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    Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
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    Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
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    Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
    Ebook1,221 pages20 hours

    Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

    By Susanna Clarke

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    In the Hugo-award winning, epic New York Times Bestseller and basis for the BBC miniseries, two men change England's history when they bring magic back into the world.

    In the midst of the Napoleonic Wars in 1806, most people believe magic to have long since disappeared from England - until the reclusive Mr. Norrell reveals his powers and becomes an overnight celebrity.

    Another practicing magician then emerges: the young and daring Jonathan Strange. He becomes Norrell's pupil, and the two join forces in the war against France.

    But Strange is increasingly drawn to the wild, most perilous forms of magic, and he soon risks sacrificing his partnership with Norrell and everything else he holds dear.

    Susanna Clarke's brilliant first novel is an utterly compelling epic tale of nineteenth-century England and the two magicians who, first as teacher and pupil and then as rivals, emerge to change its history.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury USA
    Release dateJun 5, 2010
    ISBN9781608195350
    Unavailable
    Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
    Author

    Susanna Clarke

    Susanna Clarke's debut novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell was first published in more than 34 countries and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Guardian First Book Award. It won British Book Awards Newcomer of the Year, the Hugo Award and the World Fantasy Award in 2005. The Ladies of Grace Adieu, a collection of short stories, some set in the world of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, was published by Bloomsbury in 2006. Piranesi was a New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller, and shortlisted for the Costa Novel of the Year Award, the RSL Encore Award and the Women's Prize for Fiction. Susanna Clarke lives in Derbyshire.

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    Reviews for Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

    4/5

    470 ratings347 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Ok, I really loved the premise of this book. I think I read somewhere that it was like Harry Potter meets Jane Austen. The only problem is that it is SO long. It took me two months to finish it - I usually finish books in a week or less, maybe two if I'm especially busy. Again, the story is wonderful, and I was amazed at how well the author wove historical events into the plot. Just be aware that reading this book is quite the undertaking.
    • 3/5
      Musty magicians fighting can be fun, but it did go on a bit, taking an awfully long time for the setup. The language and the characters truly are fun, but because the story took so long to get going...
    • 3/5
      This book is authentic for the period it proposes to imitate in at least one way: it reads like Clarke was paid by the word.

      There was a lot to like in the book. Some of her turns of phrase are wonderful. I liked Arabella, Stephen, and Lady Pole. Mostly I liked Jonathan Strange. Childermass too. It was enjoyable enough, and I'm glad I read it to the end.

      But the pacing. AUGH, the pacing. It was TERRIBLE. I read the book in the three-volume edition. Nothing happened in the second book until the last thirty pages. Not a single thing worth noting. This book could easily have been condensed into 500-550 pages without losing anything of any worth. Length isn't generally an issue for me (heh) - in fact, I do love a good long book, because I always tend to want MORE - but this was stretched. And the irritating thing is, plenty of different routes could have been taken to fill up that space. As someone else mentioned, I wanted to know more about Norrell. Without knowing more, he's just a malicious git. Strange could have used some more filling out too - why do we only meet him 270 odd pages into it?

      The end felt... convoluted. I don't want to say too much, but it seemed rushed, and with the middle of the book dragging so much, it made no sense to suddenly go BAM! ENDING!

      Overall, if you have some spare time and get a chance to read this, I would. It's a decent faux-Victorian study of a relationship between two vastly different men, with some commendable pieces of writing, and some intriguing moments, but ultimately, I wouldn't strongly recommend it.
    • 3/5
      Overall, I enjoyed this book. The story is mainly a narrative of the lives of the characters. Some of them are profoundly involved with or affected by magic. Others are only tangentially affected, if at all.

