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Kelsey Ford: From the Stacks: J. M. Ledgard's Submergence (0 comment)
Our blog feature, "From the Stacks," features our booksellers’ favorite older books: those fortuitous used finds, underrated masterpieces, and lesser known treasures. Basically: the books that we’re the most passionate about handselling. This week, we’re featuring Kelsey F.’s pick, Submergence by J. M. Ledgard...
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Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

by Susanna Clarke
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

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  • Synopses & Reviews
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ISBN13: 9781582346038
ISBN10: 1582346038
Condition: Standard


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Awards

Winner of the 2005 Hugo Award for Best Novel

From Powells.com

25 Books to Read Before You Die: 21st Century

These books create a stunning portrait of contemporary American life.


Staff Pick

A fantasy book of manners? Yes, and it works! Original and clever, this lush novel comments on the society and culture of magic. Strange and Norrell have opposing viewpoints on magic's role, and their clash provides a fabulous backdrop for this wonderful book. Just read it! It's great. Recommended By Dianah H., Powells.com

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell’s mentorship turned rivalry over the use of magic, which takes place in early 19th-century England, lies at the center of this unparalleled tale, in which the foibles of humans, our relationship to the fantastic, and the lengths and limits of faith and science are told in measured wit. This book is so deserving of the many awards it has received and of its devoted and diverse fan base, for inside Clarke’s intricately constructed world of magical realism is a treasured nucleus crafted of caution, passion, intellect, and madness; Susanna Clarke has written one of the great fantasy literature crossover works of our time. Recommended By Lucinda G., Powells.com

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

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.

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.

Review

"Unquestionably the finest English novel of the fantastic written in the last seventy years. It's funny, moving, scary, otherworldly, practical and magical, a journey through light and shadow-from beginning to end, a perfect pleasure." Neil Gaiman, bestselling author of American Gods and The Graveyard Book

Review

"An instant classic, one of the finest fantasies ever written." Kirkus Reviews

Review

"Absolutely compelling...the author captures the period and its literary conventions with complete conviction. An astonishing achievement." Charles Palliser, author of The Quincunx and The Unburied

Review

"Clarke's imagination is prodigious, her pacing is masterly and she knows how to employ dry humor....In this fantasy, the master that magic serves is reverence for writing." Gregory Maguire, The New York Times Book Review

Review

"Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell may or may not be the finest English fantasy of the past 70 years. But it is still magnificent and original, and that should be enough for any of us." Michael Dirda, The Washington Post

Review

"Clarke has written a 19th century classic; there's little doubt it will have readers clamoring for more." Rocky Mountain News

Review

"What kind of magic can make a nearly 800-page novel seem too short?....[Clarke's] epic history of an alternative, magical England is so beautifully realized that not one of the many enchantments Clarke chronicles in the book could ever be as potent or as quickening as her own magnificent narrative." BookPage

Review

"Clarke's ability to construct a fully imagined world...is impressive, and there are some suspenseful moments. But her attempt to graft a fantasy narrative onto such historical realities as the Battle of Waterloo is more often awkward than clever..." The New Yorker

Review

"For all of her flights of postmodernist fancy, for all her stories about 'black towers' and magical books and hidden bridges that connect England to Faerie, Clarke has delivered a book of universal truths and unexpectedly heartbreaking acuity." Dallas-Ft. Worth Star Telegram

Review

"Clarke has crafted a great, looping narrative filled with characters greater and lesser that will pique first the interest and then the sympathy of the reader....The readers will find that this tale, though long, comes to an end far too soon." Denver Post

Review

"[I]mmense, intelligent, inventive, arid, and exhausting....Clarke is a restrained and witty writer with an arch and eminently readable style....Wholly original and richly imagined, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell turns out to be more admirable than lovable. (Grade: B)" Entertainment Weekly

Review

"Strange lives up to all the enticing promise of Clarke's earlier work. Her deftly assumed faux-19th century point of view will beguile cynical adult readers into losing themselves in this entertaining and sophisticated fantasy." Seattle Times

Review

"Clarke is marvelously clever — she could step right up there with J.K. Rowling. Her extensive, fictional footnotes are as amusing as they are informative....[S]plendid reading..." Detroit Free Press

Review

"What kind of magic can make an 800-page novel seem too short? Whatever it is, debut author Susanna Clarke is possessed by it, and her astonished readers will surely hope she never recovers." USA Today

Review

"It may be just as well that Susanna Clarke's first novel, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, is nearly as big as a house, since this is the kind of book you want to move into and settle down in for a long stay. It's set in a world very much like the England of the early 1800s, only in Clarke's version magic was once a daily presence and has since been lost or perhaps merely misplaced. In other words, this world resembles the world of our own reading, for most of us can remember a time when stepping into a book was like entering into an enchantment....Susanna Clarke's magic is universal." Laura Miller, Salon.com (read the entire Salon.com review)

Review

"The prospect of having to read an 800-page novel billed as 'Harry Potter for adults' was enough to make this weary book critic pine for an invisibility cloak. But for those of you who, like me, can't endure another charmless opening at the Dursleys', take heart: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is no Harry Potter knockoff. It's altogether original — far closer to Dickens than Rowling....Move over, little Harry. It's time for some real magic." Ron Charles, The Christian Science Monitor (read the entire Christian Science Monitor review)

About the Author

Susanna Clarke was born in Nottingham, England, in 1959, the eldest daughter of a Methodist minister. She was educated at St. Hilda's College, Oxford, and has worked in various areas of nonfiction publishing. In 1990 she left London to teach English in Turin and Bilbao. She returned to England in 1992 and spent the rest of that year in County Durham, where she began work on Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.

