Conrad’s Fate¶
by Diana Wynne Jones
I first ran into Conrad’s Fate in a book store in Victoria, BC, when I was on a road trip with my parents. Having enough books to read on a road trip was always a problem: I’d pack fifteen or so and be done with them in a week and a half, so we’d have to keep stopping by bookstores. The Pacific Northwest is good for book stores, so it was easy this trip.
Anyway, Conrad’s Fate is part of Diana Wynne Jones’ Chrestomanci series, which are about a parallel world to our own where magic is common. The titular character (Chrestomanci, though the word is the job title rather than his name which is Christopher), is sort of the chief magic cop. Conrad’s Fate is a story earlier in the timeline where Christopher is Chrestomanci-in-training. The premise is that Christopher and a friend are in-disguise as servants in a P.G. WOdehouse-style manor. I won’t summarize the plot more than that, since that can be found on Wikipedia, but I’ll talk about why I like it so much. It’s one of my favorite books, and I’ve actually read it several times since that first time I encountered it.
Humor¶
As he shut the door in his soundless way, I could hear the voice of Mr. Prendergast outside it. “I tell you I’m quite capable of opening a door, you pear-shaped freak!”
It’s a really funny book: it’s easily the most humorous Chrestomanci novel. There are many comic scenarios and funny lines. The “pear-shaped butler” referenced above is a recurring joke. I’m not able to list all the jokes in this short article, but another recurring one I liked was the conflict between gardeners and in-house staff:
“Our friend Smedley has clearly been told that house staff are nothing but mincing lackeys and that gardeners do all the real work.”…“Smedley may be right,” Christopher added. “I’ve never minced so much in my life before.”
Side stories¶
There is a main plot about Christopher trying to rescue a friend, but there are many entertaining sub-plots. For example, there are side stories about:
a P.G. Wodehouse inter-class romance
Conrad’s mother working as a writer of feminist non-fiction (“What do you think of ‘disempowered broodmares’ as a description? Good, eh?”)
a group of out-of-work actors being used a temporary employees (“She’s that young nurse in Bodies!”)
a ghost (“I think it was the ghost that made Manfred drop a steaming squashy haddock on his feet—but it could have been Manfred on his own, of course.”)
Good characterizations¶
Many of the minor characters are very richly characterized, which adds a lot of depth to the world. The chef and an assistant cook are fully developed, as are several gardeners, housekeepers, footmen, and actors. There are also arguably five or six main characters. It really is a very complicated book.
