Jonathan van Olden Barnavelt is a magician who currently lives at 100 High Street in New Zebedee, Capharnaum County, Michigan, in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He is the next-door neighbor and best friend of Florence Zimmermann and, as of the summer of 1948, the guardian of his nephew, Lewis.
Biography[]
Family[]
Jonathan is the big brother of Lewis's deceased father, Charles. Lewis is his closest remaining relative. We learn in VENGEANCE that he is the armchair historian of the family, and all the Barnavelts are descended from a lineage of knights in England. One ancestor was a benevolent wizard, Martin Christian Barnavelt. (VENGEANCE)
[]
"I say, Cousin Jonathan! You're just like a larger, expanded edition of your younger brother, with a beard added. I'd know you anywhere."--Cousin Pelly, (VENGEANCE)
Charlie is Lewis' father. He fought in WWII with the Army Air Corps in England brought home a huge cardboard suitcase from London, covered with Cunard Line stickers,. Lewis carries his possessions in it on his way to Jonathan's. (HOUSE) . Charlie never told Lewis much of anything about their family, even though he had struck up a friendship with his cousin Arthur Pellham Barnavelt in the Army Air Corps. This is something that would have excited the young boy. Jonathan gently explains this in VENGEANCE:
"Charlie was an optimist, always looking ahead. The past never interested him much."
Lewis had never even seen his uncle until their first meeting in 1948, and Jonathan recognized him from a photograph his brother had sent. There seems to be no real enmity over this distance, so much as the brothers were very different. Jonathan tends to describe his brother with a smile on his face, keeping his memories happy and positive. There is genuine reason to believe Lewis' struggle to open up to his uncle stems from his inability to do so with Charlie. When Lewis struggles and fails to tell Jonathan he loves him, Jonathan doesn't press it, but instead says, "Tell me whenever you're ready, Lewis. And I love you too." (VENGEANCE)
"It was not that Uncle Jonathan was such a hard man to talk to. He was easier to talk to than most people Lewis knew, easier by far than Lewis's own father had ever been."--(HOUSE)
Charlie had no truck with the supernatural, trying to convince his son that ghosts were X-rays (HOUSE). Lewis grew up having to support his own imagination on things, such as not believing his father about ghosts and pretending the cars behind theirs were really following them. There is a lot Lewis does not know about his father but Jonathan tries to fill in those holes with positive things.
Aunt Helen and Uncle Jimmy[]
"Aunt Helen had the personality of a leaky inner tube. Unlike her older brother, she was thin and nervous-looking. Instead of Uncle Jonathan's coppery red thatch, she had mousy brown hair." (--WHISTLE)
Aunt Helen is the sort of aunt every child dreads (but at least she isn't as terrifying as Lewis' Aunt Mattie--not that that is saying much at all!). When she isn't a practicing hypochondriac with asthma, she blames her health on atomic radiation. Jonathan nevertheless goes to visit her and her husband James (Jimmy) whenever he can over at Ossee Five Hills. She claims she isn't up to such a long trip herself, but calls to let him know it's been too long since his last visit. She is a Baptist and wishes Lewis were one too, even though she never has much use for her nephew. She cooks slightly better than Jonathan (which is not a compliment, even a weak one). Like her brother and nephew, Helen can be quite the worrywart, only in her the worries seem to have completely spiraled out of control. This is incredibly ironic, because she seems to have her own share of magical awareness, being able to see the lamia preying on Lewis, but since she has nothing to do with the world outside of her own interests, she does not recognize it. (--WHISTLE)
"He was a skinny, balding man whose expression was usually weary and long-suffering. Lewis could understand that. Anyone married to Aunt Helen would become tired before long, and he would have to suffer a lot!" (--WHISTLE)
Uncle Jimmy and Jonathan appear to share a genial relationship with each other. Jimmy's first thought is to help Jonathan with his car problems and listens to the Detroit Tigers on the radio with his brother-in-law. He and Helen together snore even worse than Uncle Jonathan, much to the misery of Lewis.
We know from HOUSE that Lewis had 'two maiden aunts' who left the Catholic Church to become Baptists. Thus they did not approve of Jonathan's smoking and card playing. Aunt Helen may be one of these aunts, only she is now married.
Mystery Aunt Mattie[]
Aunt Mattie's relationship to Jonathan is unexplained in HOUSE. She may have been an aunt on Lewis' mother's side. Either way, she was completely terrifying in life and even worse as a ghost.
[]
"Grampa Barnavelt was really a rather soft-hearted and gentle man. He had no business trying to fight in a war."--(FIGURE) "Jonathan's grandfather had fought in the (Civil) war with the Fifth Michigan Fire Zouave Lancers, and Jonathan was full of stories about the old man's exploits."--(HOUSE)
Grampa Barnavelt was so determined to come out unscathed in the upcoming battle of Spotsylvania Court House, he bet his gold signet ring against Walter Finzer's lucky coin. Although he won Finzer felt he was wrongly pushed into betting the coin, and shot him in the leg. This put him in jail and Grampa out of commission so they were the only survivors of the Lancers. Ironically for everyone, the coin was infected with the powerful spirit of a murdered magician, and when Lewis wears it for his own good luck he falls under its power (FIGURE).
Jonathan graduated from Michigan Agricultural College with an A.B. in Agricultural Science, and later Inherited a pile of money from his grandfather, choosing to invest wisely in stocks and bonds that allowed him to live comfortably.
