If you liked Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, you might like...

[Tara]

I'm looking for novels that are similar to this -- well-written, historical fantasies. Is there anything like it out there?

[Laura]

This was one of my favorite books, and I would love to hear suggestions as well!

[Valia]

Have you tried Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke?

[Gerd]

Melmoth the Wanderer comes to mind.

[Arabis]

It reminded me a little of Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees. That's a much older book (1926) but it's another very English fairy tale and like Jonathan Strange you can appreciate it as much for the writing as for the storyline.

[Tara]

Thank you, all!

[Arabis]

Another you might like is The Magicians and Mrs. Quent by Galen Beckett. It reads like a Regency novel, but set in another world with odd day/night periods, magic and strange trees. The writing isn't quite Susanna Clarke, but Beckett does a pretty good job. I liked it enough to order the sequel.

[Amy]

I loved Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell! It's so dry and so magical all at once, somehow. Definitely also read The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories!

My best friend who also loved JS&MN loves A.S. Byatt's The Children's Book. I personally can't stand A.S. Byatt but I did read The Children's Book after she compared the two. I didn't like it but some of you may like it if you haven't already tried it?

[Tara]

Thanks everyone!

[Alex]

Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchet. There a similar feeling of ridiculous Britishness.

[Richelle]

Try the time travel book The Anubis Gates Has real and fictional characters in 19th century London.

[Katie]

It's much lighter, but another magical historical fantasy would be Sorcery and Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot. It is a rather unique and interesting book, usually found in the young adult section if you're looking in a bookstore.

[Gerd]

Connie Willis's To Say Nothing of the Dog, still have this on my to-read pile, but judged by the excerpt I read on Amazon.com it’s comparable in its use of language.
It’s a time travel story, so no fantasy elements there (if we discount time travel as fantasy) but Willis is generally a terrific storyteller.

[cerebus]

Might be a bit of a stretch, but give Carter Beats the Devil a go......

[Douglas]

Lord Dunsany wrote fantasy around 1900, and it reminds me of the less realistic / more magical bits of this book. The difference is that Clarke often upends Romanticism and traditional roles, while he takes them pretty much for granted, at least from today's perspective. On religion he had a less traditional view. He also had the same kind of meandering style.

[Rebecca]

@Alex --ha! "ridiculous britishness." I love that description, and it's so apt for both :).

Thank you for the recommendations, everyone! This book was one of my absolute favorites as well.

[Gwenyth]

Some great recommendations in this list, thanks!

[Clinton]

If you liked the pace of this book, the focus on strong characters, descriptions which seem excessive but ultimately present a fully realized magical world, then my best suggestion for you is The Gormenghast Novels

[Will]

With the precedence of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell's success against Napoleon, it really surprises me that the British haven't teamed Harry Potter up with Prince Harry and cut them loose in Afghanistan. Maybe, Dumbledor messed up a mission during WWII and now Whitehall is reluctant. We American have only Criss Angel, and the war is already going bad enough without bring him into it.

[Prince]

Check out Kostova's The Historian. It has elements of horror, and the prose is a bit dry, so do go through the reviews first.

[Will]

In fiction, you might consider something by Geraldine Brooks. I've read and can recommend both Year of Wonder and People of the Book. I'm planning to read both March and Caleb's Crossing. I think Brooks' background as a foreign/war correspondent gives her fiction more of a nonfiction style. If you're interested in some nonfiction that deals with the use of "magic" and "slight of hand" in warfare, track down a copy of The War Magician. It covers the unique WWII service of the British magician Jasper Maskelyne. Like Strange, he made armies appear and cities disappear. You may also consider The Man Who Never Was or any other book about Operation Mincemeat to see how, like "magic", military counter-intelligence is very dependent on timing and playing on what the audience wants to believe.

[Quentin]

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is definitly one of my favorites.
I just finished the Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud and it was great. He replaces British governmen with magicians. Little more of a contemporary setting than JS&MR.N though

[David]

Odd that no one has mentioned The Baroque Cycle by Neil Stephenson, the historical connection is certainly there.

For use of language I second the recommendations for Lord Dunsany (Charwomans Shadow especially), Ghormenghast and Lud in the Mist.

