Magic Lessons

Alice Hoffman’s Magic Lessons (2020) is a work of historical fantasy. The story begins in 17th-century England with Maria Owens, an infant abandoned in a snowy field and raised by a wise healer who teaches her the “Nameless Art” of folk magic. After a destructive tragedy and a deep betrayal, Maria’s journey takes her across the world to Curaçao and ultimately to Salem, Massachusetts. There, her pursuit of the man who wronged her leads to her being accused of witchcraft, an event that culminates in her casting the centuries-long curse that will define her family line.

Through its rich historical setting and magical elements, the novel explores the harsh realities faced by women in the 17th century. Hoffman examines the theme of Patriarchal Oppression of Independent Women, framing the witch hunts as a violent means of suppressing female knowledge, autonomy, and power. The narrative also examines The Importance of Reciprocated Love, contrasting the destructive nature of forced or unrequited affection with the redemptive power of a true, mutual bond. Finally, Maria’s story is a deep exploration of The Corrosive Cost of Revenge, illustrating how the impulse for retribution, even when justified, can lead to self-inflicted wounds and generational suffering. Magic Lessons lays the foundational lore for the Owens family, tracing the origins of their magical legacy and the curse that will shape the lives of their descendants for centuries to come.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of illness, death, animal cruelty and death, graphic violence, child sexual abuse, child abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, gender discrimination, racism, and religious discrimination.

Plot Summary

In 1664 in Essex County, England, an infant named Maria is found abandoned in a snowy field by Hannah Owens, a practitioner of an ancient form of green magic called Seidhr. Hannah raises Maria in her secluded cottage, teaching her herbal remedies, spells, and how to read and write. A crow named Cadin, who watches over Maria as a baby, becomes her loyal familiar. Maria exhibits signs of being a bloodline witch, including a star-shaped birthmark and the ability to turn silver black with her touch. 

Hannah creates a personal spell book, or Grimoire, for Maria and teaches her the primary rules of their craft: “Do as you will, but harm no one” and “What you give will be returned to you threefold” (296). Their life is disrupted by the arrival of a bruised, red-haired woman named Rebecca, who is fleeing her abusive husband, Thomas Lockland. Hannah helps Rebecca break a dangerous love spell, the Tenth Love Potion, that she cast on Thomas years ago. During the ritual, Maria realizes that Rebecca is her mother, a bloodline witch who left her with Hannah for protection. Rebecca flees in the night, but Thomas and his men track her to the cottage. They capture Hannah, nail her to her door, and burn the cottage to the ground, killing her. Maria witnesses the murder from a hiding place in the woods before fleeing toward the sea as Hannah instructed.

Following Cadin’s guidance, Maria finds her mother at a manor house. She also meets her biological father, a charismatic actor and thief named Robbie. As Thomas Lockland’s family comes to claim the estate, the three escape, with Robbie setting fire to the manor’s interior. At the coast, Maria learns that her parents have sold her into a five-year indenture in Curaçao to give her the best chance at an independent life. She makes the long sea voyage, using her healing skills to aid the crew and other passengers. In Curaçao, she serves the Jansen family, where she befriends another servant, Juni. 

Maria hides her magic but continues to practice discreetly, learning local healing arts called brua from Juni’s great-aunt Adrie. When she’s 15, she meets John Hathorne, a stern magistrate and merchant from Salem, Massachusetts. They have a whirlwind five-day affair, during which he gifts her a sapphire necklace and diamonds, seemingly fulfilling a vision she once had. He disappears suddenly, returning to Massachusetts, and a heartbroken Maria soon discovers that she’s pregnant. After her indenture ends, she secures Juni’s freedom and gives birth to a red-haired daughter, Faith Owens. Determined to find Hathorne, Maria bargains for passage on the ship Queen Esther by promising to cure the captain’s son, Samuel Dias, of a deadly illness known as breakbone fever.

On the voyage to Massachusetts, Maria nurses Samuel back to health, and a deep, complicated bond forms between them. Samuel, a worldly navigator, is wary of the man Maria seeks and warns her that the gems that Hathorne gave her appear to be fake. Despite their connection, Maria remains focused on her mission, and a hurt Samuel withdraws as they near Boston. After arriving, Maria and Faith settle in Boston, where Maria works as a cook and healer. She eventually learns that Hathorne is a prominent magistrate in Salem. She and Faith live in an abandoned cabin in the woods, where Hathorne visits her in secret, but he refuses to publicly acknowledge their relationship or claim Faith as his daughter. Maria goes to his house to find him, only to discover that he’s married to a woman named Ruth Gardner Hathorne, with whom he has a son. 

