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Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Susanna Clarke

3.82 · Rating details · 183,781 ratings · 13,275 reviews

Librarian note: Alternate cover edition of 9780765356154.

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.

English magicians were once the wonder of the known world, Librarian note: Alternate cover edition of 9780765356154.

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.

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. ...more

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Paperback, First Tor Edition, 1006 pages

Published August 1st 2006 by Tor Books (first published September 8th 2004)

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· 183,781 ratings · 13,275 reviews

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May 13, 2007 J.G. Keely rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, reviewed, uk-and-ireland, favorites, novel

Sigh, just what we need, another revolutionary, unusual fantasy book by an author with a practiced mastery of tone. When will authors like Clarke realize that what the fantasy genre needs are more pseudo-medieval monomyths that sprawl out into fifteen volumes?

Her magic didn't conveniently solve all of the characters' problems, instead, they wasted time thinking through conflicts and then had to solve them by taking action; how dull is that? The magic was weird, anyways. It didn't have a ...more

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May 23, 2007 Kelly rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: Fans of gothic, Victorian, Jane Austen or fantasy literature.

Shelves: fantasy-and-scifi, brit-lit, regency, favorites, fiction, 21st-century, goth-goth-baby, owned

Without a doubt the best book I have read this year. I write that without hesitation and with a beaming smile on my face. Incredible. Enthralling. Amazing. The book was over 800 pages long and it did not seem long enough. When I finished the book, I immediately turned out the light and tried to drift off to sleep, because I knew nothing else I did that night was going to top the feeling I got after blowing through the last 100 pages like a madwoman. I want to start it over again, immediately.

The Without a doubt the best book I have read this year. I write that without hesitation and with a beaming smile on my face. Incredible. Enthralling. Amazing. The book was over 800 pages long and it did not seem long enough. When I finished the book, I immediately turned out the light and tried to drift off to sleep, because I knew nothing else I did that night was going to top the feeling I got after blowing through the last 100 pages like a madwoman. I want to start it over again, immediately.

The book is like reading Dickens, with the dialogue of Jane Austen, and the best writing of every classic fantasy I've read. All at once. Clarke manages to pay her homage while being entirely original herself. And the pages just keep turning and turning. You almost don't notice as 200 pages go by in less than two hours. This is a book to devour. Again, and again, and again. For those who have never been interested in the fantasy genre before, do not be put off. It's not even about the fantasy, though of course it is a major presence and the plot focuses around it. History geeks: There are three delightful, hilarious appearances by Wellington, George III and Lord Byron, as well as various Cabinet ministers of the time period.

The prose is wonderful, dead-on. Clarke has the ability to shift seamlessly from witty, sarcastic, detached prose and dialogue in the style of Jane Austen or Oscar Wilde:

"These ladies and gentlemen, visitors to the city of Venice, were excessively pleased with the Campo Santa Maria Formosa. They thought the facades of the houses very magnificent- they could not praise them highly enough. But the sad decay which buildings, bridges and church all displayed seemed to charm them even more. They were Englishmen and, to them, the decline of other nations was the most natural thing in the world. They belonged to a race so blessed with so sensitive an appreciation of its own talents (and so doubtful an opinion of any body else's) that they would not have been at all surprised to learn that the Venetians themselves had been entirely ignorant of the merits of their own city- until Englishmen had come to tell them it was delightful."

... and then shift into lines that would do any fantasy author proud: "Spring returned to England. Birds followed ploughs. Stones were warmed by the sun. Rains and winds grew softer, and were fragranced by the scents of the earth and growing things. Woods were tinged with a colour so soft, so subtle that it could scarcely be said to be a colour at all. It was more the /idea/ of a colour- as if the trees were dreaming green dreams or thinking green thoughts."

Those quotes don't do it justice, they were just ones my eyes came across when I randomly opened pages. The writing is just beyond fantastic, to say the least.