Adding to that, my personal recommendations:
Patricia McKillip (I suppose Ombria in Shadow is my favourite atm)
Crowley - Little, Big
Wilkie Collins - The Moonstone
Gene Wolfe - Book of the Long Sun
Chesterton - Napoleon of Notting Hill
Mabinogion (Evangeline Walton version)

And of course if you havent ever read the fairytales of Wilde or Peter Pan and Wendy and other such classics, do so ;)

Oh, and for gods sake, read Jack Vance - Tales of the Dying Earth (and the anthology Songs of the Dying Earth)

That should be more than enough.

[Quentin]

Ghormenghast was good.
The first 2 were 2 of my favorite books and the third was just plain off the wall. It was good though. I guess the author was kinda sick or losing it by the time he wrote the 3rd. He'd planned on making a series out of Titus Groan but died. Id like to have seen what he wrote after "Titus Alone"

[Emily]

I agree that Sorcery and Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot is excellent. There are two sequels which I don't recommend as much - but they exist when one's desperate.

Let me also add Mairelon the Magician and it's sequel Magician's Ward (which I actually like better).

The best of the best, though, is sadly hard to find. They are Teresa Edgerton - esp: and The Gnome's Engine and Goblin Moon which are VERY like Strange & Norrel, as well as the slightly-more-sprawling The Queen's Necklace...

And the bestest of them all, Paula Volsky, with her Russianesque-meets-Frenchesque-Revolution masterpiece, Illusion. Her other works are excellent, too: The Wolf of Winter, The Grand Ellipse, The Gates of Twilight, and The White Tribunal are her most fully developed. Really, to my mind she's the best political fantastist and worldbuilder of them all. Well worth searching her out!

[Anne]

You might want to try Johannes Cabal the Necromancer.

[Dagda]

Douglas: Thanks for mentioning Lord Dunsany. People need to go back to the roots. I'd Recommend "The Charwoman's Shadow", which is one of my all-time favorites.

Also, try "Gloriana" by Michael Moorcock.

[Theodore]

Cerebus wrote: "Might be a bit of a stretch, but give Carter Beats the Devil a go......"
Agree!

[Niall519]

Steven Brust and Emma Bull's Freedom and Necessity springs to mind. Less overt magic, but plenty of history. Like Sorcery and Cecelia (which I actually enjoyed more than F and N) it's an epistolary novel, and an interesting, if occasionally frustrating read, mixing in the birth of socialism with hints of magic and faery lore.

For something set more recently there's always Tam Lin by Pamela Dean, I suppose. Mix faeries with 1970s American university life, and add a great deal of pretentious waffle. I couldn't stand it, but many of my friends, who also liked Jonathan Strange loved it.

If you want to explore books aimed at the slightly younger reader there's Naomi Novik's Temeraire books, which mixes Napoleonic wars and dragons with fair enthusiasm (kind of Hornblower -meets- Dragonflight -ish). Or the slightly more steam-punky Leviathan series of Scott Westerfeld.

A personal favourite is Kim Newman's Anno Dracula series which mixes Victorian London with the consequences of Van Helsing and Co. failing to off Dracula.

And then there's The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by Gordon Dahlquist which has all the setting tropes, but none of the actual history. Some of my friends and I devoured this one, and it's sequel (and keep hoping that the third will come out some time this century). It's a marathon steam-punk romp of derring-do and intrigue.

[Veljko]

Not really historical... but I read The Night Circus right after this and loved it. A really mesmerizing book - with many similarities - starting from the 'magic' theme.

[Helen]

JS&MrN is one of my favourite books too. It is so funny and dry - a unique masterpiece. Wish Clarke would write another. I don't know of any book that comes close to this one but, for magic realism, try Of Bees and Mist and I also loved The Historian.

[Wendy]

Niall519 wrote: "Steven Brust and Emma Bull's Freedom and Necessity springs to mind. Less overt magic, but plenty of history. Like Sorcery and Cecelia (which I actually enjoyed more than F and N) it's an epistolary..."

I really enjoyed Anno Dracula and impatiently awaiting the releace of Anno Dracula: The Bloody Red Baron.

[Kyle]

Someone mentioned John Crowley's "Little, Big" - a great family saga about a strange family that's in touch with the world of Faerie. It's a little more 100 Years of Solitude than JS&MN, but it definitely has that "down the rabbit hole" view of Faerie, which is cool.

[Daliso]

Orson Scott Card's fantasy Tales of the Alvin Maker does for early US history what Clarke's novel does for Victorian society. Seventh Son is Book 1.