      The last part of the book (maybe 20%) really picks up, but you need to wade through the first 80% for it to make any sense.
    • 4/5
      This novel is written as a history of what occurred when Mr. Gilbert Norrell decided that magic needed to return to England. It had been several hundred years since magic could be felt in the earth, sky, and animals and no contact had been made with Fairie, the other world inhabited by magical beings. His problems, however, started with a severe inability to share his knowledge with others who have the ability to do magic. Jonathan Strange is his first student who is nothing but enthusiastic and wants to please Mr. Norrell but is frustrated that he is not given all the books on magic to read that Mr. Norrell had been collecting throughout the country and is hoarding in his library. One last volume written by the last great magician, The Raven King, is illusive, however, and Norrell and Strange would like nothing more than to get their hands on it first.As they study and become adept at magic, a man with "thistle down hair" comes on the scene and takes a couple of people to his place, Lady Pole (wife of London's mayor) and Stephen Black (mayor's black butler), where dancing went all night. His place is known as Lost-hope. Stephen is able to party all night and maintain his duties during the day but Lady Pole suffers from exhaustion. They are both under spells which makes it impossible to explain to others what they are doing.When Strange becomes sufficiently able to cast spells, he is called to duty with Lord Wellington to help fight Napoleon's forces using magic. He does this by improving roads for the British forces and moving rivers and bridges to thwart the enemy. It got to the point where locals lied to the invading forces and hinted that certain roads were imbued with magic making them undesirable to the French.I found the book slow but not so slow that I gave up. I did interrupt my reading with the arrival of another book which may have made it easier to continue. Like a marathoner being able to see the finish line, there came a point where the action took off and there was no thought of giving up.
    • 4/5
      Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke - good

      This was the book that may well have scuppered this years reading stats! It took me the best part of a month to read (I had to put it to oneside during the Festival as it was just too heavy to carry around in my handbag).

      In general, this was an entertaining book of an alternative Georgian England where two magicians vie with each other and it details their various adventures, escapades and rivalries. What I would say is that it was in need of a good editor: at just over 1000 pages long, it could and should have had at least 200 cut. It waffled on about nonsense with footnotes about magical history and tales of magic some (not all) of which could have been pruned back without damaging the story line.

    • 3/5
      This early-19th-century alternate history follows the characters of the title - Mr. Norrell, a magician who is obsessed with the idea of returning England to its prior state of magical glory - but who guards his secrets jealously - and Jonathan Strange, a gentlemanly dilettante who unexpectedly finds his calling in magic as well.

      Written in an intentionally pseudo-Victorian style, this long book (almost 800 pages) is not the sort of tale that one falls into and forgets the world until it is over. Frequently annotated by footnotes, the meandering story *feels* long (it took me 6 days to read! Unheard of!) - but it is also a literary pleasure to read, full of quirky "facts" and fables.

