Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

Jun 07, 2009 Debbie rated it liked it

I started this book in early June, but put it down in the end of June, after only getting 120 pages in. Then, I found the audiobook at the library (25 discs!) and listened to those 120 pages again on a roadtrip, plus another few chapters. That was enough to get my hooked on listening to the audiobook, which I continued to do for another month or so, 20 minutes at a time, on my commute to and from work. Finally, roughly 450 pages in, I was hooked and couldn't wait for the next commute. I dug out I started this book in early June, but put it down in the end of June, after only getting 120 pages in. Then, I found the audiobook at the library (25 discs!) and listened to those 120 pages again on a roadtrip, plus another few chapters. That was enough to get my hooked on listening to the audiobook, which I continued to do for another month or so, 20 minutes at a time, on my commute to and from work. Finally, roughly 450 pages in, I was hooked and couldn't wait for the next commute. I dug out my copy of the book and finished the next 400 pages by eye-reading in little under four days.

As to the story, well, there were good parts and not-so-good parts. The setting is the 1800s, which may be the reason Clarke's syntax is a bit complicated and winding, kind of like reading an Austen novel. She introduces characters and makes them the focus of several chapters, but neglects to give their names for 30 or 40 pages. She describes events and invents publications that don't exist, for the sake of footnoting other interesting bits, and I imagine her purpose is to create an atmosphere of text that I don't fully grasp. Jonathan Strange doesn't even show up for the first third of the book, which left me wondering how he could be so important as to be in the title. Gilbert Norrell, on the other hand, has a ton of annoying habits and insecurities that annoyed me to no end, so I had little reason to want to continue at the beginning.

All of that being said, Clarke has created a very interesting novel. Characters introduced in the first 100 pages and seeming very unnecessary turned out being extremely necessary to the plot 700 pages later. Those fake publications Clarke kept referring to became their own little motif, so you knew how important one resource was to Norrell or Strange by how often they (or Clarke) mentioned it. I especially liked the whole idea of the folklore of England being irreversibly intertwined with the history of Faerie, a feeling that many English writers feel but which I don't sense is a feeling with American writers about the U.S.

So, while I can't say I'd recommend it to many people I know who haven't already read it, I wouldn't be embarrassed to admit that it took me months to complete it and talk with someone else about the events of the plot and the characters it developed. ...more

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Oct 31, 2016 Elizabeth rated it really liked it

I would rate it more like a 3.5. It was long and hard to follow as an audiobook, although I did enjoy the story. I'm looking forward to watching the Tv series now. ...more

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