Friday, December 11, 2015

This Rough Magic, by Mary Stewart

Still in search of books with happy endings, I turned next to Mary Stewart. I had started This Rough Magic a couple of times before, knowing it's a favorite with many people, but the story didn't hold my attention past the first chapter. I find that happening a lot with books lately - I end up starting some of them at least three times before I really settle in with the story. I know some first chapters almost by heart at this point.

From my false starts with this book, I remembered that it is set on the Greek island of Corfu. Lucy Marling, a young actress whose first London play just folded, has escaped grey rainy England to stay with her sister Phyllida Forli in a seaside villa. Phyllida is married to a Roman banker whose family owns not just the villa, but the original estate, including a castello of fantastic design. Lucy is astonished to learn that the castello is presently leased to Sir Julian Gale, "one of the more brilliant lights of the London theatre for more years than [she] can remember." She has wonderful memories of seeing him play Prospero, in a production of The Tempest at Stratford. He has developed a novel theory that Corfu is actually Prospero's island of exile, and allusions to the play run through the story. Staying with Sir Julian is his son Max, a composer. The Forlis have another tenant and neighbor, Godfrey Manning, a writer and photographer. Godfrey has hired a young man, Spiro, to help with the photography and running his boat. Spiro's mother and sister Miranda work for Phyllida. After an accident at sea, Godfrey turns to her to help him break the news that Spiro was lost overboard. His body has not been found when another young man's washes up in their secluded bay. What looks like an accident may be disguising a murder - and perhaps not the only one.

There was so much to enjoy in this book, starting with the setting. I have been googling pictures of Corfu and wondering how I can manage a trip there. (I confess with some embarrassment that, as many times as I've read My Family and Other Animals, this was the first time I have looked Corfu up in maps and pictures, and really understood where it is.)  Lucy is an engaging narrator, and I liked her comfortable sisterly relationship with Phyllida. I think this is the first of Mary Stewart's heroines that I have met with a sister; so many of them are on their own, with only distant relations. I was fairly sure from the start who the hero of the story was going to be, and who the villain, and I enjoyed watching that play out. And of course there is the dolphin, a regular visitor to the bay who features in Manning's photographs. He is the means of introducing Lucy to the Gales, and when she finds him mysteriously beached in the bay, Max helps her rescue him. What is it about dolphins? Like baby elephants, they are just irresistible.

The story here is certainly an exciting one, with the tension building right up to the last pages and an explosive conclusion. I don't know that I could pick just one favorite about Mary Stewart's books, but this would certainly be in top three or four (with The Ivy Tree, My Brother Michael and Nine Coaches Waiting).

The constant references to The Tempest intrigued me. I was fortunate to see a production in Stratford myself, with the great John Wood playing Prospero. But that was almost thirty years ago now, and I remembered very little from the play. I had never read it, so when I had a day off from work on Tuesday, I stopped in at Half Price Books and found a good used copy. I started reading it that afternoon. I sometimes struggle with Shakespeare's language and with the twists of the plot (Twelfth Night is a complete mystery to me). I found The Tempest very easy to read, so much that I was surprised to find myself in the final scenes almost before I knew it. I can't help thinking that Prospero should prudently hold off on breaking his staff and drowning his book. After all, he is leaving his island with the men who engineered his exile in the first place, not to mention another one who had just agreed to assassinate his own brother.

16 comments:

  1. It's been a very long time since I read This Rough Magic that I didn't remember much about it other than the setting and the references to The Tempest. Glad you finally were able to finish it and enjoy it.

    I read This Rough Magic at a time when I was enthralled with The Tempest, which is still one of my favorite plays. A couple of years ago, I saw a production with Patrick Stewart as Prospero--it was a taping of a stage performance--at it was the best ever. I've seen it on stage 3-4 times, and a couple of movie versions, but still haven't watched the Helen Mirren version.

    You listed some of my favorite Mary Stewart novels. And you're right, her heroines are often "all alone in the world."

