Splendors and Glooms Themes

Many of the characters in Splendors and Glooms feel particularly love-starved. Clara feels like her parents care more about her dead siblings than their one living daughter, while Parsefall and Liz...

The devious Grisini in Splendors and Glooms could probably write a book on how to successfully manipulate people. He is only a magician because he tricked Cassandra into believing he was in love wi...

Even though magic is a real thing in Splendors and Glooms, it doesn't protect any of the characters from their fair share of misery and pain. Clara Wintermute grows up in a rich home with any mater...

Death is a looming specter in Splendors and Glooms, especially when it comes to the Wintermute home. Clara's family has suffered from the deaths of her four siblings for seven years, and the mourni...

The world of 19th-century London, where Splendors and Glooms takes place, is one in which people truly care about society and class. Clara Wintermute comes from an upper class family, so everyone i...

Splendors and Glooms falls smack dab into the category of fantasy, so it's no surprise that there are magical things happening all of the time. For one thing, Grisini, the main bad guy, happens to...

There are some pretty shameless liars in Splendors and Glooms, especially Grisini and Cassandra. They're both such lying, deceitful people that they even set out to trick innocent children. Grisini...

There are two types of character transformation that happen in Splendors and Glooms: physical transformation into another kind of being and the transformation of one's heart. Clara is physically tr...

There's a pretty intense pull between good and evil in Splendors and Glooms, with Grisini representing pure evil while the children—especially Lizzie Rose and Clara—represent all that's good in...

Lizzie Rose, Parsefall, and Clara may not always get along in Splendors and Glooms, but that doesn't mean that they aren't friends to the end. The three children will do anything for each other, in...