The Ladies of Grace Adieu
“Faerie is never as far away as you think. Sometimes you find you have crossed an invisible line and must cope, as best you can, with petulant princesses, vengeful owls, ladies who pass their time embroidering terrible fates, or with endless paths in deep dark woods and houses that never appear the same way twice.”
The Ladies of Grace Adieu is a delightful collection of short stories written by Susanna Clarke and illustrated by Charles Vess. Clarke of course wrote the celebrated ‘Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell’, a novel concerning the rise of magic in Regency England. This collection deals more fully with Faerie as a place and with it’s enthralling and capricious inhabitants. Characters from Strange and Norrel make an appearance and stories mentioned in brief in the extensive footnotes are here given in their entirety. There are many elements of traditional folk stories recognisable in Ladies of Grace Adieu, but Clarke has retold them charmingly. Charles Vess’ illustrations are as ever a beautiful addition, whilst the whole package of the hardback edition with its decorative clothbound cover is a pleasure to read.
Buy The Ladies of Grace Adieu from Amazon.co.uk
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