That, on top of an intriguing, well developed, /incredibly/ well researched portrait of England at the time of the Napoleonic wars? It manages to cover all the major areas that British literature is known for, all at once, in one book, and do them all justice. Clarke is also able to touch on a lot of serious issues that were present in England at the time: (racial relations, the problems of a hereditary ruling class..) She makes you aware of them as a background, but doesn't push them in your face. It's just another way she's able to make her evocation of the time period that much more perfect.

... I should perhaps have written this review with a greater distance from finishing the novel. But I think I'm justified in doing it now, if only to give an idea of the kind of amazing feeling that the book gives you from reading it and finishing it.

Books like this are why I love literature.

Read it. End of story.

(... finally.) ...more

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Aug 01, 2013 Jayson rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: format-illustrated, genre-adult-fantasy, read-in-2010, author-british, 600-plus-pp, genre-alternate-history, era-industrial

(B+) 77% | Good
Notes: Very slow paced and the ending doesn’t justify its length, but characters are strong and it shows flashes of brilliance.

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Jul 13, 2007 Eric rated it it was ok

I so wanted to like this book. The idea is just wonderful. I was so pleased for a while to be in that world, a historical England. I love the dialogue and descriptions. And I love the idea of magic in an otherwise real setting, as though it were a normal part of our actual world. But it was so frustrating to read after a while. The footnotes, auuuugh, the footnotes. They were cute at first, because the book is written sort of like a history book from that period. But after a while they were just I so wanted to like this book. The idea is just wonderful. I was so pleased for a while to be in that world, a historical England. I love the dialogue and descriptions. And I love the idea of magic in an otherwise real setting, as though it were a normal part of our actual world. But it was so frustrating to read after a while. The footnotes, auuuugh, the footnotes. They were cute at first, because the book is written sort of like a history book from that period. But after a while they were just so long and so unrelated to the main story that they became seriously cumbersome. And just when the story would be getting involved, she'd fast forward 2 years or 10 years and the last part of the story, though unresolved, would be pretty much forgotten. Boooo!

The end was annoying, or rather the way the main characters reacted to it. It's fiction, it's fantasy, but when you're writing about basic human beings who have otherwise behaved consistently throughout the book, and then they react to something in a way you know isn't consistent and isn't how people would act, it pops the bubble of your suspended disbelief and sort of ruins the story. Another annoying thing is that we keep waiting to learn more about why Mr. Norrell acts the way he does, but we never do learn. He's just a pill and that's it. That's poor writing, No motivations for him, no insight into his character. So really he just serves a function in the book that could have been served by an inanimate object.

Overall the book is just filled with too many things that seem to have no point. It's not that they aren't interesting by themselves or couldn't have been made into something wonderful, it's just that they are tossed out there randomly and not connected to anything. In that way, the cold, dispassionate history book style disappoints, because what we really want is a story. We want to care about the characters and see resolution of some kind. Booo!

There will apparently be more books set in this world, but I won't be reading them. It's just too much of a time investment in a seemingly great idea that doesn't pay off. ...more

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Aug 01, 2007 Tiza rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Everyone who loves fantasy, 19th century British lit and can endure long, slow read

Shelves: fantasy

Although 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 Strange and Mr. Norrell is a blend of meticulously researched historical fiction and imaginative fantasy, sprinkled here and there with biting social comedy, and written in a style similar to Austen's, Although 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 Strange and Mr. Norrell is a blend of meticulously researched historical fiction and imaginative fantasy, sprinkled here and there with biting social comedy, and written in a style similar to Austen's, which is, of course, relevant to the age in which the story takes place, the early years of 19th century England. The plot mainly focuses in the revival of magic in England, an art that has been long fallen into disuse but still theoretically studied by many. Among these people two gentlemen who actually practise the art come into the spotlight: the tedious, reclusive Gilbert Norrell and his pupil Jonathan Strange. The story further unfurls with the appearance of a certain silver-haired fairy, Norrell's and Strange's involvements in the Napoleonic Wars, and also the revelation of the prophecy of The Raven King in all its mythical grandeur.

JS & MN is a long, meandering read that needs to be slowly savored, not to be rushed. I started reading it feeling a little bit wary myself,the first hundred pages being undeniably dragging. But I soon came to a certain point where something just clicked, and from there on it was almost impossible to put it down. This book is over 1000 pages long, and yet, as I close the book in completion, I asked myself of how 1000 pages could seemingly be so terribly short.

