Of the three Lockwell sisters: romantic Lily, prophetic Rose, and studious Ivy - all agree that it’s the eldest, the book-loving Ivy, who has held the family together ever since their father’s retreat into his silent vigil in the library upstairs. Everyone blames Mr. Lockwell’s malady on his magkical studies, but Ivy alone still believes both in magick, and in its power to bring her father back.
But there are others in the world who believe in magick as well. Over the years Ivy has glimpsed them - the strangers in black topcoats and hats who appear at the door, strangers of whom their mother will never speak. Ivy once thought them secret benefactors, but now she’s not so certain.
After tragedy strikes, Ivy takes a job with the reclusive Mr. Quent in a desperate effort to preserve her family. It’s only then that she discovers the fate she shares with a jaded young nobleman named Dashton Rafferdy, his ambitious friend Eldyn Garritt, and a secret web of highwaymen, revolutionaries, illusionists, and spies who populate the island nation of Altania.
For there is far more to Altania than meets the eye, and more to magick than mere fashion. And in the act of saving her father, Ivy will determine whether the world faces a new dawn - or an everlasting night....Combine Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre within a fantasy setting and you have
The Magicians and Mrs. Quent by Galen Beckett. The first 1/3 of the book is light and contains elements familiar to readers of Jane Austen. It reads like a Regency romance only this isn't England, it's the kingdom of Altania.
The second third of the book drastically changes in tone as the circumstances of our heroine, Ivy, become more serious. Even the POV changes from third person to first person.
Many of the characters and scenes in
The Magicians and Mrs. Quent reminded me so much of Austen and Bronte that I had to ponder on whether I enjoyed the book because of its very familiar elements or for its own intrinsic merit.
When I say very familiar, let me illustrate with a few examples. Our heroine falls ill while visiting a noblewoman's mansion and has to stay there to recuperate, all the while getting closer to her gentleman love interest. Said heroine is below the gentleman's station so there occurs a scene in which one of the gentleman's friends has come to dissuade her from reaching too high.
The house in which our heroine and her sisters are living will only be theirs for their mother's lifetime, whereupon it transfers, upon her death, to an annoying, boring cousin who inflates his connection to gentility.
That's just in the first 1/3 of the book. The second third drastically changes in tone and style. Whereas the first 1/3 is a light comedy of manners, this section is now dark and gothic as our heroine's circumstances have changed. She goes to work as a governess to the wards of the harsh and distant Mr. Quent. The estate is eerie and may be haunted by Mr. Rochester -er-Mr. Quent's dead first wife. A Grace Poole-like character in the form of Mrs. Dandarel, the housekeeper, hovers menacingly in the background.
At some point while reading this section, I thought, now comes the part when the mad first wife burns the whole place down...and a fire indeed erupts.
While the first and second parts of the book owe much to Austen and Bronte, the third part is wholly the author's. The high fantasy elements come to the foreground.
There are a lot of seemingly disparate strands that Beckett weaves into this novel - Austen, Bronte, high fantasy, political intrigues, magical uprisings and conspiracies. And upon reflection, all of it worked for me - but barely. I was too conscious of the borrowed characterizations and plot devices for 2/3 of it to fully enjoy the novel; however.. I know I'm really into a book when my son has to shout at me to get my attention away from it and that was the case with
The Magicians and Mrs. Quent. I desperately wanted to get to the very end and find out what drove Mr. Lockwell insane and what was in that mysterious house in Durrow Street, which coincidentally is the title of the next in the series.
Read the first chapter here.
