Open main menu

Wikipedia
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
Article Talk

Language
Watch
Edit

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents is a children's fantasy novel by
British writer Terry Pratchett, published by Doubleday in 2001. It is the 28th
novel in the Discworld series and the first written for children. The story is a
new take on the German fairy tale about the Pied Piper of Hamelin[1] and a parody
of the folk tale genre.[2]
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
The-amazing-maurice-and-his-educated-rodents-1.jpg
First edition (UK)
Author
Terry Pratchett
Cover artist
David Wyatt
Language
English
Series

Discworld
28th novel – 5th individual story

Genre
Fantasy
Publisher
Doubleday (UK)
HarperCollins (US)
Publication date
1 November 2001
Awards
Winner of the 2001 Carnegie Medal
ISBN
0-385-60123-9 (hardcover)
Preceded by
The Last Hero
Followed by
Night Watch

Pratchett won the annual Carnegie Medal from the British librarians, recognising
the year's best children's book published in the U.K.[2] It was his first major
award.[1]
SeriesEdit

Discworld had been a comic fantasy series for adults, beginning with The Colour of
Magic in 1983. Amazing Maurice was marketed as a children's book, to be followed in
that respect by The Wee Free Men (2003, #30).[3] It differs from earlier Discworld
novels also by its division into chapters, though chapters become far more common
in later books of the series. Contrary to the contrast between adult and child
markets, reflected in catalogues, The Guardian observed on the occasion of the
Carnegie Medal that "[t]he main audience for Pratchett's 48 books, all busily in
print, is teenagers, who are drawn by his irrepressible invention and sense of
mischief."[1]

Maurice and His Educated Rodents were not entirely new; they had been mentioned as
early as Reaper Man (1991, #11).[4]
Plot summaryEdit

The book opens with Amazing Maurice (a sentient cat), a group of talking rats (the
Clan), and the human boy Keith travelling in a mail coach to a small town called
Bad Blintz. The group plans to enact a scheme they have used many times before,
where in the rats pretend to infest the town and Keith poses as a rat piper to lead
the "vermin" away for a small sum of cash. Although Maurice sees nothing wrong with
this hustling business, the rats find it immoral, and convince Maurice that this
town will be the last one they rob. Upon arriving in town, the group discovers that
the people are convinced of a massive rat infestation, and have spent much of their
savings on two rat catchers. Despite their efforts, food continues to disappear
from the town. As the rats move into the town's underground, they discover an
overwhelmingly large number of rat traps, but no live keekees (rats who cannot talk
or think). Aboveground, Maurice makes similar observations, including that many of
the rat tails the rat catchers display as proof of their successful hunting are in
fact shoelaces. Maurice and Keith meet the mayor's daughter Malicia and introduce
her to the talking rats.

Malicia believes that the rat catchers are up to something and so she, Maurice, and
Keith break into the rat catchers' hut. They discover a great deal of food stolen
by the men and large cages when the local keekees are being bred for coursing. The
rat catchers return and lock up the humans, taking away the rat leader Hamnpork who
had met up with them. Maurice hides and feels a voice trying to enter his mind,
inciting a great sense of fear. The rats of the Clan feel it too, and many become
so afraid that they all but forget how to think and reason. Dangerous Beans, the
rats' spiritual leader, is crushed by the realization that the rats are just
mindless animals at heart, and leaves with his assistant Peaches. Darktan, the
rats' trap expert, leads a group to rescue Hamnpork, and succeeds after nearly
dying in a trap. Hamnpork dies of injuries sustained while fighting in the rat
coursing pit, and Darktan reluctantly assumes control of the Clan.

