Charmed Life (novel)

Charmed Life

First edition
Author Diana Wynne Jones
Cover artist Ionicus[1]
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Series Chrestomanci
Genre Children's fantasy novel
Publisher Macmillan
Publication date
 1977
Media type Print
Pages 208 pp (first edition)
ISBN 0333214269
OCLC 670524621
LC Class PZ7.J684 Ch 1977[2][3]
Followed by The Magicians of Caprona

Charmed Life is a children's fantasy novel by British author Diana Wynne Jones published by Macmillan Children's Books in 1977. It was the first Chrestomanci book and it remains a recommended introduction to the series.[4] Greenwillow Books published a U.S. edition within the calendar year.[3]

It features Eric "Cat" Chant and his older sister Gwendolen, a witch. The Chant parents have some magic but they drown in a boating accident in the first pages, leaving a boy who relies on a girl who needs training.

The Chrestomanci books are collectively named after a powerful enchanter and British government official in a world parallel to ours, who supervises the use of magic —or the Chrestomanci, an office that requires a powerful enchanter and is responsible for supervising. Charmed Life is set in our time, during the tenure of Christopher Chant, who is Chrestomanci in five of the seven books and is often called Chrestomanci as a personal name.

Characters

The character of Christopher Chant (the Chrestomanci in this novel) appears as a young boy in The Lives of Christopher Chant and as a teenager in Conrad's Fate.

Eric Emelius "Cat" Chant
The protagonist of the novel. Cat is a young boy, who is sent to live at Chrestomanci Castle after a steamboat accident causes his parents (Francis and Caroline Chant) to drown. He originally appears to have no magic and indeed holds this notion himself. As Charmed Life progresses it is revealed that Cat is actually an immensely powerful enchanter with nine lives. Unbeknownst to Cat, his sister Gwendolen constantly uses and abuses Cat's magic. He only has three lives remaining, having lost his first life when he only just survived being born, his second when Gwendolen had put his lives into a book of matches (to make them easier for her to use), the third when he drowned in the boating accident that killed his parents, the fourth when Gwendolen used it to turn his fiddle into a cat (which he kept as a pet and named Fiddle), the fifth when Gwendolen used it to take her into her new world where she reigned as queen, and the sixth when he burned a match from his 'life book' of matches in an attempt to prove that he didn't have nine lives and the matches weren't connected to him. This matchbox is his main weakness.
Gwendolen Chant
The main antagonist of the novel. Like Cat, she survived the boating accident which killed their parents. Cat believed that Gwendolen could not drown because she was a witch, and that he had only survived by clinging to her (he did not realise that he had in fact drowned). She appears to be a gifted witch, although one who uses magic for selfish and dark purposes. It is eventually revealed that she did not have powerful witchcraft of her own, but borrowed substantial amounts of magic from Cat. Although she was very motherly to Cat in the past, she becomes nastier and bossier to him as the story progresses. Gwendolen is extremely ambitious and has master plans to be Queen or to rule the world. Gwendolen greatly dislikes the current Chrestomanci, because he refused to acknowledge her powers and also denied her further witchcraft education.
Janet Chant
Gwendolen's counterpart from another world. Before being pulled into World Twelve A, she had lived in a nice, ordinary home in a world similar to ours. While Gwendolen was bossy and bold, Janet was quite shy and jolly. No one was to know that Gwendolen had spirited away to another world, so Cat and Janet had to pretend Janet was Gwendolen. When they were trying to keep it a secret, it is later revealed that Chrestomanci had known about it all along. She later decides to stay in Cat's world and becomes Chrestomanci's ward.
Chrestomanci - Christopher Chant
Chrestomanci is very unpredictable and random. He is a nine-lifed enchanter like Cat, but only has two lives left after a series of accidents took place when he was younger. Chrestomanci has very strong magic and must appear whenever summoned; he works for the government, controlling magic and keeping hold on wayward witches and wizards.
Julia Chant
Julia is one of Chrestomanci's two children. She is quite fat and normally nice, but proves to have a vengeful streak when Gwendolen provokes her. Julia's magic seems to center on a handkerchief. However, her magic is lesser than Cat's, and she often finds her attempts at revenge disrupted by him.
Roger Chant
Roger is Julia's brother and the other child of Chrestomanci. He tends to be laid back and not as hot-tempered as his sister. Roger is more inclined to cooperate with Cat and to entertain him. He usually ignores Gwendolen, unless things get too out of hand.

Awards

Jones and Charmed Life won the annual Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a once-in-a-lifetime book award judged by a panel of British children's writers.[5] The novel was also a commended runner up for the Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject.[6][lower-alpha 1] It also won the German Preis der Leseratten.

Translations

Dutch and Finnish-language translations were published in 1980, followed by German. Danish, Italian, and French editions were published in the 1990s (when the four early novels were in print); later Polish and Spanish, Chinese and Vietnamese, Serbian.[7]

Notes

  1. ↑ Since 1995 there are usually eight books on the Carnegie shortlist. According to CCSU, some runners up through 2002 were Commended (from 1955) or Highly Commended (from 1966); the Highly Commended distinction became approximately annual in 1979. There were about 160 commendations of both kinds in 48 years including Jones alone in 1977.

References

  1. ↑ "Diana Wynne Jones: UK 1st Edition Cover Art". maulu book zone. Katherine Ferguson. Compiled by the DWJ mailing list from August 1999. Retrieved 2012-04-29.
  2. ↑ "Charmed life" (first edition). Library of Congress Catalog Record. Retrieved 2012-08-09.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Charmed life" (first U.S. edition). LCC record. Retrieved 2012-08-09.
  4. ↑ Chrestomanci series at ISFDB.
  5. ↑ "Guardian children's fiction prize relaunched: Entry details and list of past winners". guardian.co.uk 12 March 2001. Retrieved 2012-08-09.
  6. ↑ "Carnegie Medal Award". 2007(?). Curriculum Lab. Elihu Burritt Library. Central Connecticut State University (CCSU). Retrieved 2012-08-09.
  7. ↑ "Formats and Editions of Charmed life". WorldCat. Retrieved 2012-08-09.
Citations

Chrestomanci series listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB). Retrieved 2012-04-28.
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