The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories

Susanna Clarke's The Ladies of Grace Adieu is a spellbinding collection of stories brimming with all the ingredients of good fairy tales: petulant princesses, vengeful owls, ladies who pass their time embroidering terrible fates, endless paths in deep, dark woods, and houses that never appear the same way twice. The heroines and heroes who must grapple with these problems include the Duke of Wellington, a conceited Regency clergyman, and eighteenth-century Jewish doctor, and Mary, Queen of Scots, as well as beloved figures from Susanna's Jonathon Strange & Mr Norrell, including Jonathan Strange himself and the Raven King. The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories invites readers into a world where charm is always tempered by eeriness, and picaresque comedy is always darkened by the disturbing shadow of Faerie.