Even during his lifetime, the two books became an enormous success. They were found in English children's rooms as well as in the officers' mess in Calcutta; they were read by Queen Victoria as well as by Oscar Wilde; today they are quoted in the English Parliament just as naturally as in the advertising series of an electrical company; and their praise can be found in the Times just as much as in the writings of the French surrealists Aragon and Breton. Christian Enzensberger.