It is difficult not to do this extraordinary book a disservice by praising it with extravagant enthusiasm. In a world which is overgenerous with its superlatives, the use of such terms as great and good may well be questioned. They should not be questioned in this case. "Mistress Masham's Repose" is a masterpiece of narration, literary ingenuity, humor and satire and Mr. White, on the basis of this book, deserves to be mentioned in the company of Evelyn Waugh, C. S. Lewis and George Orwell as one of the few fortunate possessors of a splendid prose style.

The story itself concerns Maria, a ten-year-old orphan who lives at Malplaquet, an enormous ruin four times as large as Buckingham Palace, attended only by a fierce Governess, Miss Brown ("She was cruel in a complicated way"), a repulsive guardian, the Rev. Mr. Hater, and a kind old cook, Mrs. Noakes. Exploring an islet in one of the lakes of Malplaquet, Maria stumbles on a colony of five hundred Lilliputians, descendants of Captain John Biddel's captives mentioned in "Gulliver's Travels." The book is charged with its own creative power of the imagination, but once it associates its private magic with the powerful illusion of Dean Swift, it moves with an additional energy. The world of Lilliput is alive again.

Maria's delight in her miniscule friends is shortlived. Miss Brown and Mr. Hater discover the secret, and plot to seize and sell the little people to Hollywood. Maria is imprisoned in the dungeon and threatened with death. How she escapes their clutches with the aid of the Lilliputian Army and the old professor, how the estate is restored and the two villains punished, and how it all ends in a most satisfactory Christmas celebration, is the substance of the narrative. It is enough to say here that there are few more exciting tales than this account of the battle between the creatures of wonder and wisdom and the twin giants of avarice and pride.

Mr. White's fantasy differs from the usual fairy story in several important respects. Without spoiling the illusion of the novel, he has succeeded in realizing universal types in his characterizations. The old professor is a priceless portrait of the antiquarian, the Lord Lieutenant a vivid caricature of the eccentric fox-hunting country aristocrat, and the Lilliputian schoolmaster the epitome of rugged honesty, respectability and discretion. The book abounds in humor both of situation and language. Much of its charm for the sophisticated reader consists in a rich and scholarly knowledge, artfully concealed, of eighteenth-century literature, history and architecture. The lovely mustiness of old books and marvelously useless learning lends fragrance and charm to a plot lively enough to make your pulses jump. There are no sermons in the book, but one must be an irretrievable adult not to pick up some wisdom from this delightful story.

Perhaps Mr. White is saying, in a very oblique way, that the world always needs a reminder that innocence, honesty and trust -- and impractical learning -- will win their way to a happy ending. If he doesn't say it in so many words, he is showing how it can be done for the duration of his novel and for as long after as the memory of it persists. May it be read for the century to come.