      The positive reviews of this book are not wrong - this is a good book, and a remarkable first novel. but I am utterly mystified as to why anyone would compare it to Tolkien (as many press reviews have) or with Harry Potter.
    • 3/5
      An interesting premise but far too long! While I didn't find it boring exactly, it was the sort of book that I was constantly seeing how far I had to go (and one that I didn't find myself anxious to get back to once I put it down).The second half of the book was much better than the first (which was almost as dull as Mr. Norrell's own writing is supposed to be) but the plot was fairly predictable. I figured out that Stephen Black was going to displace the man with the thistle-down hair about 500 pages before it happened!.
    • 4/5
      This has been on my to read list for a long time but I have always been slightly put off by its sheer size. But prompted by the likely soon showing of a TV version by the BBC, I took it down for Easter and got stuck in. I wasn't sure what to expect and wasn't sure I was going to like it during the first few chapters. But then I got dragged into this very unusual world where magic and Faerie are accepted as existing but direct contact with it has fallen away. I enjoyed it a lot and got immersed into the story. Apparently Marc Warren is going to be "thistledown hair" character and he does hidden insanity very well so will be interesting to see what the adaption is like.
    • 4/5
      A very enjoyable "alternate history" style fantasy of a magical England in the 1800s. Fantastical, eerie, and humorous. It's not often I read a book that makes me laugh, but I got quite a few chuckles out of this book. Excellent imagery and character development, and enough interesting and entangled plot points that it was hard to put down.
    • 3/5
      At first I was delighted, feeling I was in for a rare treat. The voice is perfect and I respect all the research, the characters do seem to come to life, but it got tedious all this waiting for things to happen, the very slow pace of it all and the language like a lid on everything. I understand why it is praised, I just didn't have the energy to keep at it, or found not enough reward for the effort. Perhaps I'll finish it another time. I hate to put a book down, but other more exciting ones called.
    • 5/5
      Congratulations, Susanna Clarke! You have cracked my Top 10 Favorite Authors! *confetti explosion* I couldn't believe that this epic masterpiece was a debut novel. However, it makes sense when you discover that Clarke has a history in the publishing world and most likely has had time to learn the ins and outs of the business and craft her work accordingly. The book had such a great reception that it was recently made into a 7 part BBC miniseries (I've started it and it's also amazing). The book focuses on two English magicians who are trying to bring practical magic back to England. The two men couldn't be more different. Where Strange is looking to test the boundaries of what magic can do, Norrell is trying to lay his hands on every magical book in existence (and keep himself cooped up in his library doing the same spells over and over). The book reads as a nonfiction historical piece with footnotes detailing the history of magic as if the reader should be aware of the general history but just in case here are the particulars. (I LOVE footnotes, guys.) The characters, the language, the settings, the magic. It's all SO GOOD. AND I've discovered she's written a collection of "fairy tales" from the land of Faerie itself titled The Ladies of Grace Adieu (and Jonathan Strange makes an appearance!). You know I'm adding that one to the TRL.
    • 4/5
      This was the second time I read Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell; I wanted to see how closely the BBC mini-series was adhering to the plot (and I think that they're doing a bang-up job). I enjoyed the novel the first time I read it and even more this second time around. Clarke's plotting is deft and the way she treats being "magician" as a job (one wonders whether Strange and Norell have LinkedIn accounts) more than a wonder lends the story an air of easy believability. The seamless integration of the fantastic with the historical end of the Napoleonic wars adds to viability of the world she creates.My only quarrel with the story comes at the very end. The efforts Jonathan Strange expends on righting wrongs effected by an amoral fairy seem at odds with the irresolution that closes the novel. Once again, I found myself wanting more. Nevertheless, I am sure that I have not read this beautifully written work for the last time.
    • 5/5
      When I realized I was 50 pages from the end of this 800-page book, I started to consciously slow down my reading. Not because I wanted the book to go on forever, but because I was enjoying the ride so much. Susanna Clarke does a wonderful job creating this world and keeping the narrative going through lots of different subplots and settings. If only all writers who took on epic tomes were so good at storytelling.
    • 5/5
      A prolonged, enjoyable wallow. Like other readers, I wouldn't have minded if it had been a bit longer. Echoes of Neal Stephenson in its length and its exuberant digressions. Like Sarah Waters in its ability to recall the writers of the period.
    • 3/5
      This is a novel I've had sitting in my to-read pile for many years. I finally got around to reading it and I'm a little disappointed that I didn't enjoy it more. The story lines were interesting but I found the novel could have been better if it were shorter. It also didn't help I recently finished reading Infinite Jest and there were many footnotes in this book as well. The Victorian prose style was also not a strong point in my mind but I appreciate the author using it to adapt to the setting of the novel. One thing going for this novel is that it's very different than what you'll get in modern fantasy genre and I can see it's appeal to a certain type of audience. Some of the storylines and adventures were quite interesting and the history aspect of magic in England was good. May consider re-reading again but not any time soon.
    • 4/5
      A Napoleonic fantasy. A fun work, looking at the age of Jane Austen with Magic making the whole war thing more fun, and removing the grittiness of the whole thing even further from the feminine consciousness. But quite fun, as long as you don't mind the trivialization of the real history. It was good as a break from the real history of the period.
    • 3/5
      I don't normally read huge books like this, or books that take place in this kind of setting, or mysteries... so, all I remember is that I got through it, had a sense of it being impressive, and that there were some good bits. Seriously, I remember nothing of plot or characters. So, my recommendation is, read it if you're up to the challenge, but don't push yourself to if you don't expect to enjoy it.

