Showing influences of the French existentialist writers whose works Alexander translated early in his career,[citation needed] the series is far darker and more adult than his previous books for children including The Chronicles of Prydain. Although classified as fantasy, there is no magic, nor any sign of religious belief, in Westmark or the succeeding volumes.
The novel tells a story of political upheaval and revolution strikingly similar to the history of the French Revolution, as seen through the eyes of a young printer's apprentice who goes on the run after his master is murdered. It leads directly into the second volume of the trilogy, The Kestrel.
Plot summary
It is a complicated and politically dangerous period in Westmark. The country's ruler, King Augustine IV, has slipped into dementia, depression and illness since the supposed death of his only child, Princess Augusta, over six years ago. Despite the efforts of the queen, Caroline, and the court physician, Dr. Torrens, the King is increasingly manipulated by his chief minister, Cabbarus, who has designs on the throne. While the ill king is kept distracted by a series of mystics and charlatans who claim to be able to speak to his dead child, Cabbarus increases his control over Westmark, restricting freedoms and abusing the king's powers.
Young Theo, an orphan, has been raised in a small town, Dorning, by a printer named Anton. After the pair accepts a job from a travelling salesman they are investigated by Cabbarus' men, who declare their job illegal and proceed to destroy their press. In the ensuing scuffle and chase, Theo attacks a soldier and Anton is shot and killed.
With no one else to turn to, Theo takes to the countryside, eventually meeting up with the men who hired him and Anton for the printing job: Count Las Bombas, a con artist, and his dwarf driver/partner Musket. Theo joins up with them, rather reluctantly, and ends up participating in their money-making schemes. They eventually discover a girl named Mickle, a poor street urchin, who has a talent for throwing her voice and mimicry. The count builds a charade around Mickle, dressing her up as the Oracle Priestess and putting her on display, claiming that she can speak to the spirits of the dead.
Theo, despite his growing affection for the bright but vulnerable Mickle, begins to find his new life too dishonest for his tastes and abandons the group, eventually falling in with Florian, an anti-monarchist and rebel who plans revolution with his band of loyal followers whom he calls his "children". Meanwhile, Mickle, Las Bombas, and Musket have been arrested for fraud, Cabbarus has attempted to have Dr. Torrens assassinated and a politically minded journalist, Keller, goes into hiding to save himself from Cabbarus' wrath.
Events come to a head when Theo plots to break his old companions out of prison, with help from Florian and his friends. Their reunion, however, does not last long; Cabbarus has tracked them down and has them all arrested. He brings the group to the Old Juliana, the palace of King Augustine IV and Queen Caroline, where reveals his plans to the group and of how the "Oracle Priestess" will be his pawn to his uprising to the throne. While in Old Juliana, Mickle comes across a trapdoor leading to a water canal, and her memories race in her mind as she remembers her childhood. This leads to her high fever and Theo's worry of her having to act. Cabbarus presents the group to the King and Queen and the courtiers as the Oracle Priestess, and suddenly Mickle's long-repressed childhood memories come to the surface, revealing treason, attempted murder and corruption in the heart of the Westmark government. It is later revealed that Mickle is the long-lost Princess Augusta and that chief minister Cabbarus was responsible for her disappearance.
Eventually, on the subject of Cabbarus's punishment, Theo, on behalf of his conscience, sends him into exile, instead of killing him. This decision will have a major effect on the final book of the Westmark trilogy, The Beggar Queen.
Characters
Augustine IV – King of Westmark
Caroline – Queen of Westmark
Augusta – Princess
Theo – young printer's apprentice, orphan and protagonist
Cabbarus – manipulative chief minister to the King
Mickle – poor street urchin
Florian – anti-monarchist and rebel
Count Las Bombas – con man
Dr. Torrens – court physician
Musket – dwarf driver, partner to Las Bombas, from the beggar factory
Skeit – Bad person who swindles Las Bombas and later partners up with Cabbarus
Series
The Westmark trilogy is a fantasy without magic or any sign of religious belief. It has been called "historical fantasy, set in a time much like our 18th century".[2] There are mentions of Upper Brasil and the Roman Pantheon.
The Kestrel features Westmark invaded by a larger, more militaristic neighboring kingdom, Regia -- possibly an analogue of Prussia, as Westmark is of France. Theo becomes one of the leaders of the resistance fighters operating behind the Regian lines, under the nom de guerre "the Kestrel". One reviewer calls it "an imaginary kingdom with a post-Napoleonic cast".[3]
The Beggar Queen features Westmark in transition, with the former urchin Mickle now its queen.
1 2 From 1980 to 1983 in National Book Award history there were dual awards for hardcover and paperback books in many categories. Most of the paperback award-winners were reprints.
Related Research Articles
Lloyd Chudley Alexander was an American author of more than 40 books, primarily fantasy novels for children and young adults. Over his seven-decade career, Alexander wrote 48 books, and his work has been translated into 20 languages. His most famous work is The Chronicles of Prydain, a series of five high fantasy novels whose conclusion, The High King, was awarded the 1969 Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature. He won U.S. National Book Awards in 1971 and 1982.
