Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26397 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 1024 pages

Amazon.co.uk
Any book touted as the ‘adult Harry Potter’ runs the risk of attracting critical parries from swords of the double-edged variety. If this wasn’t enough, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell--the debut novel from Susanna Clarke--also invites comparisons with Jane Austen. Set in the early nineteenth-century, the action moves from genteel drawing rooms—albeit where a mischievous Faerie king sips tea with the wife of a very human government minister, to the bloody battleground of Waterloo, where giant hands of earth drag men to their doom. The juxtaposition of perfectly realised magical worlds and the everyday one with which JK Rowling and Philip Pullman so successfully captured our imaginations and the social comedy of Austen and Thackeray can easily be recognised. But less easy to pastiche is the ability of these writers to induce sheer narrative pleasure, and it is Clarke’s great achievement that she succeeds with this hugely enjoyable read. Gilbert Norrell is determined to single-handedly rehabilitate his sanitised and patriotic version of English magic, which has suffered a post-Enlightenment neglect after a richly dark history. He ruthlessly secures his place as England’s only magician in two marvellously drawn feats. First, he brings the statutes of York Cathedral to life and then, to facilitate his entry into London society, he brings a young bride-to-be back from the dead--a feat with terrible consequences. However, another more naturally gifted magician—Jonathan Strange—emerges to become his pupil and later his rival. Strange becomes increasingly obsessed with the Raven King—the medieval lord-magician of the North of England and pursues his desire to recruit a fairy servant to the edge of madness. Whilst the differing characters of Norrell and Strange give the book a central human conflict, it is the tension between the dual natures of civilised and wilder magic that lends it a metaphysical texture that shades the narrative with wonderful and troubling descriptions of ships made of rain, paths between mirrors and faerie roads leading out of England to a bleak yet dazzling realm. Fortunately, the precision of her storytelling never reigns in Clarke’s prodigious imagination. Clarke’s broad canvas of characters—including Wellington, Napoleon and Bryon, locations and tones are masterfully realised. However, sometimes her own enchantment with them leads her to drop her pace, although even at almost 800 pages, this is a book to which you’ll muster up little resistance. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is the perfect novel to take up residence in as the nights get longer. -- Fiona Buckland -- This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Sunday Times
‘A fabulous book … dazzling … highly original and compelling’

Claire Colvin, Daily Mail
‘Extraordinary flights of the imagination … a leisurely, engaging read that draws you into another world. Ideal for escapists’

Customer Reviews

An aquired taste!
Clearly not my cup of tea...pardon the pun :)...I think this would make a good english setwork book:p

My all-time favourite book...
I honestly don't have the words to express how much I love this book. If I tried it would probably just come out as incoherent squeaks and flailing. This is my all-time favourite book. If I had to have only one book to read for the rest of my life, this would be it. That's how much I love it. It's not just a book, it's a whole world contained within the pages and it's so real. It's the kind of book you lose yourself in and you look up once you've finished it and it takes a moment for the world around to readjust around you and you have to remind yourself that there is no English magic. I would make everyone read this. It's a masterpiece.

magnificent
This subtle, carefully wrought novel brought to mind Charles Palliser's 'The Quincunx' re-written by M.R. James. It is quite magnificent - both in its use of language and in its construction.

But, unfortunately, this is the sort of 19th century style doorstopper which could easily be misconstrued as 'boring' - and has been described so in many reviews here. That is an injustice and a misinterpretation.

'JS + MN' is a pastiche of a peculiarly English type of classic novel - where the slowing down of time is a key element. To equate this phantasy with the epic mysticism of Robin Hobb is to do a deep disservice to both authors.

This is more Dickens than Robin McKinley, Wilkie Collins territory rather than J.K. Rowling.

The 'faerie' element in the novel is the 'wild card' which shifts the already odd story into the strangest of dimensions.

This book is definitely worth persevering with - there is so much to reward the reader. So many ideas and shapes of other stories. It occasionally reminded me of Gene Wolfe's 'The Book Of The New Sun' sequence in this respect. Asides and hints; whispers of secrets. For me it was a joy to read and savour rather than an arduous chore. And I was sorry to close its pages.