Marnanel — DWJ stuff — Annotations

Annotations for Stealer of Souls

Annotations for Stealer of Souls. Please beware a few unavoidable unmarked spoilers below.

According to Seven Stories, the working title was "Lost Souls".

the Italian boy that Chrestomanci had unexpectedly brought back to Chrestomanci Castle after his trip to Italy
Tonino Montana-- see "The Magicians of Caprona", where Tonino is the protagonist. "Tonino" is short for "Antonino", "little Antonio", because his father is also Antonio
that almost greyish fair hair people usually call ash blond
"ash" meaning the colour of burnt wood, rather than the tree of that name. Tonino inherits this from his mother, Elizabeth
show Tonino the ropes here and keep an eye on him until he finds his feet in England
quite a crash of metaphors here. Showing someone the ropes is helping them learn how to live in a new place. Keeping an eye on him means regularly checking he's all right. Finding your feet means having learned enough to be going on with
another world where Italy was quite different
Janet comes from Our World (World 12B), where Italy has united into a single country. In Chrestomanci's world, World 12A, Italy is still divided into many squabbling city-states
stolen his thunder
taken attention away from him in the same way he'd been gaining attention. Unusually for a phrase like this, we know exactly where it came from: John Dennis, the author of a failed play in 1709, was angry when the theatre used his special effect thunder for another show
Michael Saunders, but he's away in Greenland right now
I wonder why. We never hear
Cat had had measles long before he came to the castle
generally, when you've had measles once you become immune
because you could be injected against it
she means vaccinated against it (which does involve injection). If we assume that the in-universe year in Charmed Life was the publication date, 1977, then this story is set in about 1979 (although it was published in 2000). Janet is slightly older than Cat, perhaps 14 at this point, so she was born around 1965. The measles vaccine was introduced in the UK in Our World in 1968, so she probably hasn't had it
I think you'd probably better stay away from Roger and Julia all the same
measles is extremely contagious. The chance of catching it from an infected housemate is about nine out of ten
it was probably the most selfish thing he had ever done
why?
She kept giving little dry coughs as she spoke
one of the symptoms, along with a fever, a runny nose, and a rash all over
possets to bring down fever
a posset, in this sense, is a (delicious) drink of hot milk, curdled with wine or beer, and mixed with nutmeg, cinnamon, and pieces of bread. You get sleepy because of the combination of the tryptophan in the milk, the carbohydrates in the bread, the myristicin in the nutmeg, and the alcohol in the beer. It was used to help people sleep off fevers
he heard the telephone go back on its rest
ending the call. I suspect I need to explain that these days
particularly for her eyes
measles causes conjunctivitis ("pinkeye"), and in severe cases it can even blind you
how could Janet expect him to read books called Millie Goes to School anyway?
these were the books Christopher (i.e. the current Chrestomanci) gave Millie in "The Lives of Christopher Chant", which she took her name from
Was not Monsignor de Witt the former Chrestomanci, Lady Chant?
"Lady" is the title of the wife of a knight. DWJ said in an interview somewhere (does anyone know where?) that Christopher had been knighted between "Lives" and "Charmed Life", and we do hear Christopher addressed as a knight later in this story
Lemon barley, febrifuge in half an hour, and then the eye salve
lemon barley water is made by boiling pearl barley in water and adding lemon juice. It's good for vitamins as well as keeping you hydrated. A febrifuge is anything that keeps fevers away— these days, doctors call them antipyretics instead
I think I am ill on trains
travel sickness is a running theme throughout DWJ's work
the young man who acted as Chrestomanci's secretary
I don't understand why he isn't just described as Chrestomanci's secretary
Dulwich was a pleasant village a little south of London
in Our World, Dulwich has grown much larger, and is well within London
he looked a great deal more foreign than Tonino did
Mordecai's backstory is given in The Lives of Christopher Chant: he was born in Series Eleven, but grew up in Twelve. Oddly enough, Millie was also born in a different Series, yet nobody comments that she looks foreign. Fan artists often draw her looking like a person from northern India in Our World
I think I did stop him being sick
vomiting
a metal rail along the roof in the latest style
what is this? a parapet guard? or something with no parallel in Our World?
she always had to be called Miss Rosalie
there is something going on with this, and with her pretending to be a witch but Mordecai Roberts setting the wards, but I don't know what it is
setting wards of safety on it
a ward can be something that guards, like this, as well as something that is guarded (like Janet being Chrestomanci's ward, or indeed the hospital ward later in this story): the word comes from the same roots as "guard". But I can't find any other example of the word meaning reactive magic, which in Our World we might call apotropaic