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    1. Oh, I'd love to see Patrick Stewart as Prospero! I hope the taped version is still available. I didn't realize there were several film versions - I'll have to look into those as well.

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  2. Nine Coaches Waiting is another of my favorites. Now I want to go pull them all off my shelves and read them again.

    By the way, I am waiting for The Home-maker to be delivered to my mailbox. I ordered it after you recommended it so highly. Not the Persephone edition, I am afraid, but I guess I can't have everything!

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    1. I had to rearrange some books on the shelf with the Mary Stewarts, to fit this one in - so I ended up pulling my favorites off & reading some favorite parts.

      I'll be very interested to see what you think of The Home-Maker - particularly as a parent. I'm happy the Persephone edition is so easily available, but I've been lucky to find older editions of her books on-line, and I'd love to have this one as well.

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  3. This is probably in my top three or four Mary Stewart novels too. I loved the descriptions of Corfu, the Tempest references (I agree that The Tempest is a surprisingly easy play to read), and the dolphin, of course! I'm looking forward to My Brother Michael, which is one of the few I still haven't read yet.

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    1. You have a treat with My Brother Michael - a different part of Greece, and just as compelling a story. I still have The Gabriel Hounds, as well as one of the Arthurian books (The Wicked Day) on the TBR stacks.

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  4. Well, your top three is pretty much the same as mine, so clearly I need to find my copy of this book. I started it, liked it - but not so much that I wasn't distracted by another book - and now it's disappeared.

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    1. Yes, the first couple of times I was easily distracted away from it as well. I have a theory that sometimes it's just not the right time for a particular book - that it needs to "ripen" more on the shelf.

      I just had a slipper disappear in my small apartment - and then it turned up again in a place I had already checked. Hopefully your copy will reappear soon

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  5. I love Mary Stewart! Nine Coaches Waiting and Thornyhold are my two favorites, but there's a lot to like about all of her books. I haven't read this particular novel in awhile...I'd forgotten it was set on Corfu. You make me want to reread it over Christmas. :)

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    1. I am already planning out my reading for the long Christmas weekend :) And I much prefer to read books set in warm, sunny places during the colder months (or as "cold" as it gets in Houston).

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    2. I wouldn't mind being in Houston right now...in Salt Lake we got over 18 inches of snow last night. This morning's commute was a nightmare; and they say more is coming. Oh, to live somewhere warm like Corfu! :)

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    3. It's been a long time since I've lived with snow (23 years since I moved from Michigan), but I remember those kinds of storms. Houston is definitely warmer & snow-free :)

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  6. Your favourite Stewarts are the same as my favourite Stewarts, how nice.

    I absolutely agree about the foolishness of Prospero breaking his staff. I've also often thought what a terrible Duke of Milan he would make -- I mean really, what's going to be different? He'll get back to his library and neglect his duties again. Maybe he's planning to have Ferdinand do the work of running a duchy in Renaissance Italy... but then I found this letter where he seemed to be offering Machiavelli a job. (Well it was somebody called Prospero anyway!) http://www.jowaltonbooks.com/poetry/shakespeare/machiavelli-and-prospero/ I have another Tempest reimagining bit there too, if you're interested, called "The baseless fabric of this vision".

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    1. Oh how fascinating! I've just been over reading it on your blog. I wonder what Sir Julian would have made of that letter :)

      There does seem to be a consensus about favorites among Mary Stewart's books. I don't think I've seen anyone put Thunder on the Right on her list, though.

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  7. This was my first Mary Stewart, and I think I was so lucky to begin here to get a taste of what she is so good at.

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  8. Rose Cottage was the first of the suspense novels that I read, and it didn't inspire me to read more (though I was already devoted to the Merlin books). I'm so glad that reading blog reviews made me give them another try.

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Thank you for taking the time to read, and to comment. I always enjoy hearing different points of view about the books I am reading, even if we disagree!