Malicia and Keith, after freeing themselves, trick the rat catchers into admitting
their crimes. The rat catchers have created a powerful rat king named Spider, which
is the source of the mysterious voice that has been plaguing the rats and Maurice.
Using its mental control over the rat catchers, Spider plans to wage war on the
humans that created it. It sends the rats it controls to attack Maurice, Peaches,
and Dangerous Beans. However, Maurice (so terrified that he stops thinking and acts
instinctively) pounces on the rat king and destroys it. Maurice emerges from
Spider's chamber carrying the body of Dangerous Beans. When he is safely out, he
collapses and dies. In ghostly form, he sees the Bone Rat coming for Dangerous
Beans and makes a deal with the reoccurring personality in Discworld, Death – two
of his remaining lives in exchange for both his life and the albino rat's.

The rats corral all the keekees and block their ears. When a real rat piper arrives
in town, Keith challenges him to a duel. The piper plays his magic rat pipe but
none of the rats come out. Keith plays on a trombone and Sardines (an intelligent
rat) emerges and dances for the crowd. Keith is proclaimed the winner, and leads
the keekees out of town with the piper. After the piper leaves, the Clan rats
emerge from hiding and tell the humans about the rat catchers' duplicity. The
humans bargain with the rats: if the Clan will keep the keekees out of the town,
the rats may stay and live as though they were just smaller humans. Keith decides
to stay behind as Bad Blintz's ceremonial rat piper, while Maurice moves on to find
a new scheme.
CharactersEdit
 Maurice – an intelligent cat who leads the group of rats. He is cunning and
manipulative and has a very good (but cynical) understanding of how the world
works. Late in the novel, he guiltily admits that he accidentally ate one of the
intelligent rats of the Clan early in their history, and thus became sentient
himself.
Malicia – the daughter of Bad Blintz's mayor, perennially obsessed with fairy
tales, having adventures, and storytelling.
Keith – called the "stupid-looking kid", Keith is an orphan raised by the
Musician's Guild. He goes along with Maurice's scheme mainly to have something to
do, although he is very defensive of his rat family.
Dangerous Beans – an albino rat who has acted as a kind of spiritual leader for
the Clan since they became intelligent after eating rubbish from behind Unseen
University. Darktan observes that Dangerous Beans is the Clan's much-needed
philosopher, finding and "disarming" dangerous ideas for the group. For example,
Dangerous Beans is the one who they all turn to for answers to questions of rat
cannibalism, stealing, and the phenomenon of dreaming. He is also the interpreter
of the rats' "bible", a children's book called Mr Bunnsy Has An Adventure, which
depicts rats and other animals living in harmony with humans, speaking and dressing
like them. When Malicia observes that this book's utopian society is entirely
fictional, Dangerous Beans and his assistant Peaches run off in despair.
Peaches – a small female rat who acts as Dangerous Beans' assistant and the
Clan's scribe.
Hamnpork – the aging leader of the Clan, leftover from before they could think.
Hamnpork resists the idea of "thinking" and leads the Clan through the brute force
and cunning that traditional kee kee leaders use.
Darktan – the leader of the rats' Trap Disposal Squad. After his near-death
experience and the death of Hamnpork, Darktan becomes the Clan's new leader.
Darktan, although an older rat, is much more progressive than Hamnpork. He is well-
respected by all the rats because his knowledge of how to disarm traps helps keep
them alive.
Sardines – an older rat who wears a hat and tap dances. Sardines epitomizes the
group of rats who harass the humans into thinking they have a full-blown
infestation. He does not seek to lead but provides insightful help to Darktan after
the latter becomes the leader of the Clan. He understands how to read both humans
and rats and can manipulate both (but much more kindly than Maurice).

Recognition
Ideas and themesEdit

All the rats' names derive from the words they have seen written on tins before
they knew what the words meant, and they have called themselves whatever they
thought sounded good. Pratchett puns on this, such as the doubting rat, who was
called "Tomato" (as in Doubting Thomas).
Adaptations
See also
References
External links
Last edited 2 months ago by Ali17082001
Wikipedia

Content is available under CC BY-SA 3.0 unless otherwise noted.

Privacy policy
Terms of Use
Desktop