The Magic of Moments in Novels

If any decent, self-respecting, and devoted female reader knows anything about the literary world, it is that Eva Ibbotson writes amazing novels, and it is she who should be gaining the Stephenie Meyer-like success in today's world. However, she doesn't and it is such a shame.

I cant quite place how long it is that I have been an ardent fan of Mrs. Ibbotson, but I have certainly enjoyed the years. My first favorite, a book that will always remain dear to my heart, was A Countess Below Stairs.


This novel is an absolutely fantastic one. The plot just gets my attention every time, and the way that the reader gets to experience everything first hand is magical. I gained my knowledge on the way the old English households were run from this novel. (And more recently from Downton Abbey. Marvelous show. I cant wait for the next season, or series, to start!)

You should know that I sincerely enjoy rereading books. It's rather like going back in time and reliving your greatest memory. The day you fell in love, your first kiss, your wedding day (I am a bit of a romantic). However, since I cant actually do anything of those things (the Doctor not having come to take me away in his Tardis yet), I reread the best books I've ever read again, where I can experience those lovely sensations all over again. For example, In A Countess Below Stairs, there is a part where the heroine is about to cut her long, lovely locks (alliteration is amazing) and the male character, who is falling in love with her, absolutely insists otherwise. He is adamant about it. He refuses to let her cut it. The blatantly obvious love and feelings of protection he shows to the girl just makes me so giddy inside. To have someone feel that way about you is just so... fairytale and magical (yes, I did just use fairytale as an adjective).

However, since I seem to have misplaced my copy from all of the moving around I have been doing in past years, I was unable to read it again as I wanted to. So, instead, I had the good fortune to reread another Ibbotson novel, A Company of Swans. I just LOVE this book! I think, of all the characters in Ibbotson's works, I relate to Harriet Morton the most. She is a naive but brilliant young girl who has never known anything but the life in her strict, old-fashioned father's care, in the house that is kept by her spinster aunt.

The thing that Harriet loves most in her otherwise drab and tragic life is ballet. So, when she is forbidden to accompany a ballet company to the Amazon, she goes anyway. Its the one time in her life that she has truly done something for herself.

So, through her own daring and rebellion, she follows her dreams and discovers a new world and a new love.

It is a love story that matches such stories like Romeo and Juliet, Tristan and Isolde, Ron and Hermione, and Flynn and Rapunzel. (Okay well it might not be THAT good. You know what? Nevermind. It IS that good!)


When Harriet gets to the Amazon, she meets the rich, handsome, and strong man that is Rom Verney. They embark on a love story that includes pomegranate seeds, swans, kidnapping, and bursting out of cakes. And it is a great love story. Just as Flynn rescued Rapunzel from her tower, so did Rom rescue Harriet from her drab life in her father's (poor) care. It is grandiose and beautiful, a story befitting the ballets that Harriet so wonderfully and performs.

This book is bursting with those moments that cannot be forgotten. Moments of first loves and grand gestures. There is a certain magic in moments. It's the evidence that show that magic truly does exist. Words can either be just a plain, instructive textbook or grocery list, or they can invoke passion. they can paint a picture like the best artists. When words are used to tell a story, they bring magic to them. Those are the moment that are in this book. Moment that I look forward to in my life.

 I cant help but fall in love with Rom. He so obviously cares for Harriet, and he treats her like a queen. And Harriet is one who completely deserves to be happy, as she brings happiness to everyone that she encounters, including the reader. One cant help but laugh at her naivete, and we cant help but shout in anger when her aunt, thinking she is doing right, practically starves her.

The novel, as is Eva Ibbotson's style, completely draws the reader in and tells a tale that thoroughly entertains. Just thinking about it brings a smile to my own face.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone looking for a new book to devour, and a new author to discover. A Company of Swans is exactly this kind of book that I just love to reread (this last time is probably the third or fourth) over and over again. It truly is a classic to me, and it definitely deserves a spot on my bookshelf.

Up next I want to read (again) The Reluctant Heiress, also by Eva Ibbotson. With that one, I like to examine the really great WORDS that is used. Ibbotson has such a way with words that truly affects me like any nerdy English major would be affected.