The Stockholm Octavo (2012) is set in Stockholm, Sweden, from 1789 to 1792, the last years of
King Gustav III’s reign. Gustav (1746-1792) was King of Sweden from 1771 until his
assassination. It is after the French Revolution (the Palace of Versailles is
ransacked and the fortress, the Bastille, is taken), and Sweden offers
assistance to reinstate Louis XVI as King of France.
French-born Mrs. Sofia Sparrow is the owner of well-respected gaming rooms.
To gamble there, a personal recommendation is required. Narrator, Emil Larsson,
an unwed errand officer in the customs office, gained access in order to make
his fortune. Within a year he had enough money to purchase a high-level
position of sekretaire in customs.
Two years of good fortune led to a perfect life.
But his superior was not happy with Emil’s gambling habits and strongly
suggested that he be respectably married to keep his position at work. Then Emil saw the beautiful Carlotta
Vingstrom, daughter of a successful wine merchant. Mrs. Sparrow – who is not
only proficient at gambling with cards, but also with fortune-telling – has a
vision for Emil and for herself. And their fates entwined.
Mrs. Sparrow read Emil’s Octavo fortune tarot cards – Octoavo is ‘a form of divination unique to
Mrs. Sparrow’ and only for specially selected people (such as King Gustav). She
used an old and mysterious German deck of cards, of which eight were chosen
that revealed eight people who would bring about her vision for Emil – an event
that would herald a positive transformation, a rebirth. The cards showed Emil
how to to make her vision come true – if he finds the real people depicted by
the eight cards – his companion, prisoner, teacher, courier, trickster, magpie,
prize, and key. To ignore the cards would end in his ruin. Her visions of the
King become tragically true, but what of her own and Emil’s?
But there is more than the realization of the cards. Emil has to contend
with the loss of Carlotta when her parents send her to Finland, women plotting
deceit and trickery to have the most exquisite collection of extravagant
hand-made fans, and an assassination plot to kill the King.
Cooling hand-held decorative fans are woven into the narrative – each has a
female name – their ‘sole purpose is to bring happiness, beauty, and romance.’ The
fans of the aristocrats are not cheap. The most mysterious fan, Cassiopeia,
named after the Greek mythological queen who boasted of her unrivalled beauty, becomes
the key instrument of profit and loss, rise and fall, and life and death.
The plot culminates at the Carnivale, the masked ball, at the Opera House,
with the entrance of King Gustav III. ‘The century died a few years ahead of
schedule’ says Emil. He thinks too that the age of magic is ending.
Mrs. Sparrow is based on the real Ulrica Arfvidsson, the famous medium of
the Gustavian era, who predicted the King’s future in 1786. This novel mingles
fictional characters with historical figures in a tale of intrigue, trickery,
rivalry, sleight of hand, and a turn of a fan. It begins well – with the
selection of the eight cards – slumps in the middle – and picks up pace before
the cutthroat Carnivale.
Comments
Post a Comment