Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

Feb 09, 2008 20:49

According to Wikipedia:

"The book is set in an alternate 19th-century Britain, during the Napoleonic Wars. The story is based on the premise of magic returning to England after hundreds of years of desuetude, and the tumultuous relationship between two fictional magicians of the time. The story incorporates historical events and people into its fictional alternate reality. Historical figures encountered in the novel include the Duke of Wellington, Lord Byron and King George III. The novel, written in a pastiche of Jane Austen's literary style, uses quasi-archaic spelling for several words (such as shew, chuse, connexion, sopha, scissars, headach, and surprize).
The book is interspersed with hundreds of fictional footnotes which reference a number of fictional books including magical scholarship and biographies, and which provide a detailed backstory. Many pages of the book contain more footnote text than main body text. The book features several illustrations by Portia Rosenberg."

Well, that is the initial plot of the book, which make this novel quite interesting by itself, though way too civilized to make the book one of those you just can't put down.

But it all gets more complicated when the first magician, Mr. Norrell, an old and unfriendly hermit, resurrect the wife of Sir Walter Pole in order to make magic known in London. For his purpose, he summons an elf - the gentleman with the thistle-down hair. This elf, as any other, is quite evil* and whimsical by nature and the king of Lost-Hope,  where he makes Lady Pole go by night.  As time passes, he also charms Steven Black, Sir Pole's servant, and Arabella Strange, Jonathan Strange's wife, as he like them all. Contrary to the other two characters, Mrs. Strange is believed to be dead in England.

Also, there is the quarrel between Mr. Strange and his former master, Mr. Norrell, which sets Strange to investigate magic on his own, as Mr. Norrell would not let him touch his precious books in Hurtfew Abbey. This is the point where something starts to happen, and the pace of the novel becomes faster. It is also when both worlds, England and the Other Lands, meet.

What everybody seems to forget while reviewing this book is that Mr. Norrell and Jonathan Strange are not the only magicians involved. We can also get a glimpse of John Uskglass, the Raven King, around whom the story and the main plot revolves, thanks to a book that helds a prophecy (that element is not erased from the usual preconception of fantasy books).

What I liked the most about this book was the uncommon fantasy Clarke writes; she impressed me with her well-grounded alternate Britain -the fictional footnotes helped no little here-, and her use of real characters.

This book was fascinating and the writing flows easily in a way that makes you forget its lenght. I would have gone on reading. Although the ending was neat, at least for the main characters, I would not mind reading a little more about the Raven King or Childermass, Mr. Norrell's servant.

*evil: I have not found better words to describe them

author: clarke; susanna, finished, books

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