Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Susanna Clark | 4.01 | 204,364 ratings and reviews

Recommended by Lev Grossman, Tendai Huchu, and 2 others. See all reviews

Ranked #6 in Alternate History, Ranked #16 in Hugo Award — see more rankings.

Librarian note: Alternate cover edition of 9780765356154.

Sophisticated, witty, and ingeniously convincing, Susanna Clarke's magisterial novel weaves magic into a flawlessly detailed vision of historical England. She has created a world so thoroughly enchanting that eight hundred pages leave readers longing for more.

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. less

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Reviews and Recommendations

We've comprehensively compiled reviews of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell from the world's leading experts.

Lev Grossman It’s a magic that feels absolutely real, as if the book were an eyewitness account. Not since Lewis has the supernatural been such a thrilling, immediate, concrete presence on the page. It’s no accident that I began The Magicians in 2004 – Strange is the book that woke me up to the power of the new fantasy. Read it, and you may be woken up too. (Source)

Tendai Huchu I chose this book because it really blurs the line between fiction and history. Just the use of footnotes and references to texts that likely don’t exist yet unless Susanna Clarke writes them in! (Source)

Rankings by Category

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is ranked in the following categories:

#61 in 21st Century
#85 in Adult Fantasy
#69 in Black and White
#87 in Fantasy
#85 in Fantasy Sci-Fi
#77 in Gothic
#34 in London
#43 in Long
#56 in Magic
#47 in Magical Fantasy
#64 in Magical Realism
#98 in NPR
#80 in Science Fiction Fantasy
#88 in UK
#87 in Victorian
#55 in Wizards

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