From 1993 to 2003 Susanna Clarke was an editor at Simon and Schuster's Cambridge office, where she worked on their cookbook list. She has published a number of short stories and novellas in American anthologies, including "Mr. Simonelli, or the Fairy Widower," which was shortlisted for a World Fantasy Award in 2001.

Susanna lives in Cambridge with her partner, the novelist and reviewer Colin Greenland.


4.7 11

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating 4.7 (11 comments)

`
hedgehogs , December 29, 2014 (view all comments by hedgehogs)
This book has a delightful combination of magic, history, humor, and mystery. It reads like an English novel from the 1800s, but with charachters and a plot that appeal to a modern reader. You'll definitely want to read it all the way through and get wrapped up in the detailed world building along the way. A satisfying read you'll recommend to friends.

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Rosalind Reading , June 10, 2013 (view all comments by Rosalind Reading)
If Jane Austen and Gabriel Garcia Marquez had a strange, charismatic, and loquacious child, it would be Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. This novel has Austen's dry wit, Marquez's wild imagination and magic realism, and something else entirely its own. Here is a Britain at war with Napoleon's empire aided by two magicians: the ornery, traditional Mr. Norrell, and the lanky, charming, and rather dangerously daring Jonathan Strange. Packed with hilarious footnotes, fairy lore that conjures up barrows of ancient Britain, and killer one-liners, this novel earns every one of its (many, many) pages.

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danb , January 31, 2013 (view all comments by danb)
I sometimes reread books, but never the very day I finish them. But this terrific, surprising, absorbing novel made me do it. I just wasn't ready to be done with these characters, who have a Dickensian fullness (and fabulous, often hilarious dialogue). Great, great, great.

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Jacko , January 01, 2013 (view all comments by Jacko)
Spectacular scope and creativity. A beautiful read. Highly recommended.

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Constant Reader , August 25, 2010 (view all comments by Constant Reader)
If you can imagine Dickens writing fantasy, that's what this book is like. Clarke has truly immersed herself in the early 19th century to create a perfect atmosphere for her novel, in which the practice of magic is a trade like any other. One of the title characters, Mr. Norrell, makes a name for himself, first in York, then in London, as a skilled magician who helps the government fight the French. Jonathan Strange, a younger man who chooses the profession of magic, and finds himself so adept at it that he becomes Mr. Norrell's pupil and, eventually, his rival. Ranging from England to Spain to Italy, taking in parts of a country called Faerie, and mentioning a land that lies on the far side of Hell, the book is consistently gripping. Parts of it had me gasping with delight at the plot twists. I was also pleased by the names of some of the characters, which are also reminiscent of Dickens' names: Greysteel, Childermass, Uskglass, Drawlight. I can even forgive Clarke for including real historical figures (such as King George III and the Duke of Wellington) in her narrative, something I do only rarely. This book is almost a thousand pages long, and the interest never wavers.

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nancyduck , January 03, 2010
This story is immensly intriguing and mysterious. It's a novel that's one part cat & mouse--and one part, other world, scary--and, still other parts transcend reality. Plus, the characters are so well-realized, they become a part of our world. The reader has the pleasure and horror to journey through myriad magical worlds, both surreal and delightful...and horrific. It is fantasy at it's best!

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David Barber , January 03, 2010
most imaginative book that I read over the past ten years

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Stephen Pereira , January 01, 2010
I vote for this book as the best of the decade because of its ambitious goal to bring this type of fantasy/fiction to an 'adult' audience. I hope this starts a trend that continues for many decades.

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sarasquare , October 14, 2008 (view all comments by sarasquare)
I'm a huge fan of classics from 18th and 19th century, and though Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell was written in the 21st century, it certainly has that classic style with a modern-sarcastic twist. Clarke's characters are well-rounded; some endearing, some mysterious. There is a great blend of the magical and practical worlds in this story. This is a really fun, dark, and surprising book.

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crowyhead , October 18, 2007 (view all comments by crowyhead)
I don't have much to say about this one except yes, it IS as good as everyone says. It's utterly absorbing, and probably one of the most all-around satisfying novels I read in 2006.

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Lucy Little , August 19, 2007 (view all comments by Lucy Little)
Parts of the book definitely rated 5 for me, but it was just a little too long in other parts. It took awhile to get in to, yet at times, I couln't put it down. Clarke made magic seem like an everyday pursuit. Without giving much away, she was adept at describing the hopelessness some characters felt in their situations. I wish she had not used the footnote format, but had incorporated more into her text.

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Product Details

ISBN:
9781582346038
Binding:
Trade Paperback
Publication date:
09/05/2005
Publisher:
BLOOMSBURY BOOKS
Pages:
846
Height:
2.30IN
Width:
5.50IN
Thickness:
2.00
Number of Units:
1
Illustration:
Yes
Copyright Year:
2004
Author:
Alistair Ian Blyth
Author:
Filip Florian
Author:
Susanna Clarke
Author:
Susanna Clarke
Subject:
Science Fiction and Fantasy-Fantasy-Historical
Subject:
General Fiction
Subject:
Fairies
Subject:
Historical fiction
Subject:
Fantasy fiction
Subject:
Teacher-student relationships

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List Price:$19.00
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Add to Wishlist
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