The Magicians and Mrs. Quent

Galen Beckett
Fantasy
Grade: B, B-

Be warned, the Magicians and Mrs. Quent is a novel only for those who like classic English literature. If you are otherwise inclined, as in wanting action and hair raising adventure in your books, you will wind up despising this novel.

The first half of this book is a what if novel. Specifically, it asks the questions:

What if in Pride and Prejudice Elizabeth's father was indisposed and Mr. Darcy's still alive?

What if Magic existed side by side with genteel society?

In that case Elizabeth would be Ivy Lockwell, a lovely, practical young women whose father was made ill by a spell gone wrong and whose mother is slowly bankrupting the family by insisting upon living in the house she inherited, which the family can in no way afford. As Ivy tries to make payments on the home and do what she can to keep the family together a most unexpected surprise falls into their midst. Her cousin, Mr. Wyble, meets Mr. Rafferdy at a party and invites him to join him on a visit to the house he will someday inherit. Mr. Wyble is in raptures when Mr. Rafferdy assents (he is half asleep listening to Wybles fawning and agrees before he can stop himself)and so Mr. Rafferdy (and a friend he enlists as backup) find themselves spending an enrapturing afternoon tea with the lovely Lockwell sisters. Mr. Rafferdy finds himself going quite out of his way to run into the lovely Ivy thereafter and the two strike an unlikely friendship in which her mother begins to pin her hopes.

In the meantime, Altania, the land in which they live is facing a growing rebellion within and a magical problem of some magnitude, though no one seems to pay attention but a select few. The ancient and original trees of Altania are alive and much like Tolkien's Fangorn Forest they are alive with a menace which bodes no good for the humans who tangle with them.

I have told you only the barest beginning of the book. Ivy, Mr. Rafferdy, Mr. Quent and the others all begin a journey to save Altania which I trust will take many books to reach fruition. That fact and the rather long winded why in which the tale is told made it a B for me.

Tea: A nice cup of Earl Grey for this Regency England meets magic tale.