The agency

For my media task I read The Agency: A spy in the house here is what it was like:

Plot

Mary Quine was sentenced to hanging at 12 years old until she is saved by a woman that takes her to Miss Scrimshaw’s school for girls where she receives an education and learns manners. Years later she discovers that the school is also an agency that trains and employs women to become agents. Mary becomes an agent and is given her first mission: to be employed at the Thorlourd’s mansion and find evidence to prove Mr. Thorlord guilty. She soon encounters a man named James Easton who is also trying to find out about Mr. Thorlords missing cargo ships and they start working together to find evidence of Mr. Thorlords crimes. The book was well-paced and had some feminist qualities to it; the story was interesting and had some plot twists that I never saw coming. The plot was very creative and wasn't to cliche I think the author did a good job wrighting this book

Characters

The main characters were Mary Quine and James Easton and the secondary characters were Angelica Thorlord, Mr. and Mrs. Thorlord and Anne Treleaven. Mary is a 17 year old girl who is feirce, ambitious and clever but has a bad temper and doesn't like being corrected. She goes from a small theft that was ready to die to a coragious young woman that has a job and education. James Easton is a man in his twentys that is co running his brothers enginering company. He is smart, clever, charming and hard working but can make asumtions to quickly and often runs into situations unprepared. He doesn't have much character development but does start to think better of women near the end. Angelica Thorlord is the daughter of Mary's employers she is rude, bratty and self centered but becomes nicer. Mr.Thorlord is Angelica's father and a rich merchant but he does illigal things. His wife is ill and may not seem important but actually is. Anne Treleaven is the woman that runs the school she is the one that saved Mary from the gallows. She is Mary's only adult figer since her mothers died and has faith in Mary to do great things. There isn't much character development in any secondary characters except Angelica

Theme

I think the theme for the book is Fufillment. Because a lot of the characters fufill what they strived to do even if they didn't relise that they wanted to do. Mary thought she was ready to die when she was younger but she ends up getting an education, finding a place to live and fufilling her goal of getting an independant job. James Easton fufills his goal of proving Mr.Thorlord to be a theft and his company end up building railways in Calcutta. Angelica leaves her unofficial marrage to go to Vienna for piano forte lessons and to perhaps become a concert pianist.One of the younger maids Mary sends to the academy. Towards the end many people relize and strive towards there goals.

Voice

The voice in the novel speaks in third person and isn't anyone in the story. The story alternates between Mary's and James's point of veiws and describes the different experiences and emotboth people very vividly. The person that own the voice in the book doesn't apear to have any signifagence in the plot.

 

Over all I enjoyed the novel very much. It was fairly unique for a book that takes place in the 1800's and i think the author did a good job.