[L.E.]

Valia wrote: "Have you tried Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke?"

I read it last year. It's basically a handful of short stories based around the Jonathan Strange story. They are not as good as the Strange/Norrell novel, but still very enjoyable.

[Megan]

LE wrote: "Valia wrote: "Have you tried Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke?"

I read it last year. It's basically a handful of short stories based around th..."

I REALLY liked that book. I must confess I almost refused to return it to the Kennesaw, GA library some years back, bc I enjoyed the short, creepy fairy stories so much! Plus the cover was made with some kind of felt and I liked that for some reason.

[L.E.]

Now I'm jealous the cover on mine was just plain cardboard - time to get out the pritstick and glam it up I think

[Megan]

LE, that's actually a fun idea. If I get snowed in this winter or break my leg or something not a one book shall be safe. They will become full of fluff and glitter!

[L.E.]

I know if only I could pimp my ebook then my life would be complete - does anyone know where I can get electronic shiny paper? lol

[Joann]

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

[Jaclyn]

Niall519 wrote: "Steven Brust and Emma Bull's Freedom and Necessity springs to mind. Less overt magic, but plenty of history. Like Sorcery and Cecelia (which I actually enjoyed more than F and N) it's an epistolary..."

I second the suggestion of Temeraire Novels. I've been on a bit of a Magical Regency kick lately (Oddly specific genre.) I just finished Shades of Milk and Honey, by Mary Robinette Kowal. Very Jane Austen with magic. Fun, light and sweet. There's a sequel too.

[Violetta]

Bomber's Moon (my review here)

And

The Dying Earth

While not historical at all, the Dying Earth books by Jack Vance strike me as very similar in tone. Lots of footnotes. Black humor. Gorgeous, weird descriptions.

[Sir]

This is premature to say the least since (a) it isn't published, and (b) I haven't finished writing it.
However, it is a lot like Strange & Norrell and you can at present read some of it for free. If you like it, please let me know.
http://bardoftweedale.wordpress.com/a...

[Dana]

Seconding (and thirding!) the Gormenghast Trilogy (technically Titus Groan, Gormenghast, and Titus Alone, but now usually sold as one volume just called 'The Gormenghast Trilogy') by Mervyn Peake. It's weirder, denser, and more gothic than JS&MN and not quite as funny and whimsical, but it's absolutely extraordinary. Like JS&MN, it's a big meaty tome with a fully developed world you can totally get lost in, and, in my opinion, it's some of the best writing I've ever encountered.

Also seconding Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle books for the historical element, cameos, and subtle in-jokes :D

[Sir]

If you're willing to go for a meatier tone and forego the fantasy and whimsy, then Charles Palliser's The Quincunx is an extraordinary resurrection (pastiche is too ugly a word) of the Victorian novel. Iain Pears' An Instance of the Fingerpost also foregoes the fantasy but does have wit, excellent writing and is quite grotesque in places.
If you want history and wit and absurdity, rather than fantasy, then I highly recommend John Hadfield's Love On A Branchline as laugh out loud and fall off the sofa.

[Brenda]

The Moon and Sun, by Vonda McIntyre. A historical novel set at the court of Louis XIV, but SF.

[Nora Branch]

If you're into audiobooks, Simon Prebble's reading of JS&MN is the best narration of a book I HAVE EVER HEARD. I've read the book three or four times and listened to the audio twice. It's really fabulous.

[Richard]

How about His Majesty's Dragon? Not quite the style of Clarke, but cover's the same time period as JSMR. This time the war against Napoleon is fought using dragons. The style is a little more like Bernard Cornwell writing fantasy.

[Marc]

Richard wrote: "How about His Majesty's Dragon? Not quite the style of Clarke, but cover's the same time period as JSMR. This time the war against Napoleon is fought using dragons. The style is a little more like ..."

JS&MR.N is my favorite book i've been looking hard for recomendations of the like. Some of the suggestions here sound great and a few were already reccomended. I downloaded LUD In The MIST and i'm really looking forward to it. Please Susanna Clarke a sequel. I would like to reccomend the Thursday Next books by Jasper Fforde they take place in england in an alternative 1985 and deals with the main character jumping back and forth into classic books like Jane Eyre and Great Expectations and also0 includes time travel monster hunting and a bit of mystery.

[Dena]

I am adding my vote for The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. It has that subtle touch of magic and it's a beautiful story.