false <![CDATA[Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell]]> 14201 46 It's 1808 and that Corsican upstart Napoleon is battering the English army and navy. Enter Mr. Norrell, a fusty but ambitious scholar from the Yorkshire countryside and the first practical magician in hundreds of years. What better way to demonstrate his revival of British magic than to change the course of the Napoleonic wars? Susanna Clarke's ingenious first novel, <I>Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell</I>, has the cleverness and lightness of touch of the Harry Potter series, but is less a fairy tale of good versus evil than a fantastic comedy of manners, complete with elaborate false footnotes, occasional period spellings, and a dense, lively mythology teeming beneath the narrative. Mr. Norrell moves to London to establish his influence in government circles, devising such powerful illusions as an 11-day blockade of French ports by English ships fabricated from rainwater. But however skillful his magic, his vanity provides an Achilles heel, and the differing ambitions of his more glamorous apprentice, Jonathan Strange, threaten to topple all that Mr. Norrell has achieved. A sparkling debut from Susanna Clarke--and it's not all fairy dust. <I>--Regina Marler</I> 3921305 book 2004 Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell total:15412|5:5051|4:5144|3:3056|2:1358|1:804| 15412 58518 24241 2765 5 51 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed May 23 07:22:35 -0700 2007 Wed Jun 20 09:47:24 -0700 2007 more...]]> 2 42 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Fri Jul 13 22:48:55 -0700 2007 Fri Jul 13 22:48:55 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 23 false false Mon Jul 13 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 18 02:21:05 -0700 2008 Fri Oct 09 02:24:30 -0700 2009 3 more...]]> 5 28 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed Aug 01 19:54:04 -0700 2007 Sat Aug 18 21:02:13 -0700 2007 Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell turns out to be a book I dearly love, I'm afraid I can't recommend it to just anyone. Whether you'll like it or not will truly depend on what you expect it to be. If you wish for a fast-paced excitement then this book is probably not for you. Jonathan Strang...more...]]> 4 43 false false Tue Nov 08 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Mon Jan 28 08:31:21 -0800 2008 Thu Mar 20 02:55:50 -0700 2008
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Mr Norrell
I've spent all my life studying magic and now I'm going to revive it in Engla...more...]]> 4 12 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Feb 16 10:08:27 -0800 2008 Mon Mar 24 06:56:40 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 10 false false Sun Oct 12 18:07:56 -0700 2008 Thu Dec 11 17:57:32 -0800 2008 NOTE: I didn't put the spoiler flag on this review because it technically doesn't give anything big away. Nevertheless it does come pretty close. So, if want to dive into the book completely clean you might consider moving on. You have been warned.

On with the review. First off, this ...more...]]> 1 14 false false Tue Aug 28 09:42:41 -0700 2007 Mon Dec 24 20:17:00 -0800 2007
It also was so...more...]]> 2 14 false false Tue May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu May 10 17:21:15 -0700 2007 Sun May 27 17:34:06 -0700 2007 did read the whole thing, and at 800 pages, that felt like an accomplishment. Clarke obviously put a lot of work into the back story, creating an entire historical library of magic that is cited in footnotes th...more...]]> 4 5 false true Sun Jan 25 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Dec 12 05:17:39 -0800 2008 Tue Apr 14 03:07:51 -0700 2009 1 more...]]> 1 7 false false Sat Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Wed Oct 24 23:53:12 -0700 2007 Wed Oct 24 23:58:38 -0700 2007 more...]]> 2 9 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Thu Nov 15 17:09:23 -0800 2007 Sat Dec 01 09:47:14 -0800 2007 more...]]> 5 4 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Sep 19 19:02:50 -0700 2007 Wed Sep 19 19:19:13 -0700 2007 more...]]> 1 7 false false Thu Sep 07 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Wed Oct 17 11:50:12 -0700 2007 Sat May 03 14:16:24 -0700 2008
And there it sits, collecting so much dust. Every time I see ...more...]]> 5 5 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Dec 28 05:46:05 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 02 17:52:38 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 3 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 11 14:55:54 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 20 03:23:58 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 3 false true Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Nov 01 15:30:18 -0700 2007 Sat Feb 02 14:09:56 -0800 2008
FEB. 2: [CONTAINING A FEW SPOILERS!]

Okay, I finally completed this book. And what a blast! As probably most of the reading world know it's quite a long story, and spanning years as well as co...more...]]> 4 3 false false Thu Oct 04 01:09:23 -0700 2007 Thu Oct 04 01:35:58 -0700 2007
i hated this book for the first few hundred pages, and by the final pa...more...]]> 5 3 false false Sun Sep 30 12:35:00 -0700 2007 Fri Nov 02 09:17:20 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 3 false false Thu Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Mon Aug 06 07:31:18 -0700 2007 Mon Aug 06 07:32:23 -0700 2007 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=14202