The Tombs of Atuan is a fantasy novel by the American author Ursula K. Le Guin, first published in the Winter 1970 issue of Worlds of Fantasy, and published as a book by Atheneum Books in 1971. It is the second book in the Earthsea series after A Wizard of Earthsea (1969). The Tombs of Atuan was a Newbery Honor Book in 1972.
Tehanu, initially subtitled The Last Book of Earthsea, is a fantasy novel by the American author Ursula K. Le Guin, published by Atheneum in 1990. It is the fourth novel set in the fictional archipelago Earthsea, following almost twenty years after the first three Earthsea novels (1968–1972), and not the last, despite its subtitle. It won the annual Nebula Award for Best Novel and the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel.
Thomas Alan Shippey is a British medievalist, a retired scholar of Middle and Old English literature as well as of modern fantasy and science fiction. He is considered one of the world's leading academic experts on the works of J. R. R. Tolkien about whom he has written several books and many scholarly papers. His book The Road to Middle-Earth has been called "the single best thing written on Tolkien".
The Mists of Avalon is a 1983 historical fantasy novel by American writer Marion Zimmer Bradley, in which the author relates the Arthurian legends from the perspective of the female characters. The book follows the trajectory of Morgaine, a priestess fighting to save her Celtic religion in a country where Christianity threatens to destroy the pagan way of life. The epic is focused on the lives of Morgaine, Gwenhwyfar (Guinevere), Viviane, Morgause, Igraine and other women of the Arthurian legend.
Andrzej Ziemiański, also known as Patrick Shoughnessy, is a Polish author of fantasy, science fiction, thriller and crime, who by 2012 have sold over 500,000 copies of his books. Ziemiański was educated as an architect and he holds a PhD in architecture.
Judith Tarr is an American fantasy and science fiction author.
Holly Black is an American writer and editor best known for her children's and young adult fiction. Her most recent work is the New York Times bestselling young adult Folk of the Air series. She is also well known for The Spiderwick Chronicles, a series of children's fantasy books she created with writer and illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi, and her debut trilogy of young adult novels officially called the Modern Faerie Tales. Black has won an Eisner Award, a Lodestar Award, an Award, a Nebula Award, and a Newbery honor.
Douglas Niles is a fantasy author and game designer. Niles was one of the creators of the Dragonlance world and the author of the first three Forgotten Realms novels, the Star Frontiers space opera setting and the Top Secret S/I espionage role-playing game.
The Bartimaeus Sequence is a series of young adult novels of alternate history, fantasy and magic. It was written by British writer Jonathan Stroud and consists of a trilogy published from 2003 to 2005 and a prequel novel published in 2010. The story follows the career of a teenage magician Nathaniel and a five-thousand-year-old djinni Bartimaeus, whom he has summoned and nominally controls, through the alternative history of the peak of London's domination as a magical oligarchy.
Alice Borchardt was an American writer of historical fiction, fantasy, horror. She shared a childhood of storytelling in New Orleans with her sister, the novelist Anne Rice, who was two years younger. A nurse by profession, as a writer she nurtured a profound interest in little-known periods of history.
The Kestrel (1982) is a fantasy novel by American writer Lloyd Alexander, the second of three books often called the Westmark trilogy. The novel won the Parent's Choice Award in fiction for Fall 1982.
The Oracle, with the United States title The Oracle Betrayed, is a young adult fantasy novel by Catherine Fisher, first published in 2003. The Oracle is the first of the Oracle Prophecies Trilogy. The others are The Archon (2004) and The Scarab (2005); with the US titles being The Sphere of Secrets and The Day of the Scarab, respectively. The book was shortlisted for the 2003 Whitbread Awards.
The Beggar Queen (1984) is a fantasy novel by American writer Lloyd Alexander, the concluding book of a series often called the Westmark trilogy.
Judith Lewis, better known by her pen name Cassandra Clare, is an American author of young adult fiction, best known for her bestselling series The Mortal Instruments.
Arcesilaus III of Cyrene was the sixth Greek Cyrenaean King and was a member of the Battiad dynasty. He succeeded his father as king of Cyrene in 530 BC and was ruler until he was killed by Cyrenaean exiles around 515 BC.
The Tamír Triad is a fantasy trilogy by American writer Lynn Flewelling. It contains three novels, and has a sister series, The Nightrunner Series, which contains seven. The series contains mythopoeia. The resounding issue dealt with within the series is the on-and-off war between two fictional countries, Skala and Plenimar, and their citizens, with other countries and people often getting caught in the crossfire.
Jill Bauman is an American artist. She has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award five times and nominated for the Chesley Award several times. Her art has been exhibited at the Delaware Art Museum, the Moore College of Art, Art Students League of New York, the NY Illustrators Society & and the Science Fiction Museum of Seattle. Jill Bauman has created hundreds of book covers for horror, mystery, fantasy, science fiction, and best selling books including 23 of the Cat Who… books by Lilian Jackson Braun during the 1980s and 1990s.
ArchEnemy is a 2009 science-fiction and fantasy novel by Frank Beddor and the third novel of The Looking Glass Wars trilogy. The book was published on October 15, 2009 by Dial Press and is heavily inspired by Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its 1871 sequel Through the Looking-Glass.
Kendare Blake is a contemporary author of young adult novels. Her works include Anna Dressed in Blood, Antigoddess and Three Dark Crowns.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