For me, who end up liking this book, JS & MN is a true charmer, compelling in all its subtlety, imaginative, witty and beautifully written. Clarke has a flair in language use. She employs the right words at all the right moments to make us feel exactly what she intends us to feel, and see exactly what she wants us to see. With this ability at hands she creates a fine balance of myths, magic, history, warfare, politic and mundane domestic life. Clarke treats magic as an object of study in the truest sense. Some parts of the book read like an academic essay, with long studious arguments of why such and such magic can or cannot be done, various citations from the works of great magicians long dead, and insanely lengthy footnotes (which people ever so often think as annoying distractions, yet I found them really fun to read). She also has a perfect grasp about the age in which her characters are living. Thus her writing comes off convincingly like a product of 19th century British literature (though it has the virtue of being more comprehensible), perfectly written with all the old spellings: chuse, sopha, shew, surprize.

Clarke's characterization is definitely one of the best elements in the book. The characters, be it the main protagonists or otherwise, are solidly drawn and interesting, as lovable as they are flawed. Strange, though not someone who is altogether admirable, is charming and generally more likable, and yet narrow-minded Norrell, with all his jealousy and peevishness, feels all too human that I couldn't help but sympathise with him even when I didn't want to.

A literary merit though this book is, please be warned that not everyone will find it fascinating. If you're halfway through the book and it still doesn't pique your interest, put it down then, save your precious time. But if you're halfway through and already been absorbed it's very likely you'll be graced with something that stays with you days and weeks after you finished reading it. I know it did this for me. Definitely one of those rare treats I'd be willingly and gladly re-read each year. ...more

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Jan 17, 2014 Sean Barrs the Bookdragon rated it it was amazing

Shelves: magical-realism, fantasy, 5-star-reads, favourites

Book like this are not written anymore. This feels like it should have been published in the nineteenth century and not because of the obvious setting, but because of the remarkable writing style. It is very similar to Austen’s that I’m sure she might have been delighted by Clarke’s work. Well, maybe. But, either way novelists like this do not exist in this age, unfortunately. The writing has the feel of a classic, but the plot has the feel of a thoroughly charming fantasy.

This is a work of ...more

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Aug 28, 2007 Meagan rated it did not like it

Jesus Christ, this book reads like molasses. It's like the author took every book from her Brit Lit class and consciously tried to make it wordier and longer than all of them combined. I get the point she wants to make, but I honestly could not get past the second chapter.

It also was so incredibly pretentious. The whole thing has this superior feel, like having a conversation with someone who is absolutely reassured of how much smarter they are than you. It left me feeling bored, stupid, ...more

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Mar 08, 2013 Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ rated it it was amazing

Shelves: your-mileage-may-vary, fantasy, favorites, need-to-reread, regency-or-victorian-fantasy, regency, book-club-reads

I adore and highly recommend this Regency-era fantasy but it definitely isn't everyone's cuppa tea! The bad: It's a doorstopper of a novel, very long and slow-paced. The good: It's absolutely brilliant, filled with intricate details, REALLY creative. Give it a shot!

Adventures in reading Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell with my real-life book club (also posted on Fantasy Literature):

Tadiana: This book is like a mashup of Jane Austen, or maybe Charles Dickens, and fantasy, with Regency-era ...more

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Apr 24, 2011 Paul Bryant rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: novels, modernvictorian

If a novel of nearly 900 pages can be summarised in one phrase then Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell may, I think, be described as a stately, sly, witty, intricate, comic retelling of Dracula, with digressions and very little blood.

Count Dracula takes life from beautiful young ladies, enslaves them, enchants them, enraptures them, steals them away, into his own twilight (oops, sorry) vampire world – they become something other than what they were, undead, not alive yet not dead, creatures ...more

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Mar 20, 2015 Lyn rated it really liked it

If a writer is going to publish a book this big (thousand plus pages) then it must be very good, or the readers will never know about the thousands plus pages beyond the heft as they toss it aside or by the thickness as it is put back on the shelf.