      I do like some of the other reviews that provide summaries - you just might want to read them while you're reading the book, to help you follow along.
    • 4/5
      Certainly worth reading for its creation of another world. Why oh why is it so long? 1000 pages is justified in War and Peace. This plot isn't worth 1000, nor its characters, nor even its other world. 500 please?
    • 5/5
      This book begins very dry and builds tension very, very slowly, but the increasing excitement mirrors the growth of magic in England. I loved the slow progression of the plot, I loved Clarke's pointed wit, and I loved the characters.
    • 5/5
      Excellent story. Funny, interesting, well written, lovable characters, full of detail, magical and very long. Loved it but hated the ending.
    • 5/5
      READ IN ENGLISH

      I bought this book during sale for only €2,99 for a story over 1000 pages long. I didn't really know what to expect from it, since I never heard of the book before actually. But I wanted to give it a try anyway and I was really pleased.

      I enjoyed reading it. It tells a lot, a whole 'parallel' world is created in which the headlines of history are still there (at least at the beginning) and magic is something that is accepted really easily (though with some skepticism; but who would you blame for that). It also is a story about England in that time (first half of 19th century) and different class-layers. And then there is the magic, it was special and I liked it and liked to read about it. I really hope there will be a second volume of it, for there are still a lot of questions left!
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this book. Other reviewers have already nailed the many things about it that make it a great read: many interesting and sound characters, the imaginative depiction of magic that makes it seem both real and wild without being a plot crutch. I love the sparse but lovely use of poetry; in a sense, in this book, poetry IS magic, and magic always takes a poetic form, fairy magic even more so than most. One can also tell that the author's references to various symbols, pictures and mythical elements are well grounded in serious history, as are the historical characters and events so well-woven into the storylines.

      My only great complaint was that the book was long, which becomes a problem during long stretches which are very slow paced. As a writer myself I also kept imagining how much energy it must have been to write and revise it all, especially considering all the incidental detail in each scene, and this added to my weariness. The pace builds in a pleasantly powerful way towards the end, though. The somewhat open ending succeeds by rollig your imagination down a great hill and letting it continue, rather than by simply bringing the illusion to a close, which in the weeks since I finished the book I have found surprisingly agreeable. I keep coming back to it.

      This is definitely a book to make me wish more than ever that I had been born in a country with as much of a mysterious, literary and historical birthright as England enjoys.

      I had heard there was an effort to make a movie out of this book. While that would be enjoyable, a mini-series adaptation would be much more to my liking, and allow the richness of the book to shine through.
    • 4/5
      Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is a fascinating book and one that took me a long time to read. It's a large novel, but beyond that, the prose was more dense than what I commonly read. The best way that I found to describe the writing style was to compare it to a modern day take on Dickens. I'm sure that this was partially influenced by the 19th Century English setting, but there were other elements throughout that I felt had a decidedly Dickensian flavor to them as well.As for the length of time that I took to read this one, I think that this particular book actually benefited from a long, slow read. It gave me time in between chapters to savor and reflect upon what I had read and get me more involved with the characters and their stories.While all of this may sound dull to some, let me verify that I don't think that this novel is for everyone. It is a smart, eloquently written novel, but does have a propensity to drag from time to time and occasionally build up to a climax that is then thwarted by other events leaving the reader feeling a little deflated. Those who enjoy rich description and colorful characters should enjoy this novel quite well, but I'm sure that there are many detractors of this style who will not get through the first couple of chapters.Overall, I enjoyed it quite well and would recommend that people at least give it a shot. I originally checked it out from the library but purchased my own copy about a third of the way through reading it.
    • 2/5
      I really do not see the appeal of this book. It starts well, with a promising plot and the prose reading as if it were from the Georgian period, However, it becomes very dreary, is needlessly long-winded and I ended up not caring how the story ended up. This is just as well, as the ending is a damp squib.
    • 1/5
      After a little over 300 pages I couldn't take any more. What started as an interesting book slowed down to a bore. The biggest thing missing was an editor; far too many unimportant details that should have been cut. Don't waste your time.
    • 3/5
      One sad aspect of the rating system is that there are only 5 kinds of books: 5 star books, 4 star books, 3 star books, etc. My giving Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell only 3 stars is not quite representative of my opinion. Let me try to explain.

