Marianne, The Magus, And The Manticore (1988) - Plot & Excerpts
Were the Angel of the Lord to appear and say to me: ‘The wrath of the Lord waxes great against the works of American fantasy authors of the second half of the 20th century, and before a night has passed and a day it is His will that they be destroyed utterly, and expunged from the memory of Mankind, as though they had never been,’ then, perhaps I might say, at first: ‘Bully for You, Lord.’ But then I think I would reconsider, and I would say: ‘Please, might the Marianne books be spared?’ And were the Angel of the Lord, being rational and analytical in manner - as angels are - to ask me to justify my presumption in making such a request, what would I say?I would then be struck dumb, for I cannot justify my presumption. I cannot justify such a request. I can emote, that is all. I have been sitting here for a few minutes already with ill-formed thoughts cascading through my head trying to figure out what I would say. Perhaps after a few minutes I might be able to say: ‘I am not in love with Marianne, O Angel of the Lord, but I would love to be Marianne. If I could be any character in the works of these fantasy authors of which you speak, Angel of the Lord, how could I chose to be anyone but Marianne, who is so plucky, and so bookish, and so wanting in cant and artifice, and so much the archetype- for I would have had plenty of time to think of big words like ‘archetype’ to throw in- of the Handmaiden of the Lord? Marianne is the type of every hopeful battler on the side of the Culture of Life in a World Gone MadTM, don’t you see, Angel of the Lord? Somehow she is different from all those other fantasy heroines. I can get inside her head. I don’t imagine scenes in books like I used to when I was young, Angel of the Lord, now that I am grown, but I can see so clearly the faces hungry for justice pressed outside the windows of the library, and Buttercup’s room lined with little drawers.’
this is something i wrote about all three of the marianne books:they are very different from tepper's other books. in the first book, we meet marianne who has a troubled relationship with her stepbrother and is drawn into the political conflict between two small countries nestled between the then USSR, turkey, and iraq--she has a magical role to play and magic is being used against her to prevent her from playing it. in the second, she goes back and tries to alter history so that the things that go wrong the first time cannot go wrong again. in the third, she is drawn into another world and asked to solve an international crisis.they are small, thin books. tepper does not get on a soapbox but she does do a clever job of painting the ways we can influence women and tell them who they are and what lives are available to them. i love marianne, who keeps score between order and chaos and seeks to make her dilapidated home beautiful. i love her suitor. the villains are truly villainous. the third book has this sequence that takes place in this other world that could be excerpted into a novella completely independently and never miss a beat. (the buttercup chapters, for those of you that have read the books.)tepper is a good writer, even if her political interludes get on your nerves--she builds societies, and worlds well but also characters. marianne is one of her great characters. other sf writers tell a good yarn, but i always discover new things to love when i reread these books.
What do You think about Marianne, The Magus, And The Manticore (1988)?
I read and reread this book in my college years, largely for the settings, which are beautifully drawn. Marianne's refurbishment-in-process flat; the big country house of the weekend party; Madame's world of embassy, émigrés, visas and quotas; Marianne's world with the library, the manticore, the posters... Each setting has its own mood, its own feel - I could recognise any one of them were I to meet it in real life.But twenty years ago I felt, and I still feel on rereading now, that this book doesn't quite live up to its potential. And yet it's hard to say just where it fails. Should more be done with Madame's world, for instance? But it's intrinsically an in-between place; to do more with it would upset the balance of the book. Less of the real-world parts, maybe? But then later parts of the plot would make less sense, without that necessary background and build-up.One place where it really does fall down is the climax, when Marianne, in a sudden access of power, gains her freedom with no apparent effort in about 5 seconds flat. After the build-up, and given what she's fighting against, that's really rather a let-down.On the plus side, besides the wonderful settings, the book has strong, well-drawn characters, and a surprisingly subtle plot.
—Dorian
