Book Review: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Posted on | October 27, 2009 | No Comments
Note: I promise I will also post 2-4 star reviews; it’s not all total suck or total win. This is just what I happened to have next in line.
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Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
Susanna Clarke
http://www.jonathanstrange.com
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It’s long. The plot is convoluted, the characters numerous, and the footnotes copious. It’s archaic; “show” is spelled as “shew”. It made my geeky little heart burst with its awesomeness.
Susanna Clarke has managed to write, in the dawn of the 21st century, a surprisingly authentic 19th century English novel – and made it a fantasy novel, with compelling characters and an affectation of dry scholarliness. The instant literary connection I made was to George Eliot’s Middlemarch and William Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, possibly just because those are the two English literature bricks I’ve read recently, but the similarities are striking, both in the terms of epic plot and in showing multiple viewpoints of characters on multiple levels of society, with their varying moral backbones and hang-ups. I even found the novel reminiscent of the casual racism of 19th century novels, as fairies are shown to be a uniformly dirty and amoral race, even if the bad taste is diffused by having the true hero of the story be a black Londoner.
There’s much here that deserves careful examination. I only wish I was erudite enough to make a full analysis, find all the literary and cultural sources and make more studied comparisons, but alas, I am not a student writing a paper. Let’s just say that it’s not necessary to be an aficionado of literary history to enjoy this novel, but it helps if you find Wellington + reanimated corpses a pretty awesome combination, and what helps most is liking English classics in the first place. If the latter is not the case for you, chances are you’ll give up within the first 50 pages anyway.
For people who absolutely hate Eliot and Thackeray, but want to find out what Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is all about, I wrote the following condensed recap in the spirit of Book-a-Minute Classics. It was previously published on GoodReads. If you haven’t read the novel and don’t like spoilers you probably shouldn’t have read this far in the first place, look away now.
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Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (Condensed Version)
Mr Norrell
I’ve spent all my life studying magic and now intend to revive it in England. By which I mean I want everyone to see how good I am and admire me.
Fairy, revive Lady Pole so the cabinet ministers will be impressed with me.
The gentleman with thistle-down hair
Ooh, she’s pretty!
(Revives Lady Pole, then enchants her and makes her dance in his house every night.)
Mr Norrell
Oops.
Jonathan Strange
I am young, talented and arrogant. I never resolved my issues with my father so I’m going to become Mr Norrell’s pupil and rebel against him with all my might.
(He does.)
Mr Norrell
The Raven King of the north is a fable.
Jonathan Strange
The Raven King rules!
Mr Norrell
Fairies are dangerous.
Jonathan Strange
Fairies rule!
The gentleman with thistle-down hair
(Steals people.)
(Invisible bells ring, objects disappear and new ones are put in their place, people act strangely, as if enchanted.)
Mrs Strange
There’s a curious gentleman living at the Poles who tells me stories about fairies all the time. You know Lady Pole? The strange woman who complains of music and says what a drag it is to dance every night, and babbles on about fairies?
Jonathan Strange
That’s nice, dear. Not now, though, I need to study magic some more. Did you know invisible bells are associated with the appearance of fairies?
The gentleman with thistle-down hair
(Steals Mrs Strange and puts a stinky wet moss-oak in her place.)
Jonathan Strange
Good heavens, dear, you don’t look well.
Moss-oak
I’m a tree.
Jonathan Strange
I think you need to lie down.
Moss-oak
(Does, and dies.)
Jonathan Strange
Oh no! Arabella!
Mr Norrell
I really miss Jonathan Strange, so I’m going to villify him in every newspaper and destroy his life’s work.
Jonathan Strange
To get over Arabella’s death, I will throw myself in my work. I wonder if I can find a way to Faerie.
(Does.)
OMG WTF FAIRIES STEAL PEOPLE!!
Lady Pole
DUH.
Jonathan Strange
Norrell, let’s summon the Raven King so he can help us free my wife.
Mr Norrell
Magic! Oh, I love magic. Didn’t you hate me, though?
Jonathan Strange
Maybe later.
(They do magic. A giant raven almost eats them. Secondary characters save the enchanted people.)
Norrell
They’re saved! We’re the best magicians ever.
The Raven King
I planned the whole thing.
English Magic
(Is revived.)
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