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 … 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.
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Not perfect, but pretty durned close. Great portrayal of the wildness of magic, of the terrifying fae who, even when they want to help, are… well, aw(e)ful. A story of a wonderful rivalry where the line between bitter rivalry and deep friendship blurs. There is nothing neat and tidy about this book, and that is a great and glorious thing.
When this book first released, it was new and different and utterly captivating. All these years later, it’s still all of the above. Ms. Clark has no peer in work of this kind.
I have never understood the heaps of praise dumped at the foot of this book. It’s not bad, but I consider it a mildly entertaining fantasy novel that’s at least 100 pages way too long. Apparently the rave reviewers have never read a a fantasy novel before and are astonished that such a thing exists.
Read this years ago so I do not have details to share only that I DID enjoy it and have recommended it to others.
One of the best books I’ve ever read
very very slow
Yes, I put “realistic” as one of the characteristics of this fantasy book. This is a tribute to Ms. Clarke’s creation of a realistic world in which elements of our own history (the Battle of Waterloo, etc.) are mixed in with a fictional past – the reign of John Uskglass as the Raven King – and the existence of Faeries, an amoral and conscienceless race that lives alongside us humans, with immense powers which we mortals have lost.
The book is full of scholarly footnotes which could almost send one scurrying to the nearest academic library to check the sources. It is with great reluctance that I return from the delights of this magical early 19th century to our prosaic distinctly unmagical 21st century every time I read this long and heavy book (which I have done with increasing pleasure several times).
At times very dry, st others difficult to follow. I advise sticking it out, though, as in the end it’s worth it.
It was very slow to start and just did not engage me.
I quite failed to get into it. I found it a crashing bore.
Disappointing. Couldn’t stick it out past a couple of chapters.
YMMV, but I’m a regular & enthusiastic reader of SF/F who simply could not get through this one. Very long-winded,
A witty tale of a revival of English magic during the Napoleonic wars, which ultimately draws the magicians into an abyss too deep to fathom.
Interesting book. I enjoyed it
Victorian fiction meets 21st Century fantasy. It doesn’t get better than this.
Very long, very strange
Overlong. Too much unnecessary minutiae with no payoff.
Fantastic! Just read it!
A little hard to get into and follow at first.
One of the most original genre bending books I have ever had the pleasure of reading.