Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries (Book One of the Emily Wilde Series), by Heather Fawcett (Del Rey)
In many ways, Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by
Heather Fawcett reminded me of Marie Brennan’s best-selling A Natural
History of Dragons and the “Amelia Peabody” mysteries by Ellis Peters: the
Victorian lady adventurer-scholar genre. In all of these, the narrative voice
(that is, the personality of the l adventurer-scholar) grabs my interest and
keeps it for page after page. The stories are as much about the protagonist’s
inner emotional journey from adamantly self-reliant spinster to emotionally
awakened, relationship-literate partner as they are about external action. Emily
Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries fits neatly into this model with a
delightful array of plot and character twists. In this case, Cambridge
professor Emily Wilde takes her sabbatical in the far North (Norway?) to
complete her magnum opus on all things Faerie, particularly the “Hidden Ones,”
what we would call high elves. Her tone-deaf social skills alienate the
villagers upon whom she must depend not only for the folk tales that will form
the heart of her treatise but for sustenance and rescue. She has no idea what
she’s done wrong or how she’s going to cope with her insufferably handsome
academic rival, Wendell Bambleby, who arrives unexpectedly and manages to charm
the townsfolk, muddle Emily’s research, and alternately bewilder and frustrate
her.
This book is familiar enough to relax into and enjoy the
ride, and a fresh enough rendering to surprise and delight me with the
original, often whimsical elements. Footnotes and references perfectly enhance
the “scholarly” voice. If there were moments when Wendell felt tempted to grab
Emily and shake some sense into her before kissing her, I was right there with
him.
The bottom line: Marvelous fun!
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