A revisionist view of Cinderella's adoptive family dominates this
brilliantly plotted fantasy from Maguire, a popular children's book
author whose first adult novel, Wicked (1995), offered a similar
reimagining of the land of Oz. The time is the 17th century, the
place Holland. And the story begins when Dutch-born Margarethe
Fisher brings her daughters from their native England to the
thriving city of Haarlem, where a kindly grandfather's home
promises safe haven. But Grandfather has died; preadolescent Iris
(who narrates) is too plain to marry, and elder sister Ruth is an
ungainly simpleton scarcely able to speak. A beautiful "changeling"
child seen through a window confers a kind of blessing on the
astonished Ruth, and the resourceful Margarethe quickly restores
their fortunes, installing them as house servants to portrait
painter Luykas Schoonmaker ("The Master") and later marrying
Luykas's widowed and wealthy patron, importer Cornelius van den
Meer (whose willful, strangely reclusive daughter Clara is that
very "changeling"). As Margarethe seizes ever greater riches and
power, Iris begins to blossom into a confident young woman whose
artist's eye earns her the respect of both the Master and his
handsome apprentice Caspar, becoming a handmaiden-mentor whom the
highborn beauty Clara eventually accepts as a sister. Maguire's
patient re-creation of the world of the Dutch burghers builds a
solid realistic base from which the novel soars into beguiling
fantasy when its links with the familiar Cinderella story become
explicit. The visiting Dowager Queen of France arrives in Haarlem
seeking a worthy portraitist. A lavish ball, Clara's enchantment of
a Handsome Prince, a climactic fire, and a wonderfully ironic
surprise ending all figure prominently in the superbly woven climax
and denouement. A ravishing meditation on the truism that "beauty
helps preserve the spirit of mankind." Maguire is rapidly becoming
one of contemporary fiction's most assured myth-makers. (Kirkus
Reviews)
Is this new land a place where magics really happen?
From Gregory Maguire, the acclaimed author of Wicked, comes his much-anticipated second novel, a brilliant and provocative retelling of the timeless Cinderella tale.
In the lives of children, pumpkins can turn into coaches, mice and rats into human beings.... When we grow up, we learn that it's far more common for human beings to turn into rats....
We all have heard the story of Cinderella, the beautiful child cast out to slave among the ashes. But what of her stepsisters, the homely pair exiled into ignominy by the fame of their lovely sibling? What fate befell those untouched by beauty . . . and what curses accompanied Cinderella's exquisite looks?
Extreme beauty is an affliction
Set against the rich backdrop of seventeenth-century Holland, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister tells the story of Iris, an unlikely heroine who finds herself swept from the lowly streets of Haarlem to a strange world of wealth, artifice, and ambition. Iris's path quickly becomes intertwined with that of Clara, the mysterious and unnaturally beautiful girl destined to become her sister.
Clara was the prettiest child, but was her life the prettiest tale?
While Clara retreats to the cinders of the family hearth, burning all memories of her past, Iris seeks out the shadowy secrets of her new household--and the treacherous truth of her former life.
God and Satan snarling at each other like dogs.... Imps and fairy godmotbers trying to undo each other's work. How we try to pin the world between opposite extremes!
Far more than a mere fairy-tale, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister is a novel of beauty and betrayal, illusion and understanding, reminding us that deception can be unearthed--and love unveiled--in the most unexpected of places.
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