'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the book, the children were waiting for Santa to come down the fire place nook. Clement Clarke Moore cemented Santa's entrance into homes through fireplaces in this book (A Visit from St. Nicholas, better known as The Night Before Christmas), and one as Santa's starting point for bringing gifts to good children was born. L. Frank Baum's The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus also furthered the use of them in the American Christmas tradition through illustrations in that book. Other such books exist, Gingher shears such as Before Christmas by Tasha Taylor and a pop-up book with one and Santa coming out of it by Robert Subuda. How else would we know how Santa came into a house without them? Another Christmas book with such scenes is Dickens' A Christmas Carol, where almost the entire story plays out in front of one. Of course, this has nothing to do with Santa, but it shows how elemental such things are in books.
But it plays an important element in other books, too. Think of the novel, Bob, Son of Battle. Here, we find a lonely M'Adam seeking warmth in front of the one. James Herriot, in his autobiographies, is always warming up from Yorkshire chills in front of them as he travels around the world. And where would P. G. Woodhouse's Jeeves be without the memorable scenes of Aunt Dahlia throwing things at the mantel? Certainly not as amusing.
How about The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings? These, too, have important elements in them. Here, these keep turning up in these travel-based books. "Upon the hearth the fire is red," Tolkien writes in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings, and always critters are meeting in such areas.
Meanwhile, E. R. Braithwaite's autobiographical novel, To Sir, with Love, has a more sinister scene. In it, Thackery (the lead character, Braithwaite's alter ego) comes into the classroom to discover a lot of smoke emerging from one. Thackery dismisses the male students from the room, only to scold the female students. Turns out they were using it to burn a sanitary napkin in hopes of shocking and offending the new teacher.
In science fiction, rel=nofollow fireplaces are important plot elements, too. Take, for example, a novel in the famous Dr. Who series, The Girl in the Fire Place. Here, as the Doctor, Rose and Mickey find themselves in front of an 18th century one. Although the other side of it should be the base of the Tardis, it is instead a room with a little girl. She says she is in her room in Paris and that the year is 1727. Given that the Doctor et. al. were supposed to be in the 51st century, this amazes them and causes the Doctor to see that a large excess of power can "punch a hole in the universe" and create a "magic door" between the two centuries. Here, then, such fiery items as plot elements cannot be overlooked.
The most popular series of books today where such plot devices keep turning up is the Harry Potter series. Here, it turns into a flue network, a port key and more. Who can forget the scene where Sirius Black appears there to speak with Harry in The Goblet of Fire? Or when letters fly down the Weasley's chimney? No one can deny that they are important elements in this series. J. K. Rowling does a marvelous job imagining scenes with them.
The fire place is always going to capture hearts and play an important role in novels, children's books and more. And why not? Fireplaces are magical places indeed, well worthy of novel pursuits.
Andy West is a writer on a variety of topics, including literature. When you think about it, fireplaces are mentioned quite often in literature as they add so much to the mental picture of the sitting.
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