Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

The month of August disappeared surprisingly quickly, and while I can’t say where the first two weeks went, I spent the last two with my nose buried in the book, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.  I’ve had the book for a couple of years since reading a good review of it online, but I’d never picked it up to read it because it seemed like such a commitment.  My version of the paperback was “only” about 800 pages, and the current version you can buy at Amazon is over 1000, and I worried that I’d grow weary of holding it while reading.  Yes, Harry Potter is about the same length, but Harry Potter’s font is twice the size, so this book is really, really long.

I’m happy to say that I loved the book, despite it being a little unusual.  It’s written like an informal history book and/or biography, complete with footnotes, and supposedly composed in the 1800s.  The story has the same feel as 1800s English literature (the story takes place in England), and it even uses some old English spellings, so I don’t know if it’s for everyone.  I certainly saw a number of Amazon reviewers who found the book too difficult to read, which is sad, because I think they were turned off by a fear of new things and not by the book being truly difficult.  Many reviews complained about all the footnotes, yet so many of the footnotes were small stories in and of themselves, and many of them were quite funny.  The book is amazing because not only did the author create a plot set in a time unfamiliar to her, she created it in England, in various parts of Europe, and in a separate realm called Faerie.  The footnotes make reference to other books and to fables which the author has also had to invent, so in a way she’s written the equivalent of about five different books!

If I was to give a brief synopsis of the plot, I guess I’d say that the book is about an arrogant man (Mr. Norrell), who wants to be England’s most powerful, and only, magician.  In the context of this novel, a magician is a real occupation that one studies for, just as one might study to be a doctor or lawyer, so anyone can be a magician if they have access to the education.  Mr. Norrell wants to show his importance by serving the government, and he performs a dangerous and misguided trick (a resurrection of a dead woman) to try to impress people.  By invoking the help of a sadistic faerie, Mr. Norrell dooms a number of people to lives of misery, including the wife of his student/adversary, Jonathan Strange.  The book is a fascinating mix of gentle, old English writing and creepiness, like when a Faerie merrily recounts the day he murdered a number of children, and wants to throw a party to celebrate the occasion.  There are lots of gentlemen and servants and tea, as well as corpses hanging in trees and decorative banners made from the skin of murder victims.  I loved the slow pacing and the gentle dialogue, and think I’ll miss the style of the prose when I pick up my next “conventional” book.

I’ll happily read a sequel, which is rumoured to be in the works.  And I feel sorry for all the negative reviewers on Amazon who complained that the book was “slow”, or had difficult words, or who hated the footnotes.  Sometimes it’s good to read something a bit different, and a bit challenging—it makes you a better reader, and sometimes you even learn stuff.  If you’d like to know more about the book, there’s a great review here:  Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 09/04 at 11:40 PM

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  1. I just finished reading the “His Dark Materials” trilogy (thank you!!! for the recommendation, it was fabulous.) and will now look for this book. It looks most intriguing.

    How sad that someone would be put off by something like footnotes! For heaven’s sake. Footnotes. About as scary as tapioca.

    Posted by Diana  on  09/05  at  05:09 AM

  2. I enjoyed that book, too, but found it difficult for a physical reason, made even worse in the footnotes. The type was so darned small that I truly could not read it for long periods. I’d have voted for a two-volume publication of the novel, just to have a larger font and a less unwieldy book.

    Posted by Helly  on  09/05  at  05:24 AM

  3. I enjoyed that book when I read it a couple years ago. I’ll keep my eye out for the sequel--thanks for the heads-up. smile

    Posted by Helena  on  09/05  at  07:59 AM

  4. I’d like the cats’ opinion… is it good lap reading? Comfy to sleep on? Yummy corners?

    Mom’s been reading The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordon since, wul, a long time. Wif 12 thick books, there’s lotsa detail but too many characters to follow! She mostly reads in bed, where I can flop on her feets.

    Posted by Victor Tabbycat  on  09/05  at  11:28 AM
    5. Page 1 of 1 pages

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