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Copy/paste the text below into your blog. <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/374003.The_Ladies_of_Grace_Adieu_and_Other_Stories?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41DhhP3kX4L._SL160_.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/374003.The_Ladies_of_Grace_Adieu_and_Other_Stories?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8842.Susanna_Clarke">Susanna Clarke</a><br/><br/> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/18864860?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a> rating: 5 of 5 stars<br/>Any and every negative review I've ever read for the brilliant novel <u>Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell</u> has placed emphasis on the weightiness and long-winded nature of the book. The prose is brilliant, the premise enchanting, but it is an 800 page novel that takes the long way 'round the story of two of the greatest magicians of the age seeking to bring back magic to England during the Napoleonic war. <br/> <br/>This collection of short stories takes us back to that world, where Faerie is very real and proper English society and England itself is a constant character. For people who did not enjoy the long digestion of Susanna Clarke's first novel, these stories may serve as a more palatable meal. <br/> <br/>The tone of the stories is more akin to that of the longer footnotes in JS&MN: drawing on more rural settings, a wilder sense of fancy, and established myth and legend. Every tale is rife with dark humor, as is befitting the mischief of faeries (and in the case of the title story, a trio of witches). <br/> <br/>Clarke's distinctive voice and highly formal literary style is fine but subtle satire, as if every piece were being told by someone with a highly satisfied and secret smile on their lips. Many comparisons have been drawn to the writing style of Jane Austen, but the distinction in Clarke's writing is not only the different sense of underlaying irony but the very blunt nature of the violence, sex, and topical humor presented which is a testament to the author's modernity. <br/> <br/>This encompasses the entire feeling of JS&MN, these short stories, and the delightful illustrations by Charles Vess that are included in this collection. They give the reader a sense of the past that might have been; coherent, rich, and entirely sensible despite its fantastic nature. <br/> <br/> <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1015134?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>