I love giving books away. I don’t hold with the idea that if you have too many books, you need a new shelf. But on the other hand, I do think that there are books for keeps, comfort reads want to go back to and sob over.
Eva Ibbotson’s Magic Flutes is one of those. I read it in 2018 and loved it (even though it didn’t make it to my top ten list), but rereading always brings a different kind of joy. Often, it’s only when I reread that I look at the book as a writer. What draws me in? What captures my heart? Over and over again, I realise that it’s setting and character. They go together, and they’re far more important to me than plot.
Set in Vienna just after the first World War, Magic Flutes tells the story of young Tessa, a princess who is a determined Republican. She believes that art and music are universal equalisers. They are what will help abolish titles and aristocracy, snobbery and silly snootiness. At the International Opera Company, keeping her identity secret, she works as under wardrobe mistress, does all kinds of menial work–and loves it.
But then, her castle is bought by Guy Farne, an orphan found under a sack, who worked to gain unimaginable wealth. Tessa begins to lose her heart to him, but she knows that he is in love with someone else, someone who has held his heart since she was seventeen.
The romantic element of the story is simple, the plot is predictable, but as a writer who loves setting and character, reading Magic Flutes brings joy. The impassioned speeches, the tiny details of the way Guy’s eyes change from green to blue when he is happy, the simplicity of a place where wild strawberries grow, the blossoming of relationships – these won my heart. I skipped long passages about the opera, yet the setting came alive to me. A looming castle, a labyrinthine theatre, the streets of Vienna. They won my heart.
Beauty. I think that’s what I turn to for comfort. You make beauty tangible, you create yearning in me, and you win my love through your words.
Title | Magic Flutes |
Author | Eva Ibbotson |
Tags | Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Romance, Reread |
Rating (out of 5) | 4 |
Age-group | 12+ |
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