Here is My Summary of the Book:
It begins with the Princess Who Has No Kingdom. She does have a pony called Pretty and a cart. She is constantly looking for her Kingdom and makes money by carting around over-size parcels. She uses the public library and accidentally leaves her beautiful red umbrella there. She often visits the kingdom's she passes through out of politeness but she is not greeted warmly. They feed her on their second best china, give her hand-me-downs, and hide their sons. But she doesn't want for fancy dresses. She sells what she is given for money except for the thoughtful red tights a jester gives her and she wears them instead of selling them. She attends a crowning for a new King, although she is not warmly received. But at the party is enchanting on the dance floor and soon Princes and Kings are falling over themselves to win her favour. It all culminates in a food fight which the Princess finds wasteful and leaves. Comes across a young man and helps him with his stuck cart only to find he is the jester that gave her the red tights. He says his heart is her kingdom and they marry. He tells jokes and she carries parcels. She still yearns for her still lost Kingdom. Her lost umbrella turns up and is addressed to the "Princess of Here There and Everywhere!". Her kingdom is everywhere and the Princess is a Queen. Her and her King continue to explore their Kingdom of here there and everywhere.
Analysis:
Along with being an uplifting tale I find this story to have a positive message and a well moving plot. The Princess doesn't quite know where she fits in the world, she sees how others live and is not impressed. She falls in love and finds that her kingdom is the world around her and what she makes of it; that royalty is in the eye of the beholder. There is also a lot that happens in the story; there is travelling, court visits, trip to the library, a coronation, subsequent ball, inevitable food fight, romantic encounter, marriage, and ends with more travelling. I wouldn't call this an epic adventure but as a story maybe as a film it would be able to move kind of quickly if developed. This story does follow the Princess Who Had No Kingdom very closely and this obviously her journey. Contextually she is an interesting well rounded character. She is somewhat mysterious: What happened to her parents, presumably a king and queen? Where else has she looked for her Kingdom? How did she get the pony and the cart? Although the story does not answer all these questions you can imagine that she is eclectic, a collection of everything she has seen and maybe a little from her kingdom. She is most certainly a Princess though, because she 'looks like a Princess'. So already as a designer I have to decide what represents a princess: colour? texture? pattern?. She also has good manners and is kind; she doesn't rise to the slights of those who have a kingdom. So there she shows strength of character and in a small way bravery. But always she is missing her kingdom; it is what drives her journey. With her attendance to the coronation and ball she is graceful so enchanting that wealthy kings will fight her but she ignores them to look for what makes her happy. She finds love with a man who was kind to her in the beginning of the story and who has no kingdom to offer only love. So this shows her good judgement in a way. And in the end she completes her journey of self-discovery and creates her own happiness. I think that as I develop my sketches and ideas I can think about her journey and her actions and reactions. This will help me create a more solid context for the costumes and also allow me to decide how I want to differentiate the costumes based on her attributes as a character .
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Gibb, S. and Jones, U.
(2009). The Princess Who Had No Kingdom. London: Orchard
Books.
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