the ladies of grace adieu
the ladies of grace adieu and other stories by susanna clarke - and so, i actually managed to finish another book this weekend after all. a story collection by the ms. clarke, in the same vein of her breakthrough first novel, jonathan strange and mr. norrell. a book that i quite enjoyed, in all it's many paged glory. i think that i would've liked these stories even more, had i read them around the same time as that novel, which could conceivably have occurred, given that most of them have been previously published. as it stands, i must agree with the washington post review, which finds them somewhat frothy without the weight of that book accompanying them. meaning, one of the things that was so amazing about the novel was how completely clarke was able to create that world - a sort of alternate history of england where faeries and magic were part and parcel of everyday life. even though one knows that these stories exist in that same world/history, without the being able to completely immerse ourselves in it, they seem a bit trifling. rather enjoyable nonetheless. not surprisingly, i liked the latter stories more than the earliest ones, perhaps because by the time i got to them i was able to immerse myself a bit in that world. although maybe i'm just thinking about it too much.