Susanna Clarke

Shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Guardian First Book Award; longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 

'Unquestionably the finest English novel of the fantastic written in the last seventy years ... Funny, moving, scary, otherworldly, practical and magical' NEIL GAIMAN

The year is 1806. centuries have passed since practical magicians faded into the nation's past. But scholars of this glorious history discover that one remains: the reclusive Mr Norrell, whose displays of magic send a thrill through the country.

Proceeding to London, he raises a beautiful woman from the dead and summons an army of ghostly ships to terrify the French. Yet the cautious, fussy Norrell is challenged by the emergence of another magician: the brilliant novice Jonathan Strange. Young, handsome and daring, Strange is the very antithesis of Norrell.

So begins a dangerous battle between these two great men which overwhelms that between England and France