it was Mr Roberts who actually set the wards
see above
the spray of lilies-of-the-valley on the bedside table
the lily of the valley, Convallaria majalis, is a small plant with many little white bell-shaped flowers. It's beautiful, but extremely poisonous, and has a distinctive fleeting smell
Cat's mind went to a certain cardboard book of matches
see Charmed Life. it has Cat's lives charmed into it
I put his last life into a gold ring, you know, and locked it in that same safe
see The Lives of Christopher Chant
and we could give the life to Millie as her wedding ring
see the epilogue to Conrad's Fate. Gabriel seems full of memories of older stories
He was one of the last of the really bad ones
later in this story, Miss Rosalie says that he lived at the time of the first Chrestomanci. We don't know a lot about the "really bad ones". But in Charmed Life, she also said, "The Government took Castle over two hundred years ago after the last really wicked enchanter was beheaded." So it sounds like the purge of evil enchanters was connected with the establishment of the office of Chrestomanci
found Gabriel’s face blue-pale and more sunken than ever, and his mouth slowly dropping wider and wider open
these are symptoms of death. Pale blue skin, which is called cyanosis, happens because blood cannot easily reach the skin. The muscles which hold the jaw closed stop working, causing the jaw to fall open
He had seen his parents just before their funeral, but they had looked almost asleep
bodies are cosmetically made-up at open-casket funerals, which are rare in Britain, and at family viewings, so that the people look life-like. I'm not sure why
the life he gave for Asheth
see chapter 21 of Charmed Life:
Warn Christopher he's not safe. Warn Eric particularly
Christopher is the current Chrestomanci, called simply Chrestomanci in this story. Eric is Cat's legal name
doughnuts and station pies
station pies being pies you might buy at a station cafe, not a particular kind of pie
corned beef sandwiches
corned beef is beef preserved with salt, called "salt beef" in some parts of the world. "Corn" here is in an old sense of "grains" (of salt)
We are travelling north east
how does he know, if he can't see the sun?
We must be in the outskirts of London, he thought
Dulwich is south of London, and is known to be outside the suburbs in 12A, so they're heading for East London
Woa there!
instruction to a horse to stop walking
just like you said, governor
"governor" here is a slightly deferential form of address, marked as working-class. Usually pronounced "guv'nor", and often spelt that way
in a dirty black gown
academic gowns in England don't close at the front. They developed from a priest's cassock, which does. I don't know which he's wearing
soft black priestly sort of hat
it sounds like a Canterbury cap, a square hat made of soft cloths, which was especially popular among clergy in the 1500s but survives into the present day
old tumbledown houses— all slightly different
we've gone back a few hundred years. In the mid-1800s, "speculative" builders started putting up houses before looking for a buyer, as usually happens today. For cheaper housing, with less space for each house, this often results in rows of identical buildings. Before this, builders put up a house when they were asked to, though without a great deal of variation in design— hence the houses being only slightly different
two apprentices from the poorhouse
a poorhouse, also called a workhouse, was a place provided by local government, where you could live if you didn't have enough money to rent or buy your own place. Since being poor was seen as dishonourable, they were often rather unpleasant. They died out when the welfare state began
the row of star charts along one wall. There were eight of them, getting newer and newer from the old, brown one at the far left, to the one on the right, after a gap where a ninth chart had been torn down
as we learn later, these plot the time of death of the lives of the various Chrestomancis. The tenth is Cat's, and the torn-down ninth one is Christopher's— so we know that they are the ninth and tenth Chrestomancis. Gabriel de Witt is the seventh, and we know that the fifth was named Benjamin Allworthy
It means something. In Latin, I think. Felix, or something like that
Cat's name is Eric, which does mean something in Latin— erica is Latin for heather. Felix means lucky, or happy, but it's also a name commonly given to cats. Partly this is because it sounds a bit like feles, Latin for cat
His name's Tony
Tony is short for Anthony (or Antony, which is pronounced the same way in Britain). The Italian equivalent is Tonio, short for Antonio. Tonino means "little Tonio", to distinguish him from his father
Cat had a faint, fleeting idea that the name meant a protected kind of heather
as just mentioned, "Erica" means heather. But why protected?
I am known as Master Spiderman
the name of the comic book hero is two words (Spider-Man)
reminded Cat of— of— of something he could not quite remember
presumably the sight of the recent death of Gabriel de Witt
