Коралина / Coraline

Начало книги

Coraline discovered the door a little while after they moved into the house.

It was a very old house—it had an attic under the roof and a cellar under the ground and an overgrown garden with huge old trees in it.

Coralineʼs family didnʼt own all of the house—it was too big for that. Instead they owned part of it.

There were other people who lived in the old house.

Miss Spink and Miss Forcible lived in the flat below Coralineʼs, on the ground floor. They were both old and round, and they lived in their flat with a number of ageing Highland terriers[1] who had names like Hamish and Andrew and Jock. Once upon a time Miss Spink and Miss Forcible had been actresses, as Miss Spink told Coraline the first time she met her.

“You see, Caroline,” Miss Spink said, getting Coralineʼs name wrong, “both myself and Miss Forcible were famous actresses, in our time. We trod the boards[2], luvvy. Oh, donʼt let Hamish eat the fruitcake, or heʼll be up all night with his tummy.”

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