This book is that good.

Using language correct for the time period (Napoleonic Wards era, early 1800s) and richly complex characterizations reminiscent of Jane Austen or Charles Dickens, author Susanna Clarke has crafted a gem. It was the winner of and ...more

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Sep 14, 2011 Apatt rated it it was amazing

Shelves: top-20, fantasy-top20

Neil Gaiman said that this book is "hard to overpraise", I will make an attempt thus:

While I was reading the second half of this book it occurred to me that I don't actually need to read any other novel ever again, I could just read this one book over and over again for the rest of my days and when the Grim Reaper calls I shall have this book clutched possessively in my stiff, unyielding fingers.

Momentary insanity of course, but it is indicative of the devotion I feel toward this book. With in ...more

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Mar 01, 2008 mark monday rated it it was amazing

Shelves: alpha-team, fog-and-gears, secret-histories

the hero of this novel, Mr. Norrell, is in many ways a stranger in a strange land, uncomfortable with base emotions and disappointed with the shabbiness and inadequacies of others... yet always yearning for true companionship. a dignified, erudite, and refined gentleman; quietly soulful and elegantly restrained; commanding in his encyclopedic knowledge of the magical arts.

the other character, a fey and unreliable sort apparently named "Jonathan Strange", offers fleeting friendship that is ...more

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Feb 10, 2012 carol. rated it it was ok

Recommends it for: Victorian fantasy fans, insomniacs

Shelves: time-period-fantasy, awards, classic, fantasy, male-lead

In the beginning was a preface, and then an introduction, followed by some exposition, and then an opening.

Looking through the reviews, it appears many people either adore it or hate it. Frankly, I'm in neither camp, because I can't work up enough emotion to care. It took a long time to become interested, and I finally had to resort to a strategy of reading only a few chapters at a time, setting free any expectation that this was a book that would pull me in and never let me go. It became the In the beginning was a preface, and then an introduction, followed by some exposition, and then an opening.

Looking through the reviews, it appears many people either adore it or hate it. Frankly, I'm in neither camp, because I can't work up enough emotion to care. It took a long time to become interested, and I finally had to resort to a strategy of reading only a few chapters at a time, setting free any expectation that this was a book that would pull me in and never let me go. It became the perfect book to read before bed, a non-habit forming Ambien that avoided unpleasant dreams while lulling me into sleep. The language and structure of the tale is a formidable barrier to easy enjoyment; this is Great Expectations, the original, uncut director's copy, thick enough in mass market paperback to soak with water and turn into a paper-mache brick. The final obstacle to delight is the general distastefulness of Mr. Norrell. This is improved somewhat when Jonathan Strange enters the tale, and for a while I was able to read without Mr. Sandman paying a visit.

I found much of the tale to be philosophizing about the character of England, and the distinctions between the north and the south tedious as they are somewhat non-accessible and lack relevance to the non-English. In some ways, I suspect the cultural conflict might resemble American regional conflicts, but it takes a talented author to make the conflict relevant across oceans and time. I understand Clarke is doing; I just lack interest in the subject matter, so the voice starts to sound a lot like the adults in Charlie Brown. Muhua wa wa...

Unfortunately, the writing style and its take on various popular Victorian styles is monotonous for me. Although I enjoy the 19th century British mysteries, and Wodehousian humor, Clarke has neither the tightly woven mystery nor the snappy dialogue that keeps me interested in those forms. When it comes to writing style, I can see why some people would find her writing interesting, especially if they are fans of the time period; it just fails to resonate for me in the way it is presented. The footnotes are occasionally amusing as they frequently contain opinionated commentary. I read recently that Clarke wrote the story in "bundles" and ended up working at fitting them together. In retrospect, this might explain some of the jumps in plotting and setting, and account for the way plots were set down and then picked up a hundred pages later.

I was pleased to discover the magical or supernatural elements play a larger role than I expected from reading other reviews. One of the characters and plotlines I struggled with was that of the "white-haired gentleman." While it certainly brought magical elements to the story, I felt like he was a distraction and never fully woven into the plot. His obsession with Stephen, was particularly odd, and I never felt like I understood it's connection to Norrell and Strange.

