Susanna Clarke’s The Ladies of Grace Adieau

I had forgotten how much I was bored by Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, but I trust I’ll like other stuff by the same author and, before tackling Piranesi, I decided to finally approach this one. Not remembering these are spin-off stories from Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. So yeah, that might have been my mistake.

But how do you rate a book where half the stories bored you to tears and the other half was masterfully crafted, with memorable characters and a clever use of British folklore?
Scientifically, I’m afraid.

★★ “The Ladies of Grace Adieau,” and I’m being generous: it embodies everything I disliked with Strange & Norrell, particularly this kind of self-absorbed satisfaction in the usage of folklore themes, which I’m sure is very clever and very funny and yet should be at the service of some compelling story;

★ “On Lickerish Hill” has the same problem of the first one, without the owls;

★★★★★ “Mrs Mabb”: wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, featuring themes such as the Wild Hunt and other fairish mischief and yet the main character is very interesting and the whole atmosphere is splendidly British;

★ “The Duke of Wellington Misplaces His Horse” is Neil Gaiman’s fanfiction and I’m less than interested in that, right now (also, there’s a place for fanfiction and it isn’t this one);

★★★★★ “Mr Simoneli or the Fairy Widower”: a splendid tale revolving around the themes of inheritance, of being related to a dark fairy and, most importantly, a masterpiece in depicting glamour from the point of view of someone who’s immune and doesn’t know;

★★★ “Tom Brightwind, or How the Fairy Bridge Was Built at Thoresby” was nice but definitely too long for what it was trying to do;

★★★ “Antickes and Frets” is a nice story featuring some attempted embroidery magic by Mary Queen of the Scots;

★★ “John Uskglass and the Cumbrian Charcoal Burner” would be another one-star story if not for the comic succession of saints.

If I’m doing the math right, I get a little shy of three stars, which is what I’m compelled to give this book. A pity.