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Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung
"A delicious page-turner that brings eighteenth-century Stockholm to vivid life, complete with scandal, conspiracy, mystery, and a hint of magic." --Eleanor Brown, New York Times -bestselling author One man's fortune holds the key to a nation's fate in this sensational debut novel set in eighteenth-century Sweden. The Stockholm Octavo by Karen Engelmann transports readers to a colorful Scandinavian world of intrigue and magic in a dazzling golden age of high art, music, and opulent fashion.A masterwork of historical fiction in the vein of Patrick Suskind's classic novel, Perfume , The Stockholm Octavo is mysterious and romantic--as magical and enthralling as The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern--and features a brilliant and unforgettable cast of extraordinary characters. "A juicy page-turner . . . Engelmann's intellectually playful take on the mathematics of love and power proves irresistible." -- O, The Oprah Magazine "Neatly mixing revolutionary politics with the erotic tension and cutthroat rivalry of the female conspirators . . . Engelmann has crafted a magnificent, suspenseful story set against the vibrant society of Sweden's zenith, with a cast of colorful characters balanced at a crux of history." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Delicious . . . the essence of witty intelligence . . . The plot is an urgent one, and the characters mysterious, appealing, and memorable." --Sena Jeter Naslund, New York Times-bestselling author "If you like novels that work on many levels at once, read this stunning tessellation of a book, where fortune is the flip side of intrigue and where history is the flip side of chance." --Charlotte Rogan, national bestselling author
Rezensionen (5)
Publisher's Weekly-Rezension
Political and social intrigue are merged through the medium of the mystical card layout called the Octavo in this debut novel of maneuvering aristocrats and striving tradesmen in late 18th-century Stockholm. In the reign of the alternately enlightened and autocratic King Gustav III, his brother Karl and the society doyenne known as the Uzanne scheme to return control of Sweden to the nobility, opposed secretly by the mysterious gambling club owner Sofia Sparrow, whose prophetic visions link Gustav with the doomed king and queen of France. Moving among the conspirators are the beautiful apothecary Johanna Grey, the master calligrapher Fredrik Lind, the obsessive fan maker Christian Norden, and the up-and-coming customs bureaucrat Emil Larsson, whose personal Octavo links him to players on both sides of the conflict. Neatly mixing revolutionary politics with the erotic tension and cutthroat rivalry of the female conspirators-whose exquisite, one-of-a-kind fans are both weapons and prizes-Engelmann has crafted a magnificent, suspenseful story set against the vibrant society of Sweden's zenith, with a cast of colorful characters balanced at a crux of history. Illus. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus-Rezension
Elegant and multifaceted, Engelmann's debut explores love and connection in late-18th-century Sweden and delivers an unusual, richly-imagined read. Stockholm, "Venice of the North," in an era of enlightenment and revolution is the setting for a refreshing historical novel grounded in a young man's search for a wife but which takes excursions into politics, geometry (Divine and other), numerology, the language of fans and, above all, cartomancy--fortunetelling using cards. Emil Larsson, who "came from nothing" and now works for the customs office, is under pressure to marry. Offered advice by the keeper of a select gaming room, Mrs. Sparrow, he is introduced to the Octavo, a set of eight cards from a mysterious deck representing eight characters he will meet who will help him find the fiancee and advancement he seeks. As they appear, these characters each have their own story to tell, like Fredrik Lind, the gregarious calligrapher, and the Nordns, refugees from France who fashion exquisite fans. But Emil's Octavo overlaps with Mrs. Sparrow's own, and his ambitions become enmeshed in a larger scenario involving a plot against King Gustav himself. Another of Emil's characters, an apothecary fleeing a violent fiancee, who is taken on and groomed by a powerful but cruel widow, holds the key. The setup is wonderfully engrossing; the denouement doesn't deliver quite enough. But this is stylish work by an author of real promise.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist-Rezension
*Starred Review* Emil Larsson is a sekretaire in eighteenth-century Stockholm, living the life of a contented bachelor, drinking and playing cards night after night. He has a talent and fondness for playing the tables in Mrs. Sparrow's home and has made enough there to purchase his bureaucratic office and to live comfortably, but Mrs. Sparrow has other plans for him. Both seer and political activist, she uses a form of cartomancy, the Octavo, to weave a special fortune for Emil, charging him with finding the eight people in his life who can make or break his future and that of the king. The intrigue centers on one possession, a fan with a dark history owned by a lady known as the Uzanne. Whether by dark magic or an evil hand, the Uzanne wishes to remove the king of Sweden from his throne. If Emil is to save the king, he will have to identify his Octavo and set motions into play. Mysterious, suspenseful, and, at times, action-packed, Engelmann's masterful tale brings to mind the work of Katherine Neville (The Fire, 2008), Elizabeth Kostova (The Historian, 2005), and Felix J. Palma (The Map of Time, 2011).--Ophoff, Cortney Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books-Rezension