hung the mattresses over it in a gust of mildew-smell
it must have been pretty nasty— being around mildew can cause breathing problems and skin irritation
a large floating sycamore leaf made of greenish light
"sycamore" in Britain is a kind of large maple tree, Acer pseudoplatanus. Its leaves are a bit like the leaf on the Canadian flag, but more rounded
an ivy leaf, a fig leaf, a vine leaf, a maple leaf, and a leaf from a plane tree
all these plants have leaves of a similar shape to the sycamore's. Ivy (Hedera helix) and vine (which here means grapevine, Vitis vinifera) both have three lobes. Fig (Ficus carica), maple (Acer sp.), and plane (Platanus × hispanica) all have five. I don't know whether there's any significance to this. Sycamore is often not thought of as a kind of maple in Britain, which explains why the two are separated here
Wild service tree
these leaves have three or four lobes. It's a rare tree these days, native to Britain. The name comes from the Latin word for the tree, and isn't related to the other meanings of the word "service". The botanical name was Sorbus torminalis at the time of writing, though it was reclassified as Torminalis glaberrima in 2017
Cat... wondered a little how he knew about trees
according to The Lives of Christopher Chant, it's part of training to be Chrestomanci
snatching a butterfly net
a stick with a wire circle at the end, at the mouth of a bag of fine netting
out into the street. It was pitch dark out there
street lighting wouldn't begin until the early 1800s, and even then it was only in the middles of towns. The darkness would seem uncanny to a modern person
chimney pots beneath now seemed to be growing out into the countryside, in lines along the sides of fields
when cities spread, it's called urban sprawl. Growing in lines along the edges of fields and roads is one of several ways this can happen— it's called strip development
"Are you using his spell or something?"
see The Magicians of Caprona, where we learn that Tonino's particular talent is his ability to build on other people's magic
HOSPITAL OF THE SACRED HEART
the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a Christian symbol of the love of God for the whole world, so it gets used in names of hospitals and so on. I can't find any record of a hospital with that name in England in Our World
Oh why do I always get so old when I come to the future?
incidentally, the idea that spending time in the past makes you older in the present is a plot device in DWJ's Archer's Goon, which is not set in the Chrestomanci universe
obvious hospital corridor, long, pale green and well lit
for many years, hospital corridors were painted a matte grey-green colour, often called "institutional green". It was apparently supposed to be calming, though I haven't found where this idea might have come from. It has gone out of fashion now, because it wasn't in the least calming when people began associating it with hospitals
The sight seemed to inspire Master Spiderman to a second wind
breathing becomes difficult soon after starting running, and "second wind" is when your body gets used to it and you can breathe more easily again
carrying a kidney dish
a small shallow metal basin, made of stainless steel, and slightly curved so it's the shape of a cashew nut or a kidney. The curve means it's easy for a patient to hold one against their chest if they need to vomit into it. As a child, I used to think kidney dishes were made for carrying actual kidneys
one of those nuns with a headdress that was made of big starched points, like a ship in full sail
this is called a "cornette". Until 1965, it was the headgear of a group of Roman Catholic nuns called the Sisters of Charity. In that year, it was resolved that Roman Catholic religious communities in general should simplify their clothing
They were in a long, dimly lighted space with a row of beds on either side
these are Nightingale wards, named after the nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale. They are ideal for nurses to keep an eye on the patients, but not so good for patient privacy, so these days they're out of fashion
they would have the law on him
they would call the police to arrest him
It was the Mother Superior
the head of that community of nuns
the large silver cross hanging from her waist
it's attached to a string of prayer beads called a rosary
his bare head hit the silver cross hanging from the Mother Superior’s waist. There was a strange crackling sound
is this because of touching a cross, or touching silver? It doesn't seem clear
A good flush hit
in golfing, a flush hit is when the flat of the club hits the ball straight on
Ah, Mother Janissary
as usual, he has forgotten her name. Janissaries were the guardsmen of the Turkish sultan before 1826
At the canonical conference
I have tried to figure out what this might have been, but without success
I am extremely glad to see you, Sir Christopher
as noted earlier, Chrestomanci has been knighted
I can borrow a villa in the South of France once the measles have abated
this leads in to the story Carol O'Neir's Hundredth Dream

Thanks

Researched and written up by Marnanel, with thanks to the list.