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75 Books Challenge for 2012 : Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke - aulsmith tutoring Morphidae	156 unread / 156	ronincats, April 2012
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▾Member reviews

English (655) French (5) Japanese (2) Italian (2) Finnish (2) Catalan (2) Swedish (2) German (1) All languages (671)

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Showing 1-5 of 655 (next | show all)

I really loved this book. As long as it was, I was sad when it was over. I really want to know what happens next and I keep thinking about it. I haven't felt this involved in a book in awhile. (

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Katie80 | Oct 8, 2018 |

Why didn't anyone tell me how much I'd love this book?

Wait, someone did. Why didn't I listen? (

)

akaGingerK | Sep 30, 2018 |

3.5/5 I am so disappointed, and yet I wish there more books. The story and its world are unique and about half of the book is really engaging. The characters are a creative crew,

BUT

this book is too story driven. The number and length of scenes is overwhelming, but don't actually help to explain individual characters' motivations or roles. For example, we spend a lot of time following one character as they experience series of events tangentially related to the story line, but completely skip the episodes allowing a character to solve the entire main story line. Furthermore, characters are somewhat inconsistent and those weeks of events don't really help understand them. Paths cross for what seems like convenience.

P.S. I just read that the author is inspired by Jane Austen, and so I understand, because Jane Austen also completely omits pivotal parts of the storyline - they are just summed up in conversation later. (

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CassandraT | Sep 23, 2018 |

Four and a half stars, because I did truly enjoy it. It dragged a little in places, but it really wrung almost every passionate emotion out of me along the way. The plotting and characterization are both clever as all hell. (

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whatsmacksaid | Sep 21, 2018 |

Didn't finish, writing style didn't appeal to me at all, though this might be an issue with my language skills. (

)

_rixx_ | Aug 30, 2018 |

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Showing 1-5 of 655 (next | show all)

▾Published reviews

5 reviews

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thingScore 95

Her deftly assumed faux-19th century point of view will beguile cynical adult readers into losing themselves in this entertaining and sophisticated fantasy.

added by DieFledermaus | editThe Seattle Times, Nisi Shawl (Sep 12, 2004)

Many charmed readers will feel, as I do, that Susanna Clarke has wasted neither her energies nor our many reading hours.

added by conceptDawg | editNew York Times, Gregory Maguire (Sep 5, 2004)

Susanna Clarke, who resides in Cambridge, England, has spent the past decade writing the 700-plus pages of this remarkable book. She's a great admirer of Charles Dickens and has produced a work every bit as enjoyable as The Pickwick Papers, with more than a touch of the early Anne Rice thrown in for good measure.

added by timspalding | editRocky Mountain News, Ed Halloran (Sep 3, 2004)

"Move over, little Harry. It’s time for some real magic."

added by timspalding | editChristian Science Monitor, Ron Charles (Aug 24, 2004)

A chimera of a novel that combines the dark mythology of fantasy with the delicious social comedy of Jane Austen into a masterpiece of the genre that rivals Tolkien.

added by Shortride | editTime, Lev Grossman (Aug 16, 2004)

▾Other authors

» Add other authors (15 possible)

Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Clarke, Susanna	Author	primary author	all editions	confirmed
Bützow, Helene	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Merla, Paola	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Prebble, Simon	Narrator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Rosenberg, Portia	Illustrator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Webb, William	Cover designer	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

▾Work-to-work relationships

Contains

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: Volume I by Susanna Clarke

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: Volume II by Susanna Clarke

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: Volume III by Susanna Clarke

Has the (non-series) sequel

The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke

Has the adaptation

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell [2015 TV series] by Toby Haynes

view history

▾Common Knowledge

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For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.

Series (with order)

Canonical title

Original title

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

Alternative titles

Original publication date

2004

People/Characters

Jonathan Strange

Gilbert Norrell

The Gentleman With Thistle-down Hair

Stephen Black

Lady Emma Pole (Wintertowne)

(show all 130 items)

Important places

Important events

Peninsular War (1807|1814)

Napoleonic Wars (1803|1815)

Battle of Waterloo ( [1815])

Awards and honors

World Fantasy Award (Novel, 2005)

Hugo (Novel, 2005)

British Fantasy Award Nominee (2005.1|August Derleth Fantasy Award, 2005)

British Science Fiction Association Award Shortlist (2004.1|Novel, 2004)

Nebula Nominee (2005.1|Novel, 2005)

(show all 27 items)

Epigraph

He hardly ever spoke of magic, and when he did it was like a history lesson and no one could bear to listen to him.

Dedication

In memory of my brother, Paul Frederick Gunn Clarke, 1961-2000

First words

Some years ago there was in the city of York a society of magicians.

Quotations

At sixteen she spoke -- not only French, Italian & German -- which are part of any lady's commonplace accomplishments -- but all the languages of the civilized (and uncivilized) world. She spoke the language of the Scottish Highlands (which is like singing). She spoke Basque, which is a language which rarely makes any impression upon the brains of any other race, so that a man may hear it as often and as long as he likes, but never afterwards be able to recall a single syllable of it. She even learnt the language of a strange country which, Signor Tosetti had been told, some people believed still existed, although no one in the world could say where it was. (The name of the country was Wales.)

It is also true that that his hair had a reddish tinge and, as everybody knows, no one with red hair can ever truly be said to be handsome.

"Soldiers, I am sorry to say, steal everything." He thought for a moment and then added, "Or at least ours do."

"Can a magician kill a man by magic?" Lord Wellington asked Strange. Strange frowned. He seemed to dislike the question. "I suppose a magician might," he admitted "but a gentleman never could."

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Nielsen Hayden, Patrick

Blurbers

Gaiman, Neil

Palliser, Charles

Publisher series

Information from the Italian Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.

La gaja scienza Longanesi (771)

Original language

English

Canonical DDC/MDS

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (3)

Crocotta

File:Jonathan strange and mr norrell cover.jpg

File:ManWithThistledownHair.jpg

▾LibraryThing members' description

Book description

Haiku summary

Two odd magicians
restore magic to England
and go kind of nuts. (marcusbrutus)

▾Book descriptions

Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0765356155, Mass Market Paperback)

It's 1808 and that Corsican upstart Napoleon is battering the English army and navy. Enter Mr. Norrell, a fusty but ambitious scholar from the Yorkshire countryside and the first practical magician in hundreds of years. What better way to demonstrate his revival of British magic than to change the course of the Napoleonic wars? Susanna Clarke's ingenious first novel, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, has the cleverness and lightness of touch of the Harry Potter series, but is less a fairy tale of good versus evil than a fantastic comedy of manners, complete with elaborate false footnotes, occasional period spellings, and a dense, lively mythology teeming beneath the narrative. Mr. Norrell moves to London to establish his influence in government circles, devising such powerful illusions as an 11-day blockade of French ports by English ships fabricated from rainwater. But however skillful his magic, his vanity provides an Achilles heel, and the differing ambitions of his more glamorous apprentice, Jonathan Strange, threaten to topple all that Mr. Norrell has achieved. A sparkling debut from Susanna Clarke--and it's not all fairy dust. --Regina Marler

(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 12 Mar 2015 18:19:06 -0400)

(see all 6 descriptions)

▾Library descriptions

In nineteenth-century England, all is going well for rich, reclusive Mr Norell, who has regained some of the power of England's magicians from the past, until a rival magician, Jonathan Strange, appears and becomes Mr Norrell's pupil.

» see all 11 descriptions