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A national bestseller in the US -- another magnificently imagined and executed book of historical fiction with a contemporary twist, from one of the masters of the form. 'These stories possess a wonderful clarity and ease, the serene authority of a writer working at the very height of her powers.' New York Times Ranging across two centuries, and from the western Himalayas to an Adirondack village, Servants of the Map travels the territories of yearning and awakening, of loss and unexpected discovery. A mapper of the highest mountain peaks, engaged on the trigonometrical measurement of British India, realizes his true obsession while in deflationary correspondence with his far-off wife. A young woman afire with scientific curiosity must come to terms with a romantic fantasy. Brothers and sisters, torn apart at an early age, are beset by dreams of reunion. Throughout, Barrett's most characteristic theme -- the happenings in that borderland between science and desire -- unfolds in the diverse lives of unforgettable human beings.… (more)
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Many people who gave this book high reviews were entertained by the fact that these stories were populated with characters from some of her novels - perhaps if I had read the novels first, I would have been more engaged in the characters.
"Servants of the Map"
Max Vigne is an English Civil Junior Sub-Assistant surveyor in the Himalayas away from his wife and young family. As a member of the surveying party, through letters he describes his daily existence, leaving out
"The Cure"
It is December 1905 in the Adirondacks. Elizabeth and Andrew run a private home for health-seekers. They have nine boarders at the moment and one, Mr. Martin Sawyer, is dying. Elizabeth thinks her husband hides whenever someone is sick but really he is channeling the healing powers of Nora Kynd. Andrew believes in the healing qualities of magnets. They "shift the shape of the aura surrounding each person into a new and more healthful alignment" (p 203). On Nora's birthday he honors her spirit by placing magnets in the chimney, hoping it will help Mr. Sawyer.
There are a lot of other characters to keep track of. Here are just a few:
- Livvie and Rosellen - they help Elizabeth run the house
- Mrs Temple - the nurse who left three days earlier
- Dorrie and Emeline - they also run private homes for health-seekers
- Bessie Brennan - Dorrie's mother. She was the first to rent a room to a sick stranger
- Mr. Woodruff - a Baltimore banker who roomed with Bessie
- Olive - Bessie's cousin
- Aaron Brown - a boarder who died
- Mr. Davis - another boarder
- Mr. Cameron - an astronomy teacher from Connecticut, also a boarder
- Nora Kynd - she taught Elizabeth, Dorrie and Emeline their trade. She came from Detroit, Michigan and has passed away.
Barrett takes the time to jump back to Nora Kynd's story - how she fled to America from Ireland; how she was separated from her only living relatives, her two younger brothers; how she befriended a healer by the name of Fanny McCloud who taught her everything she knew; how she came to the Adirondacks. Like "Servants of the Map" this story focuses on science, this time trying to cure people of consumption or tuberculosis.