Jonathan Strange & MR Norrell

I adore descriptive writing, historical fiction, gothic novels and magic. This was one of the best books I have read. The only thing I added to it was a blanket, a cozy place to read, a batch of blueberry crisp and a few days of rain was a surprise addition.

The novel is syrupy with wonderful images, descriptions, curiosities and inventions, and for that it is deserving of praise. On the other hand, there are long swampy stretches, dull as dishwater, that will try your patience. In a shorter novel, a couple slow, self indulgent, passages are easily glossed over, but in a work that exceeds 800 pages it becomes a challenge, rather than a pleasure, just to make it to the finish line.

Now this is a terrific book! One of the best novels I've ever read! And at my age that's a lot of books! The writing is inviting, the characters and plot, involving. It just draws you in and doesn't let you go! It's a big book but don't think twice about picking it up! You'll be so glad you did!

I read this book a while ago from a library, and then purchased it for myself to reread and keep forvever. I had first watched the television series (which is more fast paced than the book if you’d rather have something faster) and enjoyed that, so I thought why not read the book. I wasn’t disappointed! It’s quite slow paced, but I could deal with that because of how witty the author is and I enjoyed all the information I was given. It’s an interesting and honestly, sort of intense ride. Faeries and magic are right up my alley, so if you enjoy a slower read filled with magic and quite the plot line, I recommend this for you!

It took me a few pages to get into the story, as the author takes you gingerly into the reality she has created for the readers, which is so close to mundane that you suspect that the story is just a mundane story about magic, until a few chapters later you find yourself burning the midnight oil. She describes the characters to sound, once again, quite normal, and a few words down the line you realize that the same characters are no more mundane than when a military general confides in you that the government is poisoning body fluids through tap water or some such quiet madness. She is witty, humorous, and makes imagination beautiful.

After reading the negative reviews of this book, I thought it would be helpful to clear up some misconceptions and set out a quick test of whether a reader is likely to enjoy "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell". Here's my take: it's NOT Harry Potter. If you want a quick-paced book, with lots of action and easy-to-read prose, THIS IS NOT YOUR BOOK. Here's the test: If, by the end of the first chapter, you have not laughed out loud or even chuckled, YOU WILL PROBABLY NOT LIKE THIS BOOK. And that's perfectly OK - I hope I've saved you from buying it (nothing's worse, IMHO, than buying a book you end up hating). I personally love this book - I'd easily rate it as one of the best books I've read in years. But I also love Jane Austen, Mervyn Peake and Lord Dunsany. To me, this book is both an homage to and a witty send-up of 19th century literature. But you have to like that kind of literature and "get" the jokes that the author is making (both in the style of the prose as well as the play on historical events) to really enjoy this book. I want to make it clear that I think it's fine if people hate this book. However, I am troubled by comments that suggest it's a bad book. That's not true - it's simply a matter of preferences. For example, I happen to detest Dickens and like comic books. But I don't think that Dickens is an awful writer and comic book writers are superior to him - Dickens just isn't my style. So I'd emphasize that, in my opinion, Susanna Clarke is a phenomenal writer. But the pleasure of this book lies as much (if not more) in the way it's written as the events that take place - so if you're not interested in prose for its own sake, it'll be hard going.

Susanna Clarke dazzles in a subtle way in her debut novel, "Jonathan Clarke & Mr. Norrell," a startlingly original fantasy. No Dungeons & Dragons or Tolkien ripoffs here. Instead, a well-written, intelligent historical fantasy, which reportedly took Clarke a decade to write. With a story this rich, it was worth the wait. It's the early 19th century, in England. The Napoleanic wars threaten England, but that's not the only struggle going on. Magic is all but dead in England; the so-called magicians don't actually want to handle it, but want to leave it to old books and stories. Once the English magicians were powerful and respected, but now they just write boring essays about magic. Except for Mr. Norrell, a cautious little Yorkshire man who taught himself how to do magic. However, things take a twist when he gives his help in the battle against Napolean -- a new magician enters the scene, the enthusiastic and charming Jonathan Strange. The two magicians begin to work together, but things begin to go awry when Mr. Norrell realizes that Jonathan is attracted to all magic -- including the more dangerous varieties. He's increasingly fascinated by the legend of the Raven King, a changeling child who ruled Faerie and Earth... Historical fantasies have rarely been as detailed and rich as this one -- usually either the "historic" or the "fantasy" is abused. Often the best authors can do is write alternate universe stories where America lost the Revolution, the Roman Empire never fell, and so on. But Susanna Clarke shatters that with her richly-realized look at 19th-century Britain, with unique magic and a slight mythologic twist. Clarke keeps her writing solid, detailed and dignified, also footnoting extensively, with little wry winks and nudges to keep the book from being too serious. She has a flair for the historical parts of the book, keeping dates, battles, and political movement entwined in the plot. But she doesn't neglect the fantasy either; there's a mythic flavor in the story of the Raven King and the old magicians, reminiscent of old legends from ancient times. Her handling of magic is especially good -- less is more, and hints of past greatness make the magic all the more stunning. The title characters are the best of the book -- both are products of their times. Mr. Norrell is cautious, studious, ingenious and quiet, the sort of person you could imagine having a talk with Ben Franklin. Strange has more of the wild, society-be-damned wit that characterized some great artists of that time. And Norrell's faithful servant is just one of many solid supporting characters. If Jane Austen had written like Diana Wynne-Jones, the result would have been something like "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell." Well-written, enticing and thoroughly original, this is a keeper.

Historical fiction is hard, because you have to respect the past while seeming to move about freely within it. Genre fiction is also hard, because you have to work to create a totally believable world without letting any of the scaffolding show. And when you try to blend the two, the difficulty of the task is compounded. It's wondrous that Susanna Clarke pulls this off, and miraculous that she does it so well. Not a note rings false. She imagines Great Britain at the close of the Age of Enlightenment, in the midst of the Napoleonic Wars, and she also imagines that world having the study and investigation of magic as one of its core components. Her Gilbert Norrell is one of the miracles of this book -- precisely the sort of magician that the era of Hume, Dr. Johnson, and Benjamin Franklin would produce. Her Jonathan Strange is also totally believable -- a product of the era of Byron and Shelley who is also reminiscent of Jane Austen's Mr. Knightley, yet just as sardonic and intellectually venturesome as his sometime mentor, sometime adversary. And John Childermass, Norrell's servant and conscience, is brilliantly realized. And I could say the same about just about every other character in this book. Every step of the way, her vast, crowded, action-packed, yet intensely thoughtful book works perfectly. I usually hate these analogies, but imagine if Jane Austen teamed up with China Mieville to write a book with J. K. Rowling, William Makepeace Thackeray, and John Le Carre as an editorial advisory committee. (By the way, I am a historian who works on this period, so when I say that this book works as a historical novel as well as a fantasy novel, it's the real deal.)