Strange happenings

At almost 800 pages in the hardback, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is a weighty tome for a first-time novelist: so much so that I approached this book with deep suspicions of shameless padding and needless rambling. But I need not have worried — there is rambling, in the text and in lovely little footnotes, but it only adds to the atmospheric beauty of this impressive debut.

The book is set in an alternate Regency England, where, since the heights of the golden age of the aureate magicians, magic has gradually declined until only theoretical magicians remain. That is, until Mr Gilbert Norrell emerges as the first practical magician to arise in 200 years. Despite Norrell's pre-eminence, he is jealous and possessive, forcing the theoretical magicians to give up their studies and hoarding every book of and about magic (the difference explained in one of the numerous footnotes). He enters London society with two triumphs: animating the statues of York Cathedral and returning the fiancée of a government minister to life. However, this latter act requires him to enlist a fairy, an act that has far-reaching consequences.

Norrell reluctantly takes on a pupil, Jonathan Strange, to aid him in his goal of returning magicians to their exulted status. Strange is every thing his teacher is not — sociable, charming, naturally gifted, and eager to test the boundaries of English magic. He is particularly intrigued by the Raven King, a fairy-raised magician who ruled the north of England some 500 years previously, beginning the tradition of English magic. Frustrated by Norrell's refusal to share his knowledge and their increasingly divergent views on how magic should be managed, Strange breaks with Norrell and soon finds himself embroiled in the glittering dangers of Faerie.

"a compelling and original story"

While Strange and Norrell are the main characters, a large supporting cast also provides a variety of sub-plots, diversions and excursions. Black servant Stephen Black, Mr Strange’s wife Arabella, and the writing-covered Vinculus are especially beguiling characters, each in their own manner.

Often described as a hybrid of Harry Potter and Jane Austen, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell combines dry wit and social comedy with magic, myth, real folklore and fairy tales to create an often charming, sometimes eerie story littered with beautifully-rendered depictions of ships made of rain, deserted paths leading elsewhere, and mirrors that have quarrelled with the rooms they are meant to reflect. The interweaving of real events and people — the Napoleonic wars, mad King George, Lord Wellington, Lord Bryon — with the fantastic and the downright creepy, such as the malignant thistledown-haired gentleman and his terrible infatuation with several of the human characters, works in developing a compelling and original story.

The narrative style complements the early-1800s story — the unknown but knowledgeable narrator, the scholarly footnotes that introduce and elaborate on the fantastic and refer to both real and imaginary texts, the line-and-pencil drawings, and the consistently enthralling tone of the work establish perfectly a faux-Victorian book. It re-creates the peripheral role of woman, casual racism and sexism, and unquestioned imperialist might of the empire of Regency England (where moving cities, rivers and roads around on the Continent is all very well, but it’s not quite the done thing in England), while simultaneously winking at the reader because of the foolishness of it all.

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell has won numerous awards, including the Locus Award for a first novel, the 2005 Hugo Award for best novel and Time Magazine's #1 Book of 2004. It has recently been released in paperback, with a choice of cover colour, or of swapping the single novel for a three-volume edition. The book is currently being adapted into a movie, and a second book set in the same world is on the way. More information, including comments about the author by Norrell and Strange, can be found at http://www.jonathanstrange.com/.

Wendy Palmer

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Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Author: Susanna Clarke
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Price: $35 (hard cover)