Inkspell (2005) (edit title/settings)

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Summary edit see section history

Characters edit see section history

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• Meggie Folchart: Daughter of Mo and Resa, now living with her parents and her mother's aunt Elinor. Like her father, Meggie has the rare magical ability to read characters out of books - to bring them into this world by reading the words aloud. But since meeting Fenoglio, the author of the original book of Inkheart, she now dreams of being able to write as well as she can read - so that she can not only bring characters out of books but also send them back again.
• Mortimer Folchart (Mo/Silvertongue): A bookbinder - or, as his daughter calls him, a "book doctor," Meggie says he can "paint pictures in the air with his voice." Since experiencing the awful consequences of reading Dustfinger, Capricorn, and Basta out of their story and almost losing his wife forever, he has avoided reading aloud. Mo is now troubled by his daughter's dangerous fascination with the world of Inkheart.
• Teresa Folchart: resa a lovely young woman who is mute. she is meggie's mom
• Elinor Loredan: Resa's aunt, a book collector, also known as "the bookworm." Elinor once preferred her books to human company bur is now happy to have Meggie, Mo and Resa living with her. Darius, the book-loving but stammering storyteller, is also now a part of her household. She hates dogs, and is opposed to the whole business of reading books to life.
• Darius: Formally Capricorn's reader in the first book of Inkheart, Darius like Mo and Meggie possesses the ability to read characters our of stories - but damages them if he stutters over the words. He now helps Elinor in her library. Basta calls him Stumbletongue.
• Fenoglio / Inkweaver: Author of the original book Inkheart from which Basta, Dustfinger, and Capricorn came - and, with Meggie and Mo's help, the writer of the words used to get rid of Capricorn. He disappeared into his own story that same night
• Dustfinger: A fire-eater whom Mo accidentally read out of the pages of Inkheart. He is also known as "the fire-dancer." Plucked form his story, Dustfinger has liven in our world for ten years and would risk anything to go home to the Inkworld. At the end of the first book, he stole from Mo the last remaining copy of Inkheart. He owes the three scars on his face to Basta's knife and is never without Gwin, his tame marten, or his young apprentice, Farid. He is in love with Roxanne, and their daughter Brianna works for Cosimo
• Farid: A boy read by Mo out of Tales of the Arabian Nights. He is devoted to Dustfinger. Nimble and quick witted, he has a talent for stealing and other robbers' arts, developed in his previous life. He has a soft spot for Meggie. He is learning, under Dustfinger's tuition, to be a fire-eater.
• Gwin: Dustfinger's pet, a horned marten who is a faithful companion of both Dustfinger and Farid.
• Capricorn: The brutal leader of a gang of mercenary fire-raisers, he was read out of the pages of Inkheart by Mo. Unlike Dustfinger, Capricorn enjoyed his time in this world. He made it his business to burn every remaining copy of Inkheart in an attempt to avoid ever returning to the story. But eventually, with the help of Meggie and Fenoglio, he is destroyed by Mo.
• Basta: One of Capricorn's most devoted henchmen. Superstitious and in love with his knife, he once slashed Dustfinger's face. At the end of the first book he made his escape, followed by Capricorn's housekeeper and mother, Mortola.
• Mortola: Capricorn's mother, also known as "The Magpie." A poisoner, she kept Resa enslaved for many years as her servant. Her greatest wish is to see Mo punished for what he has done to her son.
• Orpheus: Supposedly has the ability to read and write characters in and out of books. Was discovered in our world by Dustfinger. Farid calls him Cheeseface. He only reads Dustfinger back in the book but not Farid because he doesn't belong in there. He is a great fan of Dustfinger.
• The Black Prince: The leader of the Motley Folk; has a pet bear and is a very good knife-thrower.
• Roxane: Dustfinger's beautiful wife, formerly a minstrel who now grows herbs for the healers.
• Cosimo: The deceased son of the Laughing prince/ the Prince of Sighs. Known to have been immensely beautiful, often called "Cosimo The Fair".
• Violante: Wife of Cosimo the Fair and daughter of the Adderhead
• Brianna: Dustfinger and Roxane's daughter and the maid to Violante
• Minerva: Fenoglio's landlady.
• Taddeo: The librarian of the Castle of Night
• Slasher: Formerly one of Capricorn's fire-raisers, now in the Adderheads service.
• Jacopo: The son of Cosimo and Violante; takes after the Adderhead in his actions
• Jehan: The son of Roxane and her dead second husband
• Tullio: The Prince of Sighs half-brownie page/servant
• Ivo: Minerva's son
• Despina: Minerva's daughter
• Balbulus: An illuminator brought to the library of the Castle of Ombra by Violante as part of her dowry. Very full of himself and often demands bribes from Violante to keep her library visits a secret from the Prince of Sighs.
• Nettle: A healer who uses herbs and potions to cure the sick.
• Baptista: Actor and accomplished mask-maker, disfigured by pockmarks
• Cloud-dancer: A crippled former tightrope walker, now a messenger.
• The Motley Folk: A loyal band of strolling players (entertainers) to which Dustfinger once belonged, the Motley Folk travel between Lombrica and Argenta, the two principalities of the Inkworld, led by their own Black Prince.
• Rosenquartz: A tiny glass man and Fenoglio's long-suffering helper.
• The Laughing Prince: Bereaved father of Cosimo the fair. Also known as the "Prince of Sighs" since his son's death.
• Jink: A horned marten.
• The Barn Owl: Physician who looked after Dustfinger when he was a child.
• The Adderhead/The Silver Prince: Warmongering tyrant who fears only death itself. Capricorn and his fire-raisers were in his pay.
• The Piper/Silvernose: Formerly Capricorn's fire-raiser, now sings dark songs for the Adderhead.
• Firefox: Capricorn's successor. Chief bodyguard and herald to The Adderhead.
• Cerberus: Orpheus's hellhound.

