Скачать или смотреть "This Rough Magic" By Mary Stewart

Mary Stewart’s novel This Rough Magic, first published in 1964, takes its title from a line in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, signaling from the outset its thematic engagement with art, illusion, and the charged atmosphere of a Mediterranean island. Like several of Stewart’s works, it is set in Greece—in this case on the island of Corfu—and combines elements of suspense, romance, and classical allusion. The story follows Lucy Waring, a struggling young actress, who travels to Corfu for a holiday at the villa of her wealthy sister, Phyllida Forli, only to find herself entangled in a dangerous plot of international smuggling and murder. Stewart’s fusion of idyllic scenery, Shakespearean references, and high-stakes intrigue produces a narrative in which the natural beauty of Corfu contrasts sharply with human greed and violence, and where Lucy’s personal growth as a heroine runs parallel to the unfolding mystery.
The Forlis have leased their imposing, somewhat gothic castello to Sir Julian Gale, a celebrated Shakespearean actor, and his composer son Max. Lucy, swimming near the coast, encounters a friendly local dolphin before a sudden gunshot ricochets nearby, narrowly missing her. Shaken, she notices Max observing from his terrace and, suspecting him of involvement, angrily accuses him of firing the shot. Max brushes off her accusations with dismissive contempt, treating her as if she has overstepped her bounds. Soon afterward, Godfrey Manning, who rents the second villa on the Forli estate, informs Lucy and Phyllida of a grim incident: Spiro, the son of the Forli housekeeper, has drowned after falling from Manning’s boat and being swept toward the shores of communist Albania beyond the Iron Curtain.
Lucy later meets Sir Julian and is charmed by his theory that Corfu may have inspired Shakespeare’s The Tempest, a notion that resonates throughout the novel. Max joins the conversation, his manner now more congenial. The narrative darkens when a dead body washes ashore, discovered by Lucy. Fearing it to be Spiro, she calls for help; both Max and Manning appear, and Lucy detects animosity between them. The corpse, however, turns out to be a local smuggler named Yanni Zoulas.
One night, Lucy hurries back to the beach on an urgent errand and finds the dolphin stranded on the shore. Running for help, she stumbles upon Max and Athoni, Spiro’s best friend, carrying a wounded but alive Spiro. Believing Max complicit in smuggling and murder, Lucy lashes out at him. Max insists on his innocence, explaining that Yanni had been killed in Albania while trying to learn Spiro’s whereabouts, and that Max himself had risked bringing Spiro back. In a turning point for their relationship, Lucy enlists Max’s help to save the dolphin, and together they succeed, forging a bond built on mutual courage and trust.
Spiro reveals that Manning tried to kill him after being exposed as a smuggler of counterfeit currency into Albania. Manning’s attempt to shoot the dolphin that had attracted attention underscores his ruthlessness. Max takes Spiro to the authorities while Lucy, now determined to expose Manning, hides incriminating counterfeit notes in Manning’s boathouse. Manning unexpectedly returns, trapping Lucy aboard his boat. In a tense confrontation, he attempts to kill her, but she escapes into the water. Nearly drowning, she is saved by the dolphin she had earlier rescued, a powerful moment in which the natural world intervenes to protect her where human beings have failed.
As events spiral toward their climax, Lucy orchestrates the retrieval of evidence while Manning is questioned by officials. The confrontation ends violently, with Manning firing a shot that wounds Spiro before fleeing. Athoni ultimately avenges Spiro’s suffering by orchestrating an explosion in the boathouse where Manning has sought refuge. The denouement returns to the theatrical motif: Sir Julian offers Lucy a chance to share billing with him in London, but she modestly declines, accepting instead Max’s playful suggestion that she join him.
This Rough Magic combines the lush landscape of Corfu, the tension of a mystery thriller, and the self-discovery of its heroine into a cohesive narrative deeply influenced by Shakespearean themes. The recurring motif of The Tempest frames Lucy’s journey as a kind of moral and artistic awakening, where illusion gives way to truth and peril fosters courage and intimacy. Stewart’s skillful weaving of natural symbolism, especially the dolphin as a figure of loyalty and salvation, enhances the suspense while providing a counterpoint to human treachery. In the end, the novel presents not just a mystery resolved but a heroine transformed, her life touched by both danger and a “rough magic” that evokes the enduring power of art and nature.