The Thirteen Clocks

I just want to say that Amazon.com‘s nifty booksearch option rocks my world.
I got The Thirteen Clocks by mail this week. What, you may ask, is that? It’s a kids’ book, from the 50s, about a prince who rescues a princess from an evil Duke. The prince has to perform a series of tasks to get the Duke to release the princess. He is assisted by the Gollux, a small man with an indescribable hat who is very crafty but tells so many lies that sometimes he believes them himself – which makes him only somewhat helpful.
I, of course, am in love with The Duke. Consider the description of him:

His hands were as cold as his smile, and almost as cold as his heart. He wore gloves when he was asleep, and he wore gloves when he was awake, which made it difficult for him to pick up pins or coins or the kernels of nuts, or to tear the wings from nightingales. He was six feet four, and forty-six, and even colder than he thought he was. One eye wore a velvet patch; the other glittered through a monocle… the Duke limped because his legs were of different lengths. The right one had outgrown the left because, when he was young, he had spent his morning place-kicking pups and punting kittens. …His voice sounded like iron dropped on velvet.

Clearly my kind of guy. You can see what the book’s narrative style is like. It was meant to be read aloud. It’s marvellous.
My copy has no dust jacket and is missing the the blank page before the title page (most annoying, as it had a nice picture on it), but is otherwise in excellent condition for a 52-year-old hardback. I’m so pleased!