Books: November 2006 Archives

"Magic, madam, is like wine and, if you are not used to it, it will make you drunk."
Clarke, S., 2006, The Ladies of Grace Adieu

Susanna Clarke has written her follow up to "Johnathan Strange & Mr Norell", a door-stop of a hardback that I finally made my way through this summer. Her outing this time is a sliver compared to that previous block of text, charmingly titled, "The Ladies of Grace Adieu". It's a great concept of short stories that build off the 19th century concept of theoretical versus practical magic in good British Society. The best part of the book is that it is filled with charming illustrations which I find delightful. I'm becoming more and more enamored of good illustrations. Who doesn't like a picture book?

"Page 31 - Love Should Not be Stimulated. Do not excite your love by foreign stimulants. The influences of love and wine should never be united. Men, when under the excitement of intoxicating liquors, are not in full possession of all their faculties: they have excited their animal propensities, and by so doing have rendered the manifestations of their feelings brutal. There is no woman of sense and purity throughout the land, but must, having the knowledge of the debasing influences of ardent spirits, the foul and demoniac crimes which have been committed under the auspices of drunkenness, view the attentions of persons under this animal excitement as an insult of the blackest kind."

M.B. Allen, MD & A.C. McGregor, MD., 1912. Girlhood to Motherhood or Love, Marriage and Maternity, containing Full Information on all the Marvelous and Complex Matters Pertaining to Women, including Creative science; Bearing; Nursing and Rearing Children; Hereditary Descent; Hints on Courtship and Marriage; Promoting Health and Beauty; Vigor of Mind and Body, etc., etc., Together with the Diseases Peculiar to the Female Sex, Their Causes, Symptoms and Treatment; the Whole Forming a Complete Medical Guide for Women