IN Karen Engelmann's deliriously sly first novel, fortune lies behind each turn of the cards. The story opens in 1789, when America, Holland and France have led the way to bloody revolution. But in the chilly northern kingdom of Sweden, plots to overthrow the current monarch will be carried out among card-crazy gamblers and wielders of that most esoteric instrument of flirtation, the lady's fan. Early in "The Stockholm Octavo," a wily customs agent and inveterate gambler named Emil Larsson receives an order from his supervisor: every sekretaire will soon be legally required to marry, so if Larsson wants to keep profiting from the illicit spoils of his job, he'd better start looking for a wife. This is no easy task in the stratified society of 18th-century Stockholm, but fortunately Larsson's friend Sofia Sparrow, the owner of a popular gambling salon, is as good at helping the future fall into place as she is at manipulating the cards when she and Larsson are running a cheat. In fact, she claims to have had a vision of "love and connection" meant just for him. Mrs. Sparrow practices a form of cartomancy known as the Octavo, in which a tarot-like deck points the way to the fulfillment of wishes, both political and personal. "Any event that may befall the Seeker " she explains, "can be connected to a set of eight people. And the eight must be in place for the event to transpire." Accordingly, she lays out cards that will identify a Companion, a Prisoner, a Teacher, a Courier, a Trickster and a Magpie, as well as a Prize and a Key. Their roles won't become clear until Larsson is deep into his quest, and unexpected events and revelations will keep forcing him to re-evaluate the position each of these figures occupies. Fitting together a large set of characters and story lines is one of the novel's chief challenges. As Engelmann and her characters try to plot out a "divine geometry" that will yield "universal wisdom," various Octavos inevitably overlap and influence one another. Illustrations and charts break down the visual complexities, though they can only hint at the characters' equally complex emotions. "I like winning, just as you do," Larsson tells Mrs. Sparrow. "Is that not the purpose of the game?" Yet the Octavo is much more than a game. Larsson acts as the blustering narrator of many chapters, but as the story expands it increasingly belongs to the women around him. Detached from his narcissism and seen from an omniscient point of view, they are the movers and shakers not just of cards and fans but of governments. The French-born Mrs. Sparrow is living out her own Octavo, one in which Larsson is a key player. Her vision involves nothing less than the fate of the Swedish monarchy and the old-fashioned king, Gustav, whom she wishes to keep on the throne. But she has a powerful rival, a noblewoman known as the Uzanne, who is using all her wiles, including the elaborate courtly language of the fan, to depose Gustav and put her lover, Duke Karl, in his place. At the Uzanne's side are a mix of henchmen and women, including one who has caught Larsson's eye: sweet Johanna Grey, also known as Johanna Bloom, a country-bred virgin who has fled the prospect of a repugnant marriage to seek her fortune in what is commonly known as the Town. She's a dab hand with herbal medicines, which means she can be persuaded to make poisons. (A poor cat has much to suffer before Johanna manages to calibrate a sleeping powder properly.) In "The Stockholm Octavo," even a fan becomes a character, endowed with special properties and the pronoun "she." One of the Uzanne's painted and spangled marvels, called Cassiopeia, is known to be associated with black magic. Belief in these powers is so strong that the other characters feel compelled to disarm "her." The novel is actually aflutter with fans. Some are destined for the ranks of the eligible young women the Uzanne is training at a series of lectures, where her descriptions of proper gestures might make one long for the supposedly genteel old days. When the Uzanne asks a protégée at what hour refreshments are to be served, the girl reveals three sticks of a partially opened fan and looks the baroness in the eye. To indicate that she'd like to be kissed, she closes her fan and presses the rivet to her lips. This demonstration is greeted with applause. Yet for all its historical interest, the ladies' semaphore system doesn't play a significant role in the novel's plot. The fan turns out to be more important as a physical object: if its wedges and half-circles are a part of "divine geometry," it's because they can be loaded with poison. The success or failure of the women's schemes hinges on Larsson, whose quest for a wife keeps drawing him into the Uzanne's circle as well as into what Mrs. Sparrow calls "the larger game." Trying to complete his Octavo, he befriends a dipsomaniac calligrapher and a pair of fan makers who have fled revolutionary France. Meanwhile, he grows ever more intrigued by Johanna. But he can't figure out the role he's meant to play in either the personal or the political conflict. "The real battles of women are never written about, and rarely spoken of by men," Mrs. Sparrow observes, "so you have no idea what they are." It is Larsson's task to find out. When a narrative starts with a fortune teller, there's a danger. We expect prediction to become reality, and a reader might ordinarily be forgiven for suppressing a yawn behind a hand (or a fan). Here, for example, it's hard not to see Johanna as Larsson's prize, the wife he's meant to have . . . but then Engelmann deftly shifts the Octavo. The Uzanne takes a sexy little "plum" under her wing, and a masquerade ball promises a lively minuet of plot twists. "The Stockholm Octavo" is as arch as a conversation with a graduate of the Uzanne's school for flirts. As we fan through the pages, we recognize the usual narrative codes, but we can't crack them any faster than Larsson can solve the puzzle of his destiny. The result is an irresistible cipher between two covers - an atmospheric tale of many rogues and a few innocents gambling on politics and romance in the cold, cruel north. In the late 18th century, the tarot-like cards of the Octavo may determine the fate of Sweden's monarchy. Susann Cokal's third novel, "The Kingdom of Little Wounds," will be published next year. She teaches at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Library Journal-Rezension
Set in Sweden in the final years of the rule of the reforming king Gustav III (1771-92), this is the fantastic story of young man about town Emil Larsson. Gambling salon heiress Mrs. Sparrow, who claims to see into the future, lays out an octavo for Emil, eight cards that, if properly read, will identify the eight individuals who can assist him in his pursuit of love and riches. What a strange story ensues! Plotters conspire to kill or kidnap the king, while across the continent France slides close to anarchy. A wicked countess collects fans and uses them to mesmerize her allies and poison her rivals. Assorted eccentrics appear and disappear. The novel never crosses the boundary into fantasy; rather, it's about a time when magic was still taken seriously by the most cultured people in society. VERDICT This rollicking adventure story reads at times like a fairy tale, with Good Guys and Bad Guys and obstacles to be recognized and overcome. It's all quite fun. As either historical novel or adventure story, this clever first novel should appeal to a broad range of readers.-David Keymer, Modesto, CA (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.