Published Feb. 24, 2004 by Harcourt Brace and Company.
Adorable
4.25 If you want your Regency novels with more magic than Temeraire and fewer fey/mythical mages than Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, then this might be the book for you. I can't say I ever enjoyed an epistolary novel quite as much - and I almost can't believe it originated from a letter game. The one big drawback it had the quite predictable romance sub-plot. It was also a little hard to separate the voices at times, which is strange since they were written by different people. The characters come across as distinct though.
The full title is Sorcery and Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot: Being the Correspondence of Two Young Ladies of Quality Regarding Various Magical Scandals in London and the Country. GoodReads seems to be listing this as written by Patricia Wrede. It was actually a collaboration between Wrede and Caroline Stevermer. I read that it started out as a game, with them taking turns writing chapters, and dropping them off at each other's house, and then they realized it could come together into a novel. Naturally, I can't find that tale online now.
It's the story of two young ladies in a sort-of Regency England, with magic. They live in the country and are of an age when going to London for the season is all they can think about when all sorts of excitement takes place. The story is told in letters written as beautifully as only letters …
The full title is Sorcery and Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot: Being the Correspondence of Two Young Ladies of Quality Regarding Various Magical Scandals in London and the Country. GoodReads seems to be listing this as written by Patricia Wrede. It was actually a collaboration between Wrede and Caroline Stevermer. I read that it started out as a game, with them taking turns writing chapters, and dropping them off at each other's house, and then they realized it could come together into a novel. Naturally, I can't find that tale online now.
It's the story of two young ladies in a sort-of Regency England, with magic. They live in the country and are of an age when going to London for the season is all they can think about when all sorts of excitement takes place. The story is told in letters written as beautifully as only letters in epistolary novels can be. There are mysterious goings-on in the local country houses to be investigated. There are love interests, danger, and courage!
It is a pure delight. I was with a group of women a few years ago when the subject of books came up, and someone mentioned this. Every single one of us cried out "I love that book!"
I keep rereading this, don't I? I can't say its the book I would rate highest on any metric I can think of except great fun, but it really is great fun!
I have a strong and abiding loathing for epistolary novels, and yet somehow seriously enjoyed this book - possibly because it was being written by two separate people as their characters to each other, rather than one person playing both hands. Whatever the case, it worked astonishingly well stylistically, and the story was excellent as well.
Reading the afterward of the game, for game it began, was enlightening.
