Deviousness and Cunning

[tealin]

Johnathan Strange & Mr Norrell contains a passage in which a magician, in an attempt to raise a young lady from the dead, calls up a fairy to do the actual work for him.* As payment for this work, the magician makes a deal with the fairy that he may have the young lady for half of her remaining life once she is resurrected.

Now, I'm a casual student of fairy folklore; I've got several books on the subject and it's an intermittent hobby of mine to research them. So far Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell has been pretty respectful of its source material (far more than most related fantasy literature) but in this one episode, I can't help but think the magician ought to have specified that the fairy could have the second half of the young lady's life, because it is entirely within the nature of one of the "Fair People" to take full advantage of any such loophole in an agreement.

I'm really being unfair, though. So far it's pretty good. I particularly liked the ships in chapter 11.

*Apparently this is the way such things are done in this particular universe, just as magicians use demons in the Bartimaeus books.

5:17 pm
I was going to save this until after the official presentation to the Royal Society for Patrick O'Brian Icons but I see Ubiquitouspitt has employed it already, so with sincerest apologies to Canisdoofus:

The idea and the writing are all Ubiquitouspitt's ... I just did the technical stuff.

Comments

[canisdoofus.livejournal.com]

The fact that it was "playground humour" is what makes it adorable. But short or not, Napoleon was a hottie! :-P

[ubiquitouspitt.livejournal.com]

He was actually pretty hot in his younger days...

And now, after having said that, I have to go into hiding.

Good day.

[canisdoofus.livejournal.com]

AMEN! I came back from my first trip to Paris at the tender age of 15 completely infatuated with him. I was never really attracted to tall men to begin with.

http://worldroots.com/brigitte/gifs5/napoleon3.jpg
http://www.bfi.org.uk/images/collections/pages/napoleon2.jpg
http://worldroots.com/brigitte/gifs5/napoleon11.jpg
http://www.abcgallery.com/D/david/gros9.JPG

[ubiquitouspitt.livejournal.com]

I prefer this one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Napoleon_bonaparte.jpg

Ah, I think you might be the other side of my soulmate coin. I, too, know what it is like to be infatuated with an historical figure that very few people appreciate in the way they should (should they even KNOW who the person is). Ironically, mine are the Pitts, William.

[canisdoofus.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, Young Boney at the bridge of Arcola! For some reason, I couldn't get that image (I saved the best for last) to work. :-( But a few years after Paris, I visited St. Petersburg, Russia, and had to be pried away by force from its glory at the Hermitage.

But you are so right, in that historical figures are so often ignored. I sacrificed a springboard undergraduate career in fine arts for one in History just to prove that point.