There are times when I’m ninety percent certain I want to
read a book based on its cover alone. Reading is about visual consumption, so
it makes sense that while covers are not the only thing guiding our literary
sensibilities, they play a large part in it. Covers also influence a reader’s
initial perception of a story: we can guess what the story will be about, what
genre the book belongs to, and sometimes, who the main character is or where
the story will be set, all from the depiction on the cover. I love this about
books even as I understand sometimes I’m hoodwinked into going for books that
are within my comfort zone, which is very much, as Juliet E. McKenna phrased
it, grimdark books about blokes in cloaks written by authors like Macho McHackenslay. Sometimes, though, especially within fantasy, covers can inspire
readers to find magic in unseen literary opportunities.
The cover for Queen
Victoria’s Book of Spells: An Anthology of Gaslamp Fantasy edited by Ellen
Datlow and Terri Windling, did this precisely for me: it went beyond merely
interesting me to read the anthology. As soon as I was able to get my hands on
this book, I devoured it, eager to read how modern fantasy writers enlivened
one of my favorite literary genres. I have a deep appreciation for Victorian
literature because it was the last point in history where the bulk of Western imagination
was suggestible to forms of thought outside of pure logic and science. Terri
Windling’s introduction is one of the best analyses on the subject I have ever
read: she discusses the rise of strict morality and wild bohemianism that
created an exquisite tension, which allowed for the rise of spiritualism and
revival of fairy culture. The Victorians seemed to be capturing nostalgia in
the face of industrialism while simultaneously exploring new technology that
gave them an outlet to express their love for magic. Windling’s introduction
set the tone for the rest of the anthology, exploring this rich vein of magic
and history.
This anthology might be seen, in some lights, as a way of rewriting
history. Factual history is where many of the stories start, particularly with
fascination with Queen Victoria. However, history and fiction are intertwined
as inspiration for these stories, in the same way that the Victorians used
magic to inspire their own works of art, literature, and theater. The
inspiration was a jumping off point that allowed for writers to address
problems that had plagued the Victorians of yore: the lost perspective of women
and the problematic nature of strict morality. One of the best stories, “Phosphorous”
by Veronica Schanoes, also addressed a modern problem: how in the rise of
steampunk, we are sometimes prone to sentimentalize the Victorian age, when the
very structure of the bourgeois, tea parties and propriety was based on society
that rife with social inequality.
Queen Victoria’s Book
of Spells is an anthology that allows contemporary readers to do as the
Victorians did, to appreciate the blurriness between fact and fiction in
fantasy. Whether reveling in nostalgia as in James P. Blaylock’s “Smithfield”
or skewering morality on a stick in “Their Monstrous Minds” by Tanith Lee, the
anthology brings much illumination to what is normally seen as a stodgy genre.
The second part of this post will look into two stories from the anthology in
more detail, seeing where magic brings light to the realm of fiction.
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