The Story of the Treasure Seekers

The Story of the Treasure Seekers is a children’s adventure novel by Edith Nesbit. First published in 1899, the book follows a group of siblings who set about restoring the family fortune after their father loses his business. It’s the first book in the Bastable Children series, and it’s Nesbit’s most popular novel. Nesbit was an acclaimed children’s novelist who wrote and co-authored over 60 books. Before writing children’s books, she wrote and sold sentimental poetry to support her best friend financially. Aside from her writing career, Nesbit was an enthusiastic political activist with ties to the modern-day British Labour Party.

The Story of the Treasure Seekers is set in England around 1899, and it follows a middle-class family called the Bastables. There are six children in the Bastable family, and they live in a modest semi-detached house on Lewisham Road in London. The house isn’t big enough for everyone, but they can’t afford to live anywhere else. They rarely buy new clothes and most of their possessions are handed down through the generations.

Mrs Bastable died a few years ago. Mr Bastable raises the children alone without much help. Between running his failing business and looking after six children, he’s under extreme pressure and he isn’t very affectionate. Most of all, he misses his wife, and he knows that his children need their mother. Dora, the eldest Bastable, takes on the motherly role and she tries her best to look after her younger siblings.



When the book begins, the siblings gather together for a meeting. They talk about their father’s business partner and the crimes he committed against the business. He stole money and, resultingly, their father pulled them out of school. He can no longer afford their tuition fees, and he thought it was fairer to pull them all out than let some of them still attend classes. Now, their father can barely afford the housekeeper, Eliza, and Dora doesn’t know how she’ll cope on her own.

The children all have the best intentions at heart. They want to help their father reclaim his fortune. The problem is that they have very different ideas for getting the money back, and none of them are practical. Their priority is getting their allowances back, because without pocket money, they can’t buy sweets or other fun things. Once they secure their allowances, they can build on their successes and generate higher profits.

Their first idea is to dig in the garden for buried treasure. This is tiring work and they can’t find anything valuable. They resort to using an umbrella as a divining rod, but their venture fails. They regroup to think up a new plan. Noel, one of the youngest, is a great writer. He thinks he can sell his poems for huge sums of money. Unsurprisingly, this doesn’t go according to plan and no one buys his work.



The other siblings think about what they’re good at. Dicky loves working with numbers. He decides to set up his own business. He plans on selling mail-order wine. The problem is that no one gives them wine to sell because they’re so young. They can’t fulfil any orders and this plan doesn’t last long.

The siblings then decide to work as detectives. Solving crimes and mysteries sounds like fun work. They look for ads offering rewards to anyone who can find missing people or jewellery. They wander around town looking for strange happenings to investigate, but it’s a quiet town, and they don’t have any luck finding detective missions. After so many failed ventures, they can’t help feeling disheartened.

Meanwhile, they try digging for treasure again. They find four shillings. Dicky wants them to apply for jobs in newspapers using the money, but the others divide the money amongst themselves and waste it on frivolous things. They’re no closer to restoring the family fortune and they realise what an impossible task they’re undertaking, so spending the money on luxuries seems a good idea.



One day, Noel meets a minor princess in Greenwich Park. She doesn’t say much to him because he’s a commoner. Noel wishes he was older, because then he’d propose and inherit her money through marriage. The others know this is a ridiculous idea, but they don’t want to ruin his fleeting hopefulness.

Things get desperate and they decide to ransom off their annoying neighbour, Albert-Next-Door. The problem is that Albert’s family have their own money worries, and they can’t pay much to get him back. Albert’s uncle gives them a few shillings and they send Albert on his way after listening to his whining for hours.

Finally, they decide to try the divining rod again. Alice, Noel’s twin, dresses up like a high priestess and wanders around, wielding the umbrella and pointing it at things. Before she finds anything valuable, their uncle comes around for a visit. He offers them the opportunity they’ve been waiting for. He bails them out financially and he lets them live in his fancy mansion. The business thrives again, and Alice, naturally, is convinced that she’s responsible.