"In a world beyond this, that river continues to sing softly, enchanting us with what we want to hear, shaping what we must see to move forward. In those waters all disappointments are forgotten, our mistakes forgiven” (Bray 401) In A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray, Gemma provides an example of how setting plays an important role in this story Gemma Doyle finds great power attends the Spence Academy for Young Ladies, an English boarding school from the Victorian period must find her destiny and unravel the mystery of Mary Dowd and Sarah Rees-Toome, two rebellious girls with terrible powers over the kingdoms that Gemma finds unknown powers and hidden dangers linked to their mother. deceased and to Spence's unlikely mysteries. The setting, time and customs of A Great and Terrible Beauty have a great impact on the novel. The role of the setting helps to show the extreme difference between the two main places this story takes place . At Spence Academy the feeling is dark, stony and sad. “Photographic portraits of Spence's various classes hang on the walls: grainy faces even harder to see in the dim light of the few gas lamps… a cramped, smelly room that could optimistically be described as dingy and realistically called squalid. There is a water-stained desk, a chair and a lamp. Iron beds hug the left and right walls…mine sits under a gutter that could probably split my skull if I sat down quickly” (Bray 43). As is obvious, Gemma is really negative, but the lackluster background gives a dull and uninteresting tone to Spence's cold walls. In contrast, the kingdoms that Gemma and her group of friends, Anne, Pippa and Felicity, find in the ancient caves on the outskirts of Spence are as she describes: “...A... medium of paper.... ..but Felicity's family because it was extremely improper for any woman to be unfaithful to her husband, especially an admiral's wife in a high society family. Felicity would probably never be seen as an equal to the other girls and shunned. It is evident that the customs of the Victorian era were much stricter than they are today. In A Great and Terrible Beauty the setting, time and customs have a great impact on the novel. These three things can create the atmosphere of a novel and transform an ordinary story into a magical experience. This book has many different dimensions because intricately woven between the lines are themes of opposites, addiction, and rebellion. Perhaps great settings can help us understand a world beyond this one. Works Cited Bray, Libba. A great and terrible beauty. New York: Random House Children's Books, a division of Random House, 2003