There has always been a lyrical and escapist streak in Jamon Thurber. IN the midst of his satire and anecdote--all very much of this world--it has showed itself quietly, in a series of children's books and fairy stories: "Many Moons," "The Great Quilow," "The White Door." The latest in this line is "The 13 Clocks."

In many ways it resembles "The White Door" more than the earlier works. The two latest books are more subtle, more poetic, more adult than the earlier ones. They are considerably more than simple children's stories.

There are other similarities. Both books use the same framework, the setting of a task to win the hand of a lovely princess. Both have all the paraphernalia of the fairy story: witches, wizzards, fabulous jewels. Both make liberal use of poetic devices such as alliteration, and have passages of metrical or semi-metrical prose. Both are humorous.

Despite their similarities, however, the two books are very different in tone. "The White Dear" was a light-hearted story that made fun of the entourage of King Clode: the Royal Physician who was always taking his own pulse and not telling himself what it read, the Royal Astronomer who saw pink comets brushing by the earth through his pink-colored glasses, and all the rest. It was a smiling, sophisticated fairy story.

"The 13 Clocks" is a dark and Quatous fairy story, for all its humor. Genial King Clode is now the Duke (no first name given) who is always cold and has one log longer than the other "because when he was young, he had spent his mornings place-kicking pups and punting kittons." The delightful bumbling Royal rotinue is now a shadowy band of spies called Whisper, and Hark, and Liston.

In "The White Door," the question was which of the beautiful princess' three suitors would succeed first in his task and win her hand; in "The 13 Clocks" the evil Duke sets a tack that cannot be done and the question is whether the here, a prince disguised as a wandering minstrel, will perish after a vain attempt.

And the additional cast of characters is more mysterious: the Total, for instance--"an agent of the devil, sent is punish evil-doers for having done less evil that they should." The Golux is cast in the old mold--his father was a wizard who "often cast his spells upon himself, when he was in his cups."

Probably the biggest difference lies in the illustrations. The bright spirit of "The White Door was carried well by the Thurber drawings; the darkness of "The 13 Clocks" is expressed in a series of excellent drawings by Mare Simost, mostly in varied shades of purple and black.

But enough of this contrast. "The 13 Clocks" is another magnificent book, with all the sparkle of Thurber at his best. Amid the humor and the horse play there are lines of great beauty ("The Princess Saralinds. . . were serenity brightly like the rainbow." "Somewhere a clock dropped a stony chime into the night") One can enjoy this story for its verbal felicity alone.