Book Review: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke

A beautiful, brilliant, intelligent novel of wizards and faeries in Regency England.

Bloomsbury, 2004, 800 pages

Publisher's Description:

English magicians were once the wonder of the known world, with fairy servants at their beck and call; they could command winds, mountains, and woods. But by the early 1800s they have long since lost the ability to perform magic. They can only write long, dull papers about it, while fairy servants are nothing but a fading memory.

But at Hurtfew Abbey in Yorkshire, the rich, reclusive Mr. Norrell has assembled a wonderful library of lost and forgotten books from England's magical past and regained some of the powers of England's magicians. He goes to London and raises a beautiful young woman from the dead. Soon he is lending his help to the government in the war against Napoleon Bonaparte, creating ghostly fleets of rain-ships to confuse and alarm the French.

All goes well until a rival magician appears. Jonathan Strange is handsome, charming, and talkative, the very opposite of Mr. Norrell. Strange thinks nothing of enduring the rigors of campaigning with Wellington's army and doing magic on battlefields. Astonished to find another practicing magician, Mr. Norrell accepts Strange as a pupil. But it soon becomes clear that their ideas of what English magic ought to be are very different. For Mr. Norrell, their power is something to be cautiously controlled, while Jonathan Strange will always be attracted to the wildest, most perilous forms of magic. He becomes fascinated by the ancient, shadowy figure of the Raven King, a child taken by fairies who became king of both England and Faerie, and the most legendary magician of all. Eventually Strange's heedless pursuit of long-forgotten magic threatens to destroy not only his partnership with Norrell, but everything that he holds dear.

Sophisticated, witty, and ingeniously convincing, Susanna Clarke's magisterial novel weaves magic into a flawlessly detailed vision of historical England.

( Okay, let's just get all the Jane Austen + Harry Potter comparisons out of the way with first, shall we? )

Verdict: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell has made it onto my list of "top fantasy recommendations," without any reservations. Go ahead and call it "Harry Potter for grown-ups" or a "Jane Austen fantasy" if you have to. Any fantasy lover should enjoy it, but in particular, I think it's a great choice for the YA reader looking for something more adult without jumping into blood-and-guts fantasy, and also a great choice for the literary reader who's not much of a fantasy fan.

Book Review: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke

A beautiful, brilliant, intelligent novel of wizards and faeries in Regency England.

Bloomsbury, 2004, 800 pages

Publisher's Description:

English magicians were once the wonder of the known world, with fairy servants at their beck and call; they could command winds, mountains, and woods. But by the early 1800s they have long since lost the ability to perform magic. They can only write long, dull papers about it, while fairy servants are nothing but a fading memory.

But at Hurtfew Abbey in Yorkshire, the rich, reclusive Mr. Norrell has assembled a wonderful library of lost and forgotten books from England's magical past and regained some of the powers of England's magicians. He goes to London and raises a beautiful young woman from the dead. Soon he is lending his help to the government in the war against Napoleon Bonaparte, creating ghostly fleets of rain-ships to confuse and alarm the French.

All goes well until a rival magician appears. Jonathan Strange is handsome, charming, and talkative, the very opposite of Mr. Norrell. Strange thinks nothing of enduring the rigors of campaigning with Wellington's army and doing magic on battlefields. Astonished to find another practicing magician, Mr. Norrell accepts Strange as a pupil. But it soon becomes clear that their ideas of what English magic ought to be are very different. For Mr. Norrell, their power is something to be cautiously controlled, while Jonathan Strange will always be attracted to the wildest, most perilous forms of magic. He becomes fascinated by the ancient, shadowy figure of the Raven King, a child taken by fairies who became king of both England and Faerie, and the most legendary magician of all. Eventually Strange's heedless pursuit of long-forgotten magic threatens to destroy not only his partnership with Norrell, but everything that he holds dear.

Sophisticated, witty, and ingeniously convincing, Susanna Clarke's magisterial novel weaves magic into a flawlessly detailed vision of historical England.

( Okay, let's just get all the Jane Austen + Harry Potter comparisons out of the way with first, shall we? )

Verdict: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell has made it onto my list of "top fantasy recommendations," without any reservations. Go ahead and call it "Harry Potter for grown-ups" or a "Jane Austen fantasy" if you have to. Any fantasy lover should enjoy it, but in particular, I think it's a great choice for the YA reader looking for something more adult without jumping into blood-and-guts fantasy, and also a great choice for the literary reader who's not much of a fantasy fan.