      Some things I LOVED about this book and would give 5 stars:

      I really enjoyed the writing. The classic English understatement, in the style of A.A. Mile, the grand scope and depth, in the style of Charles Dickens, no less. The humour, the characters in all their literary complexity. All of these facets deserve the full 5 stars in my opinion.

      What I did not love about this book and why I couldn't give it the 5 stars:

      This book did not need to be the length that it was--there were so many plot tangents that I felt myself wavering in attention from time to time. I listened to the unabridged audiobook read by Simon Prebble (which I HIGHLY recommend, by the way, because he does all the different character voices so convincingly and that was no easy task seeing as there are several accents of English represented) but had to re-listen to long passages more than a few times because the lengthy descriptions hadn't kept my attention.

      But the biggest reservation I had is completely subjective: I was fairly creeped out by the black magic in the story. My literary taste does not include the darker, paranormal subject material so popular among readers. Yes, I read all 7 of the Harry Potter novels BUT my enjoyment of them was inversely related to the series as it progressed from beginning to end. I have often been heard saying that content, to me, is not nearly as important as writing style and literary quality and that is still true. But there are exceptions to every rule and the dark content of this novel certainly marred my enjoyment of the experience.

    • 4/5
      I found this book highly entertaining, inventive, and clever. It has many fine qualities to recommend it to readers who find appeal in the blending of both supernatural and historical fiction. What it lacks, unfortunately, are some shadings of drama and suspense. These don't emerge fully until the last portion of the novel, when all the characters and plot lines converge satisfactorily. I never found myself bored with the book, but I was often aware that I could have been more compelled if the main characters had seemed at greater risk.

      Leaving aside the deficiencies of the dramatic structure, it's worth noting that one of the book's most laudable strengths is its use of copious, detailed footnotes to enlarge and expand the history of its invented world. Being a book about the restoration of magic to England, it goes to great lengths to give the reader a sense of the long tradition of magic in that country and the complexity of its practice. Arguably, that memorable aspect of the book may be the primary reason that the characters' fates often seemed at something of a remove, seeing as the scholarly tone of the notes helped to frame the main action in similar strictures.
    • 4/5
      (Three and a half star).

      This book is absolutely delightful in parts and frustratingly slow in others. It very neatly captures something quintessential English that keeps Dickens, Austin and spin-offs perpertually popular. Like Dickens there seem to be a number of sub-plots, asides and tangents. Some great, others just get in the way of the story. The books are heavily footnoted with small asides about the lives of former magicians and fairies. The cast is wonderfully drawn, if a bit unwieldy at times and the plot wanters all over the place, most likely on purpose.

      Lots of charm and wimsy, easy to fall in love with and easy to get frustrated with when it departs on an aside that doesn't capture the imagination or is too similar to a previous aside.
    • 5/5
      It's interesting to see that the reviews for this book are all over the map. People seem to either love it, or find it incredibly pretentious and boring. I LOVED this book. I listened to it in audio (32 + hours), but did not find my mind wandering or have that urge to fast forward a few pages. It offered so much that I enjoy in a good book - good historical fiction (and the Napoleonic era, another big plus), that detailed style so often seen with Victorian authors, funny, but subtle British humor, a bit of myth about ancient times and faerie, and best of all, a thrilling plot with magic. Can't wait to see more from this author. Loved it!