Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

Title: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

Author: Susanna Clarke

Published: 2004

Type: Fiction

Pages: 1006

It has been remarked (by a lady infinitely cleverer than the present author) how kindly disposed the world in general feels to young people who either die or marry. Imagine then the interest that surrounded Miss Wintertowne! No young lady ever had such advantages before: for she died upon the Tuesday, was raised to life in the early hours of Wednesday morning, and was married upon the Thursday; which some people thought too much excitement for one week.

In Brief:

This book is LONG (>1,000 pages) but ultimately worth it. Clarke takes a risk by very slowly going about world-building and character development, but it totally pays off in the end. Really creative, great allegories, I wish I read this book when I was younger!

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis:

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell imagines a nineteenth-century England in which magic and magicians have always been active and real. However, since the disappearance of the mysterious and powerful Raven King, the former ruler of Northern England and Faerie, “practical” magic has fallen out of fashion. All that is left are well-off academics who collect books and meet for hearty theoretical discussions. 

Enter Mr. Norrell: a disagreeable, grumpy man from Yorkshire determined to bring practical magic back to England and restore its respectability. He gains the public’s attention by accomplishing feats of English Magic, and ultimately persuades the British government to make use of him after bringing a politician’s young fiance back from the dead – with the help of a terrifying Faerie only called “the man with the thistle-down hair.” 

Mr. Norrell helps the government with some tasks, such as blockading the French with ships made out of rain. However, he is reluctant to perform much magic and difficult to work with -- pompous, secretive, much more interested in books than people. Eventually, he takes on a pupil: Jonathan Strange. Strange is in many ways Mr. Norrell’s opposite -- eager, charismatic, with a natural gift for magic compared to Norrell’s studiousness. 

The rest of the book, perhaps unsurprisingly, is mostly focused on the lives and relationship between these titular characters. Though originally close, a rift forms between the two men over their approach to magic and interest in the Raven King: Strange wants to seek him out and learn from his power, while Mr. Norrell wants to erase his legacy. Eventually they split apart, breaking the followers of English Magic into separate factions. Meanwhile, in the dark parallel Faerie world, the man with the thistle-down hair weaves in and out of the narrative, stealing or torturing humans as it amuses him, conspiring to replace the mad King George, and generally turning many characters’ lives into nightmares. 

Where I’m At:

In case I haven’t been clear, this is a LONG book. As in, 1,006 pages. As in, roughly the size of my head: 

Why are these pictures always so big?

Which is to say that I read it over a long period of time, starting December last year and ending in March. A lot of things happened then.

I read it for my job’s book club, or the “OP Fiction Alliance” as we call it. Fittingly, I had my one-year anniversary at my job over the course of reading it. Therefore, I also had my one-year anniversary of leaving the Peace Corps.

As cliche as it is to say, the year flew by, and was probably one of the best in my life. Yes, leaving the Peace Corps was also probably the hardest decision I made in my life. It had been my dream, and quitting something like that isn’t in my DNA. I made friends with the other volunteers, fell in love with the beauty of the island where I lived. In many ways, I was very happy. 

But this year felt like finally, finally, I’ve started to get to the place where I want my life to be. I have a job that I love, that challenges me and excites me and really allows me to do something good for the world. I’m living in the city that I love, with friends that I love. I took trips during the last year, started seeing a therapist, began taking better care of my health. Not that everything is perfect, but I don’t feel so lost anymore like I did my first couple of years after graduating college. 

I’m not sure if this relates very much to the book (it doesn’t) but I thought that’s a nice little life update for anyone who reads this/cares. 

Getting Into it:

Have I mentioned that this book is long? I often say (and still believe) that 99.9% of books don’t have to be more than 399 pages. Once it gets into the 400s, it is unnecessarily long and probably not worth the time. 

So I probably wouldn’t have picked this book up if it wasn’t assigned to me in OP’s book club, and I probably wouldn’t have finished if I wasn’t so stubborn and prideful about maintaining my reputation as a book nerd. The beginning drags out – the plot moves incredibly slowly, with many tangents. Many characters are quickly introduced, some immediately becoming irrelevant while others become major, making them hard to keep track of or really care about, since their development is also very slow. It’s pretty safe to say that not much interesting really seems to happen until you get to the 400s, at which point I would prefer the book to be over.  

But I’m surprised to admit that ultimately, it ends up being worth it, and I admire Clarke for her choice to structure the book this way. It definitely took guts, and faith in the reader to stick through the initial slog. The plot picks up about halfway, at which point I (relatively) sped through the rest, desperate to know what happens next. The characters, even the apparently pure evil man with the thistle-down hair, become endearing, full of realistic quirks and nuance. Biblical allegories take their time to emerge, pitting Old Testament against New. It’s all so vivid, I even dreamed about it. That wouldn’t have been possible without Clarke’s deliberate and patient build-up.

This book is sold as a “Grown-Up Harry Potter,” but I don’t think that’s quite right (and suspect it’s more due to the fact that it came out in 2004, when new Potters were still being released and the modern era of magical fantasy novels was relatively new). Harry Potter is all emotion, heartfelt and innocent. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is erudite, cynical and dry. Magic is an equation, more mathematical than wonderful. As I write this, I guess I can see how that could be seen as an argument for being more grown-up, but I see them really in two different worlds. To me, Clarke falls more into the category of Jane Austen or CS Lewis or Charles Dickens, rather than JK Rowling. 

This isn’t a bad thing, even if I felt somewhat duped while reading. Clarke’s droll wit is hysterical, her snide commentary on Britain/Britishness razor-sharp (though I probably missed some of it as an Amerian). The book is also written with the focus of a research scholar, full of long tangential footnotes that build an incredibly detailed backstory. I found this annoying sometimes as I was trying to get through the actual plot, but overall it made the experience of reading so rich, I often had to remind myself that I was reading a novel, and that it was fantasy, not just historical fiction. 

So I liked this book. I can’t make myself give it above a 4 given my initial distaste as well as annoyance about the passivity of all the female characters, but I do recommend it to anyone with a love for British literature and fantasy – as long as you have the patience for it.