Devastated, Maria confronts Hathorne, who reveals his duplicity by offering her money to leave. She initially rejects the coins but then accepts, using them to buy the land her cabin sits on. Later, she realizes that the gems that Hathorne previously her are worthless paste. When Cadin begins dropping stones on Hathorne’s roof, Hathorne leads a town hunt that results in the crow’s death. Meanwhile, Maria’s skills with magic bring many of the town’s women to her in secret for spells and magical remedies. One day, a jealous neighbor named Martha, who can’t have children of her own, sees Maria in the store with Faith and covets the little girl for her own. She writes a letter to the magistrate accusing Maria of witchcraft. 

Maria is arrested and put on trial, with Hathorne serving as a magistrate. She’s subjected to a drowning test in a bottomless lake but mysteriously survives when a large eel—a creature that Faith had befriended—lifts her chair to the surface. Her survival is taken as proof of her guilt, and she is sentenced to hang. On the day of the execution, Samuel reappears, having secretly replaced the gallows rope with a rotted one. While standing on the gallows, Maria casts a curse on any man who ever loves an Owens woman. She then leaps from the platform, and the rope snaps. In the ensuing chaos, Samuel rescues her on a white horse. They race back to her cabin, only to find that Martha has kidnapped Faith and taken her on a ship to New York.

Maria and Samuel move to a house on Maiden Lane in Manhattan to search for Faith. Their burgeoning love is thwarted by Maria’s fear that her curse will kill him if they confess their love for each other, and she pushes him away until he returns to sea. Meanwhile, Faith lives as a captive with Martha in the desolate flatlands of Brooklyn. Martha attempts to suppress Faith’s magic by soldering iron bracelets to her wrists to hide her magic and dyeing her red hair black. 

Faith secretly continues her magical studies, buying books on herbal medicine and spells without Martha’s knowledge and planting an herb garden behind their house. Martha, increasingly determined to cure Faith of her wicked bloodline, burns her herb garden. Faith escapes with the help of a kind peddler named Jack Finney. As they flee, Martha chases them and falls from a bridge into a creek. Faith, hardened by years of captivity, watches her drown without offering help. Faith and Finney travel to Manhattan, where she’s finally reunited with her mother. The reunion is strained, as Faith is now drawn to dark, “left-handed magic” (296), seeking power and revenge. She discovers a dark Grimoire, The Book of the Raven, and begins practicing its dangerous spells in secret.

News arrives of the escalating witch trials in Salem, with Hathorne acting as a merciless chief examiner. Faith discovers her father’s identity and his role in the persecution and becomes consumed by a desire for vengeance. After leaving her mother a note, she runs away to Salem. Maria follows the advice of a fellow witch, Catherine Durant, who tells her that she must save a life to save her daughter’s. Maria cures the gravely ill daughter of a prominent minister and, in lieu of payment, persuades him to help end the trials by petitioning the governor. As she packs to travel to Salem and find Faith, she discovers that Samuel had left real diamonds for her inside a poppet he made years ago, and she finally accepts her love for him. She travels to Salem, where she’s reunited with Samuel at her old cabin beneath a magnolia tree that he planted for her.

In Salem, Faith gets a job as a servant in the Hathorne household. She serves her father a cursed pie made with a bird she killed in a dark ritual. The spell works, forcing Hathorne to confront his own cowardice and guilt, but upon seeing her reflection in his tormented eyes, Faith decides against performing her final, punishing curse. Hathorne banishes her. As she flees, she’s captured by local farmers who accuse her of witchcraft and attempt to drown her in the same lake where her mother was tested. Maria and Samuel arrive just in time. Samuel dives in to save Faith but becomes entangled in weeds and drowns. Refusing to accept his death, Maria defies her magical nature by diving into the water, pulling his body to shore, and pounding on his chest until his heart miraculously starts beating again. 

Maria believes that Samuel’s death and rebirth break the curse. Faith, witnessing the power of her mother’s love, renounces dark magic, though the choice costs her her own powers. Years later, the family is living peacefully in a grand new house in Salem. Maria and Samuel have a baby daughter, Hannah Reina. Faith dedicates her life to knowledge and teaching, and Maria founds a library and a school for girls. Maria adds a third rule to the family Grimoire: “Fall in love whenever you can” (387). The story ends as a fledgling crow chooses the infant Hannah as its familiar, continuing the Owens legacy.