Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

by Susanna Clarke

English magicians were once the wonder of the known world, with fairy servants at their beck and call; they could command winds, mountains, and woods. But by the early 1800s they have long since lost the ability to perform magic. They can only write long, dull papers about it, while fairy servants are nothing but a fading memory.

But at Hurtfew Abbey in Yorkshire, the rich, reclusive Mr Norrell has assembled a wonderful library of lost and forgotten books from England's magical past and regained some of the powers of England's magicians. He goes to London and raises a beautiful young woman from the dead. Soon he is lending his help to the government in the war against Napoleon Bonaparte, creating ghostly fleets of rain-ships to confuse and alarm the French.

All goes well until a rival magician appears. Jonathan Strange is handsome, charming, and talkative-the very opposite of Mr Norrell. Strange thinks nothing of enduring the rigors of campaigning with Wellington's army and doing magic on battlefields. Astonished to find another practicing magician, Mr Norrell accepts Strange as a pupil. But it soon becomes clear that their ideas of what English magic ought to be are very different. For Mr Norrell, their power is something to be cautiously controlled, while Jonathan Strange will always be attracted to the wildest, most perilous forms of magic. He becomes fascinated by the ancient, shadowy figure of the Raven King, a child taken by fairies who became king of both England and Faerie, and the most legendary magician of all. Eventually Strange's heedless pursuit of long-forgotten magic threatens to destroy not only his partnership with Norrell, but everything that he holds dear.

Sophisticated, witty, and ingeniously convincing, Susanna Clarke's magisterial novel weaves magic into a flawlessly detailed vision of historical England. She has created a world so thoroughly enchanting that eight hundred pages leave readers longing for more.

• ISBN10: 1582344167
• ISBN13: 9781582344164
• Publish Date: 1 October 2004 (first published 20 September 2004)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 27 May 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 782
• Language: English

Reviews

[clementine]

Good worldbuilding, interesting story. It definitely did not to be this long. It felt a little self-consciously clever and the footnotes should have been used more sparingly.

[brokentune]

Review posted on BookLikes:

http://brokentune.booklikes.com/post/595552/jonathan-strange-mr-norrell

[ladygrey]

Finally! I wavered between two stars and three, not because this isn't a good book but because it's very long. And there really isn't enough story to handle the weight of 800 pages. When I got to about page 540 and realized I still had the length of an entire novel to go I almost quit. But a friend suggested it and loved it and I had to believe the ending would be worth it, somehow.

And you know what? It almost was except [spoilers removed]

Despite my rant on how unbearably long it is, it is a good book. On the awesome/short scale (name pending) it rates a 6.something on good and a 1 on short putting it below the Twilight divide - which means if I wasn't reading it for a friend I totally would have left it unfinished. But I'm glad I did finish it because the ending was even better than I was hoping for.

The strength of the book is really her writing style which is almost archaic and completely dry - its a very British book. That may not sound like a compliment but it reads like it was written 100 years ago, easily. I actually had to check the publication date because I didn't believe 2004 was really the first printing. I haven't read a ton of Jane Austen or the Brontes but it has that sort if old world sound to it.

Which is actually a strength because it lends authenticity to the historical nature of the story. It's excellent and really pulls you immediately into the world.

The parallel weakness to the length, though, is that it isn't surprising. I think I wouldn't have minded how long it was if I didn't know pretty early on how it was going to play out. Instead of feeling any sort of anticipation I was just waiting. [spoilers removed]. And it was so long, I really lost track of some of the threads. It probably didn't help that I read 4 other books in the midst of this one. But even though I had my initial impressions from the prophecy, I really didn't remember it so I felt like I lost track of it and if this was a part of it or that. Not that it really mattered [spoilers removed].

The magic was sort of interesting, but described in such practical ways it wasn't really fantastic (in the original use of that word not as a synonym for good). Her descriptions and imaginings were definitely unique, which was fun. It's not a flashy book or an especially emotional one (again, British). But it's well written and if it were 200 pages shorter I probably would have enjoyed it quite a bit.

If you don't mind long books, I'd definitely recommend it.

[violetpeanut]

This book was just ok. Parts of it were very funny but in general it didn't hold my interest as well as some books. I had no problem putting it down where with many books I have to force myself to put it down and go to bed. The last 300 pages were a little better - by that time, the story was getting wrapped up so a little more was happening. Overall it was so-so. Not horrible, but not fantastic, either.

[adastra]

Unfortunately I read it in German (long time ago), which probably doesn't do it justice.