Clarke does sprinkle gentle humor throughout the story that occasionally caused twitters or giggles. One of the first lines to make me laugh:

"He was so clean and healthy and pleased about everything that he positively shone--which is only to be expected in a fairy or an angel but is somewhat disconcerting in an attorney."

Cross posted at http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2013/0...

...more

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Jun 14, 2013 Evgeny rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy

Lately I became very fond of static pictures in my reviews. This book will have none. It deserves a very serious discussion and I feel the inclusion of pictures would provide a distraction from such.

The best description of the book would be the following. Suppose Charles Dickens and Jane Austen had a love child – a daughter. A publisher was so thrilled by this that he promised to pay for a novel written by the daughter for each written word. The latter realized it would be a good time to take ...more

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Nov 18, 2016 Henry Avila rated it really liked it · review of another edition

In the early part of the nineteenth -century there arose in northern England ( well one by the border of Wales) two powerful magicians, old bookworm Gilbert Norrell of Hurtfew Abbey, always reading in his immense dark library, obscure ancient dusty books on the subject that he cares only about, magic and young tall Jonathan Strange, who inherited like his future short friend, tutor and rival Mr. Norrell, (not interested then, in wizardry) a vast amount of property and money. Around the city of In the early part of the nineteenth -century there arose in northern England ( well one by the border of Wales) two powerful magicians, old bookworm Gilbert Norrell of Hurtfew Abbey, always reading in his immense dark library, obscure ancient dusty books on the subject that he cares only about, magic and young tall Jonathan Strange, who inherited like his future short friend, tutor and rival Mr. Norrell, (not interested then, in wizardry) a vast amount of property and money. Around the city of York magic flourished, both resided in small villages many miles from the unknown other, Mr. Strange is quite different from the mysterious recluse Gilbert, no books of the supernatural, soon to be married likes to get out of his house, (Ashfair) mingle with people, have fun and live...In the Fall (Autumn) of 1806, a society of magicians in York met every week in a rundown inn and discussing, ( sometimes tempers flare) what else magic, that they were amateurs and couldn't do any spells didn't matter, passion was the only importance . Sending letters to the private Mr.Norrell after discovering he was the true article, a practicing, accomplished man in the fine art of conjuring, asking him to appear at their next meeting he declines, they write back a disrespectful note; a contract is drawn up, the angry magician does show his skill in the city's Cathedral, only his servant John Childermass is present, the frightened society of not able men see stones move, they quickly disband as the agreement stated... The bored Mr.Strange doesn't know what should be his profession, his would be fiancee Arabella, is anxious to know before consenting to marry him, nothing interest the rich man except an unusual, vague liking of magic... and the weird thing is he's good at it. Newspaper stories about this incident at the church makes Mr.Norrell famous in London, he travels there yet it takes many parties and gatherings to reach his goal, he has a few friends to tell him what is required , time passes by, finally meeting influential government officials, after bringing back a dead woman to life, he can be useful to the authorities in fighting Napoleon...making phantom ships that scare the French. Naturally Jonathan Strange wants to talk to the great Mr.Norrell, visits him in the capital and impressed by his abilities, the famous enchanter makes Jonathan his pupil, but of course they get on each others nerves. And still an almighty odd, evil spirit a faerie, much more fearsome than either of the magicians, lurks about bringing death and destruction everywhere. ..The government takes the young man to Portugal to help the Duke of Wellington, (at first not taken seriously, by the unruffled general ) fight the French invaders, crisscrossing that nation and Spain also, fixing roads confusing the enemy changing the course of rivers, the bloody battles go on year after bloody year, he Mr.Strange becomes immune to the carnage...This fantasy an alternative history of Britain, is a wonderful fable for anyone interested in magic, makes it seem that it really exist nevertheless, will entertain and bring pure joy to those people the grateful readers, that want to be intrigued. ...more

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Jun 17, 2008 Maggie Stiefvater rated it it was amazing

Shelves: recommended

This slow burn historical fantasy (it really isn't a proper historical fantasy -- it's really told much more as a straight historical and the fantasy is bonus) is one of the best novels I've read -- ever. Clarke never breaks voice or changes her slow, relentless pacing. It's a novel meant to be savored over the course of a month, not rushed through -- so that you can properly appreciate the rush of the climax.