Quotes edit see section history

• “Stories never really end, Meggie, even if the books like to pretend they do. Stories always go on. They don't end on the last page, any more than they begin on the first page.”

  Mortimer Folchart

• “Odd that your heart didn't simply stop when it hurt so much. But his heart hadn't stopped ten years ago, either, when the words on the page swallowed up Resa.”

• “How would a story ever work if anyone could just come back from the dead at any time? It would lead to hopeless confusion; it would wreck the suspense!”

  Fenoglio / Inkweaver

• “Who wants to read a story about two benevolent princes ruling a merry band of happy, contented subjects? What kind of a story would that be?”

  Fenoglio / Inkweaver

• “The ink's not to blame if the parchment is still blank”

  Rosenquarz

• “Isn't it odd how much fatter a book gets when you've read it several times? As if something were left between the pages every time you read it. Feelings, thoughts, sounds, smells... and then, when you look at the book again many years later, you find yourself there, too, a slightly younger self, slightly different, as if the book had preserved you like a pressed flower... both strange and familiar.”

  Mortimer Folchart

• “It was for this alone that death spared me, poet. So that I could bring justice to this world and turn the Devil himself off his throne. That's worth fighting for, don't you think? Even worth dying for.”

  Cosimo

• “My wife loves written words, you know, words that stick to parchment and paper like dead flies, and it seems my father felt the same -- but I want to hear words, not read them! Remember that, when you're looking for the right words: You must ask yourself what they sound like! Glowing with passion, dark with sorrow, sweet with love, that's what I want. Write words quivering with all our righteous anger at the Adderhead's evil deeds, and soon that anger will be in every heart.”

  Cosimo

• “I've heard that when the Adderhead doesn't like what books say he'll sometimes have them burned in the fireplaces of his castle, but how will he burn words that everyone is singing and speaking?”

  Cosimo

• “The spoken word is nothing, it hardly lives longer than an insect! Only the written word is eternal.”

  Balbulus

• “Nothing's eternal -- and what happier fate could words have than to be sung by minstrels? Yes, of course they change the words, they sing them slightly differently every time, but isn't that in itself wonderful? A story wearing another dress every time you hear it -- what could be better?”

  Fenoglio / Inkweaver

• “But look at the stories people press in books.! They may last longer, yes, but they breathe only when someone opens the book. They are sound pressed between the pages, and only a voice can bring them back to life!”

  Fenoglio / Inkweaver

• “The years were not kind to parchment and paper; a book had many enemies, and in time it withered like a human body.”

• “The heart is as silent as a fish, however much the tongue tries to give it a voice.”

• “You know, I think that a book always keeps something of its owners between its pages.”

  Taddeo

• “They keep them like butterflies pinned in a case, each in its own place, imprisoned in their cells! But books want to breathe and sing, they want to feel air between their pages and a reader's fingers tenderly stroking them --”

  Orpheus

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Lombrica: the realm of the Laughing Prince.
• Argenta: the realm of the Adderhead

Organizations edit see section history

• The Motley Folk: Loyal band of strolling entertainers to which Dustfinger once belonged. They travel between Lombrica and Argenta.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• quire: Any collection of leaves (papers) within another in a manuscript or book. Originally meant 4 sheets of paper folded over to make eight leaves but now also used to refer to 25 sheets of paper (or a quarter ream).

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Books: Describe this theme.

Series & Lists edit see section history

Preceded by Inkheart, and followed by Inkdeath.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Cornelia Funke (Author)

Other Contributors:

1. Esther Ottens (Translator) - Translation from German to Dutch.
2. Anthea Bell (Translator)
3. Roberta Magnaghi (Translator)
4. Sanda Šukarov (Translator)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Book Sense (2006: Book of the Year in the Children's Literature )

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PZ7.F96624 Ins 2005
• Dewey: 833.914

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Parents need to know that, in addition to the bloody violence depicted, there are lots of references to violence in the past, and the threat of violence hangs over most of the book. There is an edge to the violence here as well: it is somehow more vicious, hate-filled, and senseless than in most fantasies.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Children's Books › Literature › Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery & Horror › Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic
• Books › Children's Books › Authors & Illustrators, A-Z › ( F ) › Funke, Cornelia
• Books › Teens › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Science Fiction
• Books › Teens › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Fantasy

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• Scholastic Inkheart

More Books Like This edit see section history

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history