felt that the ring was coming loose, she hides in the tent behind Gerald, takes off the ring and gives it to Gerald who puts it on and disappears. Mabel was visible again and she rendezvous with Kathleen and Jimmy while Gerald approached them and was invisible, he tried to take it off but to no avail. That night, Gerald takes Mabel back to the castle and while he was walking through the garden he saw that the statues came to life in the dark of the night, eventually the invisibility powers of the ring wore off,

The next day, Gerald, Mabel, Jimmy and Kathleen spent the day with the Mademoiselle and they talked about the castle and its owner Lord Yalding who was a nobleman that fell in love with a beautiful girl but his uncle refused to let him marry her. Soon after his uncle died and left all of his wealth to his son while Lord Yalding was left with the castle, eventually Lord Yalding was drowning in debt and he could no longer afford to live at the castle so he left and lived in exile and poverty. That night, the children performed a play of Beauty and the Beast for Mademoiselle and the maid servant Eliza, they also made seven scarecrows for an audience. In the play Gerald played the Beast and Mabel played Beauty while wearing the same dress that she wore before when she was pretending to be a princess, Jimmy and Kathleen played the minor parts. As the play went on Gerald used the ring as a prop in the play while returning it to Mabel. He told her that the ring would grant any wish, and when they reached the climax only Mademoiselle and Eliza clapped and then Mabel made her mistake and said that she wished that the scarecrows were alive, suddenly they came to life and clapped and cheered before walking into the hallway, the scarecrows or Ugly Wuglies acted like a bunch of tourists that were looking for a hotel, Gerald and Mabel played along and took them to the castle, they hid them in a secret passage at one of the temples but as they were about to seal them up the Ugly Wuglies tried to push the door to the passage way open. Gerald and Mabel pushed the door as hard as they could until a man arrived and helped them close the door, they explained to the man who is the new caretaker that they would come back and check on them. The next morning when the children returned to the temple they found the caretaker lying on the ground beaten and bruised, A strange man approached them, revealing that he was one of the Ugly Wuglies but now he was a real man named Mr. Ugly. Jimmy was scared so Mabel gave him the ring and it made him feel brave. Mr. Ugly explained that he did find a hotel in the passageway but when he returned to tell the others he saw them trying to push the door, then he saw them beat up the caretaker, when he opened the door. Gerald and Mable watched over the caretaker until he came around and walked away while Kathleen and Jimmy went to look for the other Ugly Wuglies, they found that they were piles of clothes, brooms and hockey sticks and paper faces. Then just as Gerald, Mabel and Kathleen were discussing how to get rid of Mr. Ugly, Jimmy wished that he was rich, and suddenly his wish came true and he became wealthy, he also grew older and older until he was a big and tall man wearing an expensive suit and top hat. Millionaire Jimmy and Mr. Ugly board a train to bound for London, and Gerald went with them to get the ring back, he explains his plan to Mr. Ugly who agrees to help, while eating at a restaurant millionaire Jimmy shows Mr. Ugly the ring who drops it, Gerald grabs the ring and wishes that they were back at the castle. Gerald and Jimmy were teleported back to the castle and Jimmy was a child once again.

Later that afternoon the children went into the treasure room to return the ring saying that they should have not messed with it, then they disused what made the ring magical, they deduce that the ring does what they say it would do when wearing it, when Mabel said that it was an invisibility ring it made her invisible, and during the play Gerald said that it was a wishing ring. Then Mabel claimed that the ring would make the person wearing it four meters high and she grew taller and taller, Soon Mabel was four meters high and was as tall as a giraffe. However, she didn’t grow much in width, so she was very skinny. Mabel crawled out into the garden and hid herself in the trees and bushes, Kathleen took the ring and just as she went to retrieve the Ugly Wuglies clothes which was hidden inside a large statue of a dinosaur, she wished that she was a statue and turned into a marble statue, she could not movie or speak but she could still breathe and hear the others, Gerald took the ring off of Kathleen’s finger and gave it to Mabel and they covered her with the Ugly Wuglies clothes to keep her warm before going home, that night Kathleen felt that she could move again and she found that the dinosaur statue was moving too, it walked towards the lake, Kathleen jumps out of the dinosaur statue and ran towards the bushes where Mabel was still asleep, she wakes her and Mabel shrinks down to her normal size, Mabel then points out that Kathleen was still a statue and that she can see her move because of the magic of the ring, The girls walked over to the lake and meet a statue of Apollo who had just been swimming in the lake, He asks Mabel how she can see him and she shows him the ring. Apollo then tells Mabel that she should become a statue herself, Mabel was not so sure that she would want to wish since she would not know how long it will last, then Apollo tells her to set a time limit for the rings power. Mabel then removed her shoes and socks and makes a wish that she would be a statue until dawn, she turns into a statue and they jump into the lake and swim with Apollo to an island in the middle of the lake, on the island they see other statues of the Greek gods and goddesses having a feast by a colonnade pool, while feasting the wondered where Gerald and Jimmy were and Hermes landed besides them and told them that he saw the boys at the garden looking for them, Apollo said that they could wish for them to come to the feast, so Kathleen made the wish to turn them into statues until dawn and Apollo sends Hermes to find Gerald and Jimmy and bring them to the island. Then Gerald and Jimmy arrived having been turned into stone, during the feast the children told the gods and goddesses their story and Apollo explained that the ring was the heart of the magic of the enchanted castle, just as he was about to tell them the magic of the ring they saw the sun rise over the treetops and the gods and goddesses dispersed and ran towards the lake and before Hermes left he told the children to go to the temple of the strange stones in two days and then they would find out. As the sun rose higher, the children turned back to normal, but the temple and the pool disappeared, and they found themselves knee deep in bramble bushes and tall grass, it was very cold and they shivered and were miserable, to their horror they realized they didn’t have the ring since Kathleen let the goddess Psyche borrow it, they explored the island until they found a tunnel that leads to a temple with lots of murals and columns and there was the statue of Psyche with the ring on her finger, Gerald removes the ring and gives it to Kathleen who wishes that no one knew that they were out that night, and that they were still in bed, the wish came true and they found themselves fast asleep.

The next day, Jimmy, Kathleen and Mabel went to the castle to have a picnic with the Caretaker, when they told him about the ring he wished that his best friend was with him, then Gerald came with Mademoiselle and then they stared at each other lovestruck then the caretaker reveals himself as Lord Yalding and that the girl he loved was Mademoiselle all along, after his uncle refused to let them get married, Mademoiselle was robbed bind by her guardian of all of her dowry so she had to get a job as a teacher, she still loved Lord Yalding but she thought that he forgot all about her when he was looking for her all along and it was the magic of the ring that reunited them at long last. The next day, Lord Yalding invited the children and Moselle to the castle, but unfortunately, he still could not afford to live at the castle and during their lunch Jimmy suggested selling all of the jewels in the treasure room. Lord Yalding didn’t believe them so they decided to prove it, but when Mabel tried to push the button to reveal the hidden shelves she couldn’t find it, Lord Yalding still didn’t believe them and demanded to give him the ring, but Gerald had the ring, so they went to get him, however when Gerald came into the room Mabel found the button and the jewels appeared, Lord Yalding took the ring and that night he saw the same things that the children saw the night before, he met the gods while in the form of a statue and they told him to go to the of the strange stones the next night, the next day He told Mademoiselle that he had gone mad and that their relationship would not work because he thought that he had gone mad seeing the tings he saw, Gerald told her everything he saw was true. The next evening the children and Mademoiselle went to the temple of strange stones where they found Lord Yalding, he tells them to go away but Mademoiselle said that she had gone mad too and the couple reconciled just as a beam of light of the full moon shines through the stones, they saw all of the statues from the garden come towards them and then Mademoiselle understands what was going on and she said they have to go to the same temple on the island, they went to the island and into the temple, Mademoiselle explains that the castle was built by Lord Yalding’s ancestor long ago for the woman he loved who was Mademoiselle’s ancestor and her ancestor gave him the ring as a token of their love, some of the castle was built properly while some was built by the magic of the ring, but unfortunately Mademoiselle’s ancestor died before the castle was finished which is why the castle was enchanted, Mademoiselle decided to break the spell by making a last wish, she wished that the magic by the ring was undone and that the ring would be her engagement ring, then the spell of the castle was broken, some parts of the castle were missing since they were built by magic. Lord Yalding used the treasure to pay his debts and he became very wealthy, by the end of the summer Lord Yalding and Mademoiselle were married, and they and the children lived happily ever after.

Wagnerian elements in The Enchanted Castle:

Edith Nesbit wrote in lots of elements that are similar to Richard Wagner’s operas and his life in The Enchanted Castle and the one theme that is Wagnerian is the magic ring. Nesbit’s ring is much different then Wagner’s ring whereupon that it was a magic ring that does anything the person wearing it says while Wagner’s ring is much more powerful and even dangerous. Anyone who possessed it shall be cursed, it would bring upon one’s downfall or demise, most of the characters in the Ring cycle wanted the ring because they think it would give them power. All of Nesbit’s characters used the ring in The Enchanted Castle and have been upon its magical spell, Mabel used the ring to make her invisible, make her tall and she made a few wishes. Gerald used the ring to make him invisible and to teleport from London to the castle, Jimmy used the ring to wish that he was a millionaire and he grew up instantly, Kathleen used the ring to turn herself into a statue and to teleport them all back into their beds, Lord Yalding used the ring to make himself a statue and learn about the temple from the gods, and Mademoiselle used the ring to beak the spell of the castle.

The part in The Enchanted Castle where Lord Yalding lived in exile was pretty much what Wagner has been through most of his life. Wagner fled Germany after the Dresden Uprising in 1849 and lived in exile in Switzerland, France, and Italy. Like Lord Yalding, Wagner was drowning in debt and he had to flee from his creditors, eventually Wagner returned to Germany and became a millionaire after King Ludwig paid all of his debts and bankrolled his projects. Lord Yalding returned to the castle and became a millionaire after selling all of the jewels in the treasure room. The castle itself is just like King Ludwig’s castle of Neuschwanstein, it’s a castle that is ripped out of the pages of a fairy tale, Ludwig Built the castle in honor of Wagner but Wagner never saw it because he died before it was finished, Ludwig died too before the castle was finished, this is just like the story that Mademoiselle tells about how The Enchanted Castle was built by Lord Yalding’s ancestor for her ancestor and like Wagner and Ludwig dying before the castle was finished, Mademoiselle’s ancestor died before The Enchanted castle was finished too.