Jonathan is a self-depreciating fellow, comfortable with his life, his responsibilities as an uncle, a member of the Capharnaum County Magician's Society, and a humanitarian. He is thus generous and slow to anger. His gentle nature can vanish in a flash if his loved ones, especially his young nephew Lewis, are threatened. Still waters run deep applies to him well, as he cared enough about a girl when he was a child to try to raise the dead in a doomed attempt to impress her. Later we learn that his heart was broken by a girl (we don't know if it was a different one), and he chose to spend the rest of his life as a bachelor rather than risk his heart again.
Jonathan and Magic: A Parlor Magician[]
"It occurred to him [Lewis] that Jonathan was being very modest when he called himself a parlor magician." --HOUSE Jonathan's magic (at least, the magic he shows to the world) is good-hearted, harmless, slightly silly conjuring and illusions. He likes to help people, but this is firstly by doing ordinary, boring things like joining a plumbing project or going out of his way to 'accidentally discover' a roll of insulation for a neighbor who can't afford it. (NOBODY LIVED). When he uses magic it is usually to have a good time with it; he loves giving people a good time with his powers. He creates fictitious, illusory worlds that can be experienced with all five senses. They possess incredible detail, but his sense of humor will always slip through to keep things from getting too dark or troubling. Nearly all his opponents consider Mrs. Zimmerman the better and stronger magician, but he put the finishing stroke on Ishmael Izard with a 'Light and Truth' spell that Mrs. Zimmerman noted was 'pretty nifty' for a parlor magician. (TOWER)
Moon Wizard[]
Jonathan calls himself a "Moon Wizard" in a cheerful competition with Mrs. Zimmerman, who is trained in Earth Magic. He can eclipse the moon (or at least look like he is) and appears to be naturally drawn to astronomy, an interest he shares with Lewis. This interest in the stars may be an overall Barnavelt trait, as his brother Charlie once tried to convince Lewis that ghosts were x-rays bouncing off distant planets (HOUSE). His magic mirror shows him interesting locales, and that includes other planets in space.
Always Learning[]
"Some people put a bookcase in a room and call the room a library, but that was not Jonathan's way. His library was crammed, floor to ceiling, with books."--(FIGURE)
Jonathan is quite the packrat, having inherited all sorts of stuff as well as collecting his own. He loves books, although the contents can be a little problematic when one also has an inquisitive little nephew around. He is every bit as curious as Lewis, and keeps an inquisitive mind about the world. Magic doesn't rule his life; he loves science as much as Lewis; as part of becoming a magician he created a mirror that would let him see exotic dimensions and places (SIGN).
Jonathan lived on Spruce Street, down by the waterworks, until he bought Isaac Izard's old house in 1943. Soon after moving in, he heard the sound of Isaac Izard's Doomsday Clock. At some point afterward, he bought a great number of clocks, using their ticking and ringing to drown out the sound of Isaac's clock.
- Converted the house to oil after buying it.
- Owns a piece of petrified wood from "out west".
- Owns a large, black 1935 Muggins Simoon.
- Created a magical illusion, the Fuse Box Dwarf, in the winter of 1948.
Likes[]
- Loved to get mail [The Figure in the Shadows; 29].
- Read in the tub [The House with a Clock in its Walls; 110].
Dislikes[]
- Knives make him nervous [The Figure in the Shadows; 19].
Other[]
- Snores [The House with a Clock in its Walls; 82].
- Was interested in magic at an early age, and showed off his powers to a girl he liked, but it didn't work out. [The House with a Clock in its Walls; 177].
Capharnaum County Magician's Society[]
Jonathan was admitted to the Capharnaum County Magician's Society on April 30, 1932, when he proved his abilities to other members of the society by eclipsing the moon. He identifies himself as a "parlor magician," one who can seemingly only conjure up grandiose illusions of historic battles or enchant mirrors and stained glass windows - and eclipse the moon.
Inspiration[]
Johan van Oldenbarnevelt
Jonathan’s name stems from a highly-regarded Dutch statesman and leader of Dutch independence named Johan van Oldenbarnevelt (1547-1619), considered to some as the founding father of the Netherlands. He was executed on May 13, 1619, in The Hague by Prince Maurice of Nassau on a charge of subverting religion. Such an execution of a prominent citizen for political reasons, however in a religious disguise, in which the freedom of worship was involved, must have terrified the Pilgrim Fathers greatly, possibly leading to a decision to leave the country and bring them as the first Sabbath-keeping group to America[1].
Bellairs probably used the anglicized name after hearing of it in post-graduate English literature studies, specifically the play, The Tragedy of Sir John Van Olden Barnavelt (1619), written as a collaboration between John Fletcher (1579-1625) and Philip Massinger (1583-1640), playwrights of Shakespeare's era. Fletcher wrote 15 plays and is thought to worked with Shakespeare on The Two Noble Kinsmen and Henry VIII. Around 1605 he began to write plays in collaboration with Sir Francis Beaumont, and, before his death of the plague, produced numerous works with many collaborators[2].
Adaptation[]
Severn Darden as Jonathan Barnavelt
On television, actor Severn Darden portrayed Jonathan in the 1979 program, Once Upon a Midnight Scary. In the film adaptation, Jack Black is his portrayer.
References[]
- ↑ Wikipedia: Johan van Oldenbarnevelt
- ↑ Wikipedia: John van Olden Barnavelt
| Lewis Barnavelt Series |
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| Bellairs Corpus | |
| By John Bellairs | |
| Completed by Brad Strickland |
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| By Brad Strickland | |