More remarkable, however, was the fact that at no point during the reading experience did I have an idea of where the story would go.
Despite the far-reaching scope and timeline of the story, every page feels remarkably detailed and intimate, not sweeping and detached despite the years and cast of characters covered. Like several other favorites of mine, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell takes its time, letting the story unfold without any sense of urgency and sparing no detail. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is one of those reading experiences that stands out from the rest not just for the simple enjoyment of the story being told, but because of the slow nature of how it’s told. This novel, grounded in the society of early 19th century England, is fantasy redefined and reimagined. In a world where too many fantasy novels rely on tropes and archetypes to supply the fantastical, intriguing elements of their stories, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke is a breath of fresh air.
Eventually Strange’s heedless pursuit of long-forgotten magic threatens to destroy not only his partnership with Norrell, but everything that he holds dear. 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. 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. But it soon becomes clear that their ideas of what English magic ought to be are very different. Astonished to find another practicing magician, Mr Norrell accepts Strange as a pupil. Strange thinks nothing of enduring the rigors of campaigning with Wellington’s army and doing magic on battlefields. Jonathan Strange is handsome, charming, and talkative-the very opposite of Mr Norrell. 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.Īll goes well until a rival magician appears. He goes to London and raises a beautiful young woman from the dead. They can only write long, dull papers about it, while fairy servants are nothing but a fading memory.īut 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. But by the early 1800s they have long since lost the ability to perform magic. 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.
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