***wondering why all my reviews are five stars? Because I'm only reviewing my favorite ...more

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Sep 22, 2015 Matthew rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 2015, completist-book-club, at-home-reading, fantasy, library

This book was a chore! While I liked the story, the writing style was not enjoyable at all for me. Also, I am not really sure why everything happened, what exactly happened, and why it took so many words and pages to tell this story.

It started at 5 stars and, as I trudged through the book, there was a slow leak of stars as my interest started to wane. That leak stopped at 2 stars.

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Mar 25, 2013 Bradley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, top-one-hundred, 2018-shelf

Re-read, 11/11/18:

The only real review for this book is one that fully experiences it from the inside. In other words, take the roads, listen to the rocks, and above all, DON'T TRUST THE FARIES.

This was a classic when I first read it and it's just as good on any re-read. That's why I put this in my top-100 list. :) It will stand the test of time.

Let's fight with Wellington and defeat Napoleon with magic! Let's get into major trouble, get majorly paranoid, and do it with arrogance and style!

Above ...more

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Oct 29, 2008 Will Byrnes rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

After a hiatus of several centuries since it was actively practiced, magic is back in early 19th century England. Clarke has created an alternate, magical history, in which England had once been divided between north and south, and a temporal and a fairy kingdom. Stuffy intellectuals satisfy themselves with studying the writings of the past, forming debating societies. But in 1807 a person emerges who dares to actually practice magic.

description

Eddie Marsden as Mr Norrell - from AMC networks

Mr Norrell is ...more

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Dec 12, 2012 Diane rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobooks, british-charm, fantasy

I finally finished! My paperback was more than 1,000 pages long, so this is a triumph.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is a book that I started out loving, but the middle part dragged so much that I grew impatient for the story to end. I feel so differently about the two halves of the book that I wish I could issue two Goodreads ratings.

Let's start with what I liked about this novel. Susanna Clarke has a great imagination and a good sense of humor. The story is set in the early 1800s in ...more

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Nov 27, 2011 Arah-Lynda rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: i-said, lod, top, to-the-island

Tired of your workaday lives,

Need to get away for a while?

Come, sit a spell

Let Susanna tell you a story.

We go to England in the 1800’s, a time of the Napoleonic Wars, a time when most people believe magic to be dead in England. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell are two magicians attempting, each in their own way, to change that and restore magic to England.

I can admit that it took me a while to find my legs here, acquire my own rhythm with the writing and the story. In many ways this reads ...more

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Oct 16, 2018 Jeff rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Imagine Charles Dickens figuring out how to master the time/space continuum, managing to make his way into our present, and briefly discussing his masterwork, Hard Times, with J. K. Rowling. The result being this huge-assed, yet entertaining tome on British magic. Way to go, Boz and thanks!!

Is this for real, Jeff?

Not really random Goodreader. I had too much coffee this morning and my mind is racing like a sports car driven by Danica Patrick.

This book does kind of hit several literary sweet spots ...more

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Oct 08, 2018 Hannah Greendale marked it as dnf · review of another edition

Shelves: nebula-nominee, fantasy, booker-prize-nominee

Nope, nope, nope. DNF at 68%. The act of reading has become a chore, a sensation that cannot be condoned or perpetuated.

