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Enchanted Glass by Diana Wynne Jones
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Enchanted Glass (edition 2009)

by Diana Wynne Jones

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8945523,711 (3.91)68
After his grandfather dies, Andrew Hope inherits a house and surrounding land in an English village, but things become very complicated when young orphan Aidan shows up and suddenly a host of variously magical townsfolk and interlopers start intruding on their lives.
Member:Turrean
Title:Enchanted Glass
Authors:Diana Wynne Jones
Info:HarperCollins Children's Books (2009), Hardcover, 336 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:***
Tags:2013, kindle, bookaday-2013, fantasy, europe, source-purchased, from Goodreads

Work Information

Enchanted Glass by Diana Wynne Jones

  1. 00
    The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde (casvelyn)
    casvelyn: Similar tone and worldbuilding
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» See also 68 mentions

English (53)  Swedish (1)  All languages (54)
Showing 1-5 of 53 (next | show all)
This gets a high nostalgia score even though the plot resolution/ending didn't make that much sense. The world was great, as were the characters. And there were some great ideas at work, even if they didn't quite grow to their full potential.

The twist at the end was unique, especially for a kids' book. I would have liked to see it developed a little more, though. So much gets left unexplored in this book.

I'm really going to miss DWJ. ( )
  caedocyon | Feb 23, 2024 |
It's January, and I'm already off my fiction/non-fiction schedule, but it's OK: I have an excuse! I have writing a major grant and I need something warm, comforting and relaxing to support me through and I've been saving Enchanted Glass for just such an occasion. Enchanted Glass is the last book that Diana Wynne Jones wrote before she died, and DWJ is, of course, my favorite.

In the process of reading this, I ended up enumerating all of the DWJ books and plots to one of my friends, which I think helped me appreciate EG -- it has several of the key themes of her life's work: Andrew's memories of childhood are fuzzy; many adult authority figures are untrustworthy -- not that they don't believe in magic, but that they're straight malevolent; people are embodiments of mythical or fictional characters (in this case, Oberon -- cleverly calling himself "O. Brown", Titania, Mab and Puck.) It's nostalgic and it certainly filled the niche I was looking for.

On the downside, it felt raw to me. Plotlines drop, which I can't remember from any other DWJ book; there are some very jumpy parts and the beginning drags somewhat. Fans of DWJ will overlook it, but objectively, unfortunately, it's not that good. ( )
  settingshadow | Aug 19, 2023 |
Despite being a staunch and long-time DWJ fan, I'm tempted to downgrade this story to 2½-stars. This is my 3rd reading and I'll be giving the book away now. The main protagonist has never appealed to me and the vague tie-in of a variation on the Tam Lin story was off-putting. Overall, the book’s storyline felt unfinished, or perhaps more like an early draught of a good idea. It is possible that DWJ was quite unwell by then and wasn’t in a position to undertake rewriting the story.

One of DWJ's writing styles I've always liked was her creative worlds of magic. In her earlier books, the magical fantasy was "almost plausible" and akin to a mythopoeic world of nature. However, the atmosphere in Enchanted Glass is very different bordering on rather unpleasant.

First quibble: the romance between Andrew and Stashe was so implausible, lacking realistic development. It's inclusion in the plot never felt logical.
As well, there is a twist to the story that was quite bizarre, involving family members. Second quibble, did this big reveal of who were the parents of what turns out to be closely related characters really enhance the storyline? I found these situations took away from the tale. ( )
  SandyAMcPherson | Jun 25, 2023 |
Reads like DWJ from her peak in the 1980s. The only thing that makes it sound a little off from 2010 is the fact that the primary character seems to be the adult Andrew, and he is the one who solves all the problems at the end. But I do love a cozy world where magic is just so much a part of everyday life. ( )
  Inky_Fingers | Jan 8, 2022 |
I liked this, but wasn't really in love with it. Sometimes I think I'm not British enough to get it. Grumpy busybody old ladies annoy me, and the main character is really a middle aged man even though this is supposed to be a children's book. Some clever writing, but not all of the plot twists made sense to me in the end. The US cover is atrocious, btw. ( )
  readingjag | Nov 29, 2021 |
Showing 1-5 of 53 (next | show all)
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Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Diana Wynne Jonesprimary authorall editionscalculated
Crossley, StevenNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Dorman, BrandonCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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To Farah, Charlie, Sharyn and all who attended the Diana Wynne Jones conference without me.
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When Jocelyn Brandon died - at a great old age, as magicians tend to do - he left his house and his field-of-care to his grandson, Andrew Brandon Hope.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Wikipedia in English (1)

After his grandfather dies, Andrew Hope inherits a house and surrounding land in an English village, but things become very complicated when young orphan Aidan shows up and suddenly a host of variously magical townsfolk and interlopers start intruding on their lives.

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Book description
"As a boy, he had spent fascinated hours looking at the garden through each differently coloured pane. Depending, you got a rose pink sunset garden, hushed and windless; a stormy orange garden, where it was suddenly autumn; a tropical green garden, where there seemed likely to be parrots and monkeys any second. And so on. As an adult now, Andrew valued that glass even more. Magic apart, it was old old old. The glass had all sorts of internal wrinkles and trapped bubbles, and the long-dead maker had somehow managed to make the colours both intense and misty at once."

When the magician Jocelyn Brandon Hope died he bequeathed Melstone House to his grandson Andrew. He also left his ‘field of care’: an area of strangeness surrounding the land around the house, whose boundary Andrew must walk in order to preserve its power.

Andrew had always loved the house, but he finds owning it a lot more complicated, aside from all the magic. There is Mrs Stock, the tyrannical housekeeper who won’t let him move the furniture and punishes him with her terrible cooking. Just as bad is the obsessive gardener who will only grow giant inedible vegetables. To add to his troubles, twelve year old orphan Aidan Cain suddenly arrives on the doorstep begging protection from magical stalkers, and Andrew’s sinister rich neighbour, Mr Brown, begins to encroach on the ‘field of care’. The one compensation is the gardener’s beautiful niece, Stashe. Things become stranger and stranger until all is made clear with the help of the enchanted glass itself.


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