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The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories
by Susanna Clarke
(Bloomsbury, CAN$29.95, 235 pages; hardcover, published in September
2006.)
 In
the wake of her astonishing debut novel, Jonathan Strange & Mr
Norrell, Susanna Clarke returns with The Ladies of Grace Adieu
and Other Stories.
Most of the stories in this collection are set in the same universe
as Clarke's novel, an England in which magic and the realm of faerie
coexist overtly with the mundane world. Even those stories that aren't
exactly in that same universe inhabit a very similar one, such as "The
Duke of Wellington Misplaces His Horse", which occurs in the world
of Stardust, created by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess (the latter provides
spot illustrations throughout Clarke's collection).
The most striking story is the "The Ladies of Grace Adieu",
a staunchly feminist take on power relations as filtered through the
politics of magic of Clarke's universe. Typically in Clarke's stories,
a confused protagonist unwittingly encounters magic and/or the world
of faerie, and then things get complicated, mysterious, scary, and wondrous.
Combining a judicious dose of antiquated language with complex characters,
a carefully imagined fictional world, and peculiar plots, Clarke creates
an enchanting atmosphere and a winning formula.
Considering that Clarke's next book is supposed to be another novel
again set in the same universe, one worries, though, that Clarke may
be a one-note author. If so, how long can that one note sustain itself?
The novel was more effective, mostly because the atmosphere gains power
with the accumulation of detail, but these stories are nevertheless
quite entertaining, imaginative, and erudite.
Originally published in
The Montreal Gazette, Saturday, 20 January 2007.
Claude Lalumière's Fantastic Fiction
is a series of
capsule reviews first published in the Saturday Books
section of The Montreal Gazette.
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