This book instantly became one of my favorites as soon as I read the description of Maria Merryweather’s tower room. Thirteen-year-old Maria, recently orphaned, has just arrived at Moonacre Manor, the country estate of her uncle Sir Benjamin. Oh, how I coveted that room!
It was at the top of the tower, and the tower was a round one, so Maria’s room was circular, neither too large nor too small, just the right size for a girl of thirteen. It had three windows, two narrow lancet windows and one large one with a window-seat in the thickness of the wall. The curtains had not been drawn across the windows, and through them she could see the stars.
~and~
The ceiling was vaulted, and delicate ribbing of stone curved over Maria’s head like the branches of a tree, meeting at the highest point of the ceiling in a carved representation of a sickle moon surrounded by stars.
~and~
The bed was a little four-poster, hung with pale-blue silk curtains embroidered with silver stars, of the same material as the window curtains, and spread with a patchwork quilt made of exquisite squares of velvet and silk of all colours of the rainbow, gay and lovely.
~and~
Over the fireplace was a shelf, and on it stood a blue wooden box filled with dainty biscuits with sugar flowers on them, in case she should feel hungry between meals.
But dream bedrooms aside, there were many things I loved about this book. I wouldn’t call it a dark or complex book; in fact I imagine many readers might find it overpoweringly sweet. But it has all the ingredients I like in a comfort book: beautiful, quaint settings, deliciously described food, a bit of adventure and romance, lovely descriptions, and a sort of sense of nostalgia, like the entire book is suffused with a golden age glow. Everything works out alright in the end, and nothing is ever quite so terrible it can’t be borne.
I was very excited to hear they’ve made a recent movie of this book, titled The Secret of Moonacre. There’s a trailer up on YouTube. And what a promising cast! Ioan Gruffudd, Tim Curry and Dakota Blue Richards (from the Golden Compass movie). It looks like they’ve upped the magical aspects considerably, but I still would love to see it and hope it is eventually released in the US.
Tags: childhood favorites
