Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #366612 in Books
• Published on: 1996-07-12
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 688 pages

Synopsis
As a student of the cruel but gifted painter Vincent Rushkin, Isabelle Copley discovers her power - to create images so real that they come to life. But when the forces she unleashes bring tragedy, Isabelle is forced to leave Newford. Now, 20 years later, the power of Newford is calling her back.

Customer Reviews

Intriging, exating and educating.
Isabell Copley is a young artist in serch for a mentor.
By accident she meets Rushkin and he helps her develope her ability.
He helps her to her first artexhibition whitch turns out well.

Rushkin teaches her how to give the paintings life in a way that Isabelle couldn't imaging.
What she piants come to life by her ability.

Soon strange things happens and some of Isabelles painted figurins are missing. In search for the missing "people" she discovers that someone is tearing her paintings apart. She tryes to find the one who has done this and what she discovers is not what she had hoped for.

I strongly recomend this book to eveyone who likes fantasy. It's a winner.

The city streets will never lack magic again.
A fan of Charles De Lint's Newford short stories, I was pleased to find a copy of 'Memory and Dream' in an obscure corner of my local Forbidden Planet (they can never make up their minds whether to file him under 'D' or 'L'). I stumbled into Newford a few years back, when my mum brought me a copy of 'Dreams Underfoot' back from the USA and, quite simply, it was a magical experience. This book is too. Once again De Lint creates a powerful tale involving memorable, not to mention convincing, female characters. The plot involves the relationship between art and magic, as a young artist finds her talent can summon otherwordly spirits who take on the forms her imagination conjures on the canvas. Just as she begins to revel in the joy of literally 'breathing life' into her work, the true responsibility of her talent comes crashing home when her 'offspring' are threatened by a parasite who feeds on their lifeforce. Like his main character, Charles De Lint has almost managed to give his characters the life they need to climb from between the pages. The main characters are all well-drawn and the supporting cast more purposeful than mere window-dressing. His villain is a demon in every sense of the word (reminded me of Coppelius from Hoffman's 'The Sandman' for all you German-translation literary buffs). The use of 'flashback' narrative added real depth to this novel, moving beyond the 'action-movie' cinematic style of 'Moonheart' or 'Mulengro', or perhaps just a different kind of cinematic. Perhaps the best compliment I can give this novel is that its magical characters seem as 'real' as the more mundane ones - to the extent that you could find yourself turning your head as you walk through the streets of your City and wondering whether a little bit of magic just hasn't escaped from a painting somewhere.