It's been six hundred and eighty pages, and this book has yet to enthrall or surprise. The character motives baffle, the fantasy elements are uneven, the tone is dry and the story uneventful. Writing a tome of this magnitude is no small feat, but it's achieved to greater effect by Jonathan Stroud in his marvelous book, The Amulet of Samarkand, which I would leap to recommend ...more

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Jan 06, 2013 Julio Genao rated it it was ok

and the kitchen sink.

description

simultaneously contemptuous and admiring of georgian culture and society, and possessed of many, many insights into the black heart of humankind, this book left me in a state of despair shot through with occasional palpitations of humor and excitement.

on the whole, a vastly self-indulgent work—and as impressed with itself as we're meant to be.

the footnotes, see... i love footnotes. but unlike, say, infinite jest, whose footnotes were by and large interesting and germane, ...more

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Sep 06, 2016 Sam rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: all-time-favorites, aty-challenge-2017, 2017-reads

Most books are not for everyone, and it can occasionally be hard to determine from a cover, a blurb, a sample chapter if something will be for you or not. And even if you believe something is for you, the book still needs to reveal and unfold and delight and surprise and strike emotional chords and climax and conclude to your satisfaction by its end, all while also possessing a writing style you respond to or at least does not detract from your enjoyment. So its sometimes a wonder we like any Most books are not for everyone, and it can occasionally be hard to determine from a cover, a blurb, a sample chapter if something will be for you or not. And even if you believe something is for you, the book still needs to reveal and unfold and delight and surprise and strike emotional chords and climax and conclude to your satisfaction by its end, all while also possessing a writing style you respond to or at least does not detract from your enjoyment. So its sometimes a wonder we like any books at all when the stakes and standards are set so high. And Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell does not go out of its way to recommend itself to a new, uninitiated reader: its length both actual and perceived can certainly intimidate and inspire dread, the vast peppering of footnotes can be wearying, and the hybrid nature of its style and genre - an alternate history fantasy of early 19th century England written in a Dickensian-Austenian manner that is self-aware and sly, touching on style points like the Gothic and romantic novel and the Byronic hero, and plot points like war with Napoleon, Lord Byron, North-South England divides, the madness of King George III, relations between servants and their masters. Add to this of course magic, magic of a nebulous and free variety, no hard and fast system, not lots of smoke (though many mirrors), nothing too showy or special, a magic of an earthy, grounded, but still foreign, complicated, dangerous variety, complete with an entire history of magic in England from the 12th century and a whole host of anecdotes and tales and figures from said history that inform the present ideas, intentions and actions. All of these disparate forces and ideas and characters and influences joined together in one place, and meant to be read as one complete work, of over a thousand pages (in my edition, and perhaps understated considering there are two and three page footnotes worked in as well)? This truly is not a book for everyone.

But if you read and were intrigued by my sprawling summary, and like reading things in a 19th century style or pastiche, and enjoy fantasy but don't need it to be as obvious or clear cut as modern fantasy novels typically show it, if you think it might be for you and are ready to commit to the novel's length and slow unfolding and building of events and ideas, then I wholeheartedly encourage you to pick up a paper copy, not least because the sheer number of footnotes would be highly aggravating to read in an e version, and settle yourself into bed or a large armchair or your sofa and begin.

Because if Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell isn't for you, you'll be irritated or wearied by it and put it aside. But if it is for you, like it is for me, it is likely to vault amongst your most favorite, beloved books, something to re-read again and again, an old, familiar friend to turn to when new reads aren't hitting the mark as near as you'd like, and yet because of its depth and richness and length and detail, you'll find something new that strikes you every time. When this book is for you, despite my version ending on page 1006, I still crave more. More of charming and arrogant and a bit absent minded but intelligent Strange (though perhaps a bit less of the Norrell of most of the book but I am a biased Strangeite, I admit), more of Arabella, more of her fascinating anti-hero of Childermass, more of the soft Mr Segundus, more appearances of Lord Wellington (whose portrayal seems both accurate and inspired), more Stephen Black and much, much more of the Raven King and the magic of England. And I love Susanna Clarke's style, and her all-knowing narrator is filled with dry wit and humor in describing events and characters. For me the writing pulls the entire ambitious thing together, its craft and execution as important as the characters and plot for me.

I know that most books you won't know until you read them if they are or aren't for you. And sometimes a book is not for you at one time, but then later is, or vice versa. But I have loved this book for over a decade, from my first, somewhat challenged read of it in 2004 when it was first published as a teenager, to now, and this is truly not a book I love from nostalgia, but for itself. I wouldn't even say it holds up well: even though I don't believe it to be perfect, I read it and am enthralled and amused and delighted and pensive every time, and though I do read it in a new light each time, I am always swept away by it. I probably read this once a year and have done so since it was first published, and can't see any reason why that would change in the future.

I dearly hope Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is for you. If you think it may not be, or start it and don't quite connect, let it pass: it is too long and coiled and difficult to pin down to waste time or effort on it if you don't like it. If you read the whole thing and don't like it, I would love to hear your feedback. But if you've read it and know it's for you, then I'm so glad someone else loves this strange, unique, fantastic yet sober tale. And if you haven't yet read it but you think this may be for you, then I'm overjoyed and somewhat envious that you can encounter and discover this novel and its world for the first time.
...more

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Oct 21, 2011 Jonathan Terrington rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-challenge, popularity-contest, personal-favourites, fantasy

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is Susanna Clarke's bestselling Fantasy History Novel. And it is amazing, astounding, supertastical, and brilliant. These are all just a handful of the real (and created) adjectives possible to throw at this tome. Were one to enter into an adjective war this book would defeat them hands down. For the potency of the words inside is incredible. And having done so would commence to bury in a pile of prose so powerful that I would be diabolically destroyed.

Jonathan ...more

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Sep 20, 2012 Scribble Orca rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: almost everyone - unless you prefer Hollywood blockbusters, in which case, you'll be bored.

Recommended to Scribble by: Kris

Shelves: political, historical, fantasy, kept-me-up-all-night, mystery

I have quite some things to say and so little time in which to say these. And now we have the great year of Proust...it may be some time before these things are said, time being what it is, holidays being what they are, and my thoughts being scattered as usual.

So perhaps it's best to attempt the following:

Comparisons with Austen are appropriate for the social commentary and the (at times gently and perhaps not so gently snide) remarks the narrator makes about the actions of the characters. But ...more

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Sep 17, 2017 Candi marked it as abandoned · review of another edition

Shelves: book-i-own, chunksters, fantasy

At page 246, I'm throwing the towel in on this one. It's not that it's bad, it's really not. I just can't seem to get excited about it, and after this many pages, I want to be more eager to pick it up. I'm just not interested enough to find out what happens in the next 500 pages or so. I have so many other books screaming for my attention. Now this book is classified as fantasy and I don't usually read this genre. That's not to say I have never enjoyed a fantasy novel - I have in fact enjoyed a ...more

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Dec 29, 2016 Peter rated it it was ok

Shelves: literary-fiction, fantasy

Lifeless
The overwhelming feeling after finishing this book is a sense of relief and then puzzlement that I did commit so much time to completing the task.

I found the book "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell" a great disappointment on various levels and I may have been tempted to consider higher rating if it had not been so long. So that was my first and main disappointment - you took away hours that I could have spent on some great books. For once I have to say that the TV production was so much ...more

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Nov 10, 2018 Trish rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is a magnum opus. If the author never writes another book, she can still be immensely satisfied because this is a masterpiece (which is not to say that I don't want more).

Quite some time ago my attention was drawn to a TV show of the same name on Amazon Prime. I read the description and since I can never stay away from magic for very long, I watched it eventually - and fell in love with the peculiar and quirky people starring in this tale of magical adventure, love and loss.

It was only ...more

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2020 Reading Chal...: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell	33	63	Nov 10, 2019 04:36PM
Hugo & Nebula Awa...: * August 2019 Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (No Spoilers)	9	30	Aug 06, 2019 11:44AM
Play Book Tag: [April Trim] Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke 2 stars	12	20	Jun 18, 2019 03:30PM
If you liked Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, you might like...	94	3138	May 19, 2019 12:33AM
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About Susanna Clarke

Susanna Clarke

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Susanna Clarke was born in Nottingham in 1959. A nomadic childhood was spent in towns in Northern England and Scotland. She was educated at St Hilda's College, Oxford, and has worked in various areas of non-fiction publishing, including Gordon Fraser and Quarto. In 1990, she left London and went to Turin to teach English to stressed-out executives of the Fiat motor company. The following year she ...more