A Marvellous Light

In setting her novel in Edwardian England, Freya Marske opts for a time and place in which class and the nature of power were defining features of society. In establishing that magic, like class, has hereditary elements that reinforce other forms of status, or diminish them for those without magic, Marske allows for a deeper investigation of unearned power and its meaning. Robin and Edwin’s relationship, and their character growth, rests on determining their own relationships to power and asserting values that are more egalitarian and consensual than the worlds they each grew up in.

Though Robin has no magical abilities, he hails from an aristocratic family and has inherited a title and significant social power. On his first day at his mysterious job, many of his assumptions and reactions are shaped by the class system he knows and benefits from. When Edwin asks, “[W]ho are you related to that I’d know?” (8), Robin is concerned that Edwin, like his parents, thinks only in terms of rank and status. Later, Robin reflects that he was assigned to the post because Lord Healsmith had let his dislike of his father “ferment until it was safe to express” (37).