Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Book 4: The Magicians of Caprona

It's pretty good, not wonderful. The story - the rivalry between the two magicians' houses, how it's been whipped up and how it eventually ends - isn't bad; I quite like Tonino and Angelica, and Paolo and Renata, and Marco and Rosa... It's also nice to see Chrestomanci again, though he doesn't play

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a large part (a little bit of cavalry-over-the-hill, but only a little). Still, somehow, there's not much to the story. Especially after the adventure starts, it's a little bit dream-like, or fairy-tale style - they do the obvious thing and it's the right thing, over and over. The only time it (they) really came alive for me in the Palace was when they were clinging on the back of the drawer. Then when they got up to the dome, that was more or less real. But for large parts of the rest, including the early bits where the Montanas are being established as characters, the story felt rather rote - actually, like puppets reciting their lines! So. Fun story, nice-ish characters, nothing that really draws me in or makes me care about anybody there. And a very fairy-tale ending - heavy moral. Good but not wonderful.

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For some reason, this novel felt a lot shorter than the other titles in the series, although I'm pretty sure that page-wise it's not any shorter than The Lives of Christopher Chant. Anyway, it's a well-written story in a thoroughly realized magical world, and I enjoyed it hugely.

great read for a kid, still a great read for an adult.
The story is good, the premise is wonderful, the imagery there.
I loved it when I was a kid, I love it again on a reread now.

Evil enchanters, talking cats, spells that turn people green.

Tonino Montana and Angelica Petrocchi, the youngest members of their warring families must save their city.

My favorite of the first four Chrestomanci books. Charming, funny, heartwarming.

First things first: I wondered why Diana Wynne Jones had chosen the name Caprona to use in the title of this children’s book. Was it from the Latin caprona ‘forelock’? Or from a type of butterfly? Or perhaps in homage to an island featuring in Edgar Rice Burroughs’ The Land that Time

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Forgot? None of these notions really convinced.

It seems most likely that she borrowed the name from a village in the Arno valley in Tuscany, upriver from Pisa and to the west of Florence. While relatively insignificant now, in the Middle Ages Caprona was of enough importance to feature in Dante’s Inferno when its castle was squabbled over by the opposing armies of Pisa and Florence. In this book the town is besieged by the 20th-century armies of Pisa, Florence and Sienna, city-states all bordering the unfortunate Dukedom of Caprona which, in this alternate world fantasy, retains a mix of medieval and early 20th-century customs and technology, not to mention magic. So we perhaps have to imagine an anachronistically prosperous Caprona in the valley of the Voltava (a witty conflation of words derived from the Italian voltare ‘to turn’ and the Czech river Vltava, ‘wild water’) based on the grander ground plans of Florence and other Tuscan cities.

I’d forgotten how well Jones can sometimes draw you into a story before you're aware of it, even on a second reading. Borrowing from the familiar trope in Romeo and Juliet, with its two noble but feuding families alike in dignity, The Magicians of Caprona is narrated from the viewpoints of young Tonino and Paolo in the Montana family, which suspects arch-rivals the Petrocchi family of plotting the downfall of their state. Needless to say, the Petrocchi clan believe the same of the Montanas. The whole is complicated by the secret romance between two members of the opposing families.

Interweaving this trope are other strands: the White Devil, Punch and Judy, and the Angel of Camprona. The first obviously draws its inspiration from Webster’s revenge tragedy The White Devil, itself based on a Jacobean proverb which declared that "the white devil is worse than the black," the White Devil of Jones’ story dissembling in just such a way. The second thread concerns the Punch and Judy puppet theatre. Originally the show was based on Italian Commedia dell’Arte marionettes, but in England evolved into the glove puppet version; in Jones’ alternate world fiction the glove puppets have become familiar in Italy, and the Duke of Caprona’s childish obsession with this miniature world is employed to great effect, both in the plot and in its metaphorical guises.

Another thing I loved about the book's plot was the concept of the song ‘The Angel of Caprona’ which, true to the root of the word ‘enchant’, had the power to effect magic. The Latin text was concocted by Diana’s husband John (to whom the book is dedicated), helped by another academic the late Basil Cottle (one of whose lectures I remember attending when I lived in Bristol, Diana's home). The words conveniently fit to the Medieval Latin hymn Tantum Ergo Sacramentum (which I used to sing when I was an angelic Catholic schoolboy; alas now I am neither angelic, Catholic, nor a schoolboy). Even the English 'translation' earlier in the book fits to the tune. (It would be interesting to know if the words in I maghi di Caprona, the 2002 Italian translation, also scanned the words to fit.)

Like the appearance of the figure of Chrestomanci, the Angel of Caprona itself functions as an expected deus ex machine (though its existence sits uncomfortably with Jones’ professed atheism) in the climax of the story. On one visit to Tuscany I remember being impressed by the giant angel at the top of Lucca’s cathedral facade, and that may have been an inspiration for Caprona's angel. Or it could have been the gilded angel on the spire of Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy. Or, closer to home, the massive bronze angel on the facade of Coventry Cathedral in the West Midlands.

I wouldn’t want to give the impression, however, that, wonderfully rich though the book is in its diverse cultural references, that these were essential for its appreciation as a work of fiction. Especially for its young target audience The Magicians of Caprona has to work on its own merits, drawing the reader in with its sympathetic characters, its narrative power and its language. On the basis of these alone I’m confident that it does succeed for young readers of all ages.

Postscript
My edition has a cover illustration which is inaccurate and misleading. It presumably shows the duel between the heads of the two magical households, Casa Montana and Casa Petrocchi but in such a way that displays the influence of the Harry Potter books: the duellists wear hoods and use wands, familiar from Rowling's wizarding world but entirely inappropriate for the Chrestomanci tales where wands are significantly absent. Earlier and later British editions don't make the same mistake, revealing that the cover artists had actually read the book carefully.

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It was really predictable, but it was still quaint.

A retelling (with a few good twists, and a much more light-hearted attitude) of Romeo and Juliet.... the feuding families are Italy's most renowned magical clans, and even the fact that their city is under immediate threat of attack doesn't seem to be enough to cause them to join together... the

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only hope may rest in the families' children - and their very special cats. (A definite must for cat lovers!!!)

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A less complex Chrestomanci book. It seems like "The Pinhoe Egg" synthesisizes themes from the previous book. This book's theme is the pointless quarrel that just goes on and on under its own momentum because of some unknown thing that happens in the past and that causes plenty of harm in the

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present. Jones shoves a good satire of war into the mix. Jones doesn't think "Punch and Judy" is terribly funny; I'm sure she is correct.

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My favorite of the first four Chrestomanci books. Charming, funny, heartwarming.

I try to like this book but I just don't enjoy it as much as the rest of the series.