How can anyone describe this book? It isn't a parable, a fairy story or a poem, but rather a mixture of all three. It is beautiful and it is comic. It is philosophical and it is cheery. What we suppose we are trying fumblingly to say is, in a word, that it is Thurber.

There are only a few reasons why everybody has always wanted to read this kind of story, but they are basic:

Everybody has always wanted to love a Princess.

Everybody has always wanted to be a Prince.

Everybody has always wanted the wicked Duke to be punished.

Everybody has always wanted to live happily ever after.

Too little of this kind of thing is going on in the world today. But all of it is going on valorously in The 13 Clocks.

詹姆斯•瑟伯(James Thurber, 1894—1961)，美国著名幽默作家、寓言作家、插画家。1926年开始为《纽约客》杂志撰稿，1927年进入《纽约客》编辑部，成为其中最年轻有为的编辑、自由撰稿记者。瑟伯和E.B.怀特一起确立了《纽约客》诙谐、辛辣的文风，即所谓“《纽约客》文风”。晚年执教于耶鲁大学。瑟伯一生创作了大量的散文、随笔、寓言、故事、回忆录，他还为自己的作品绘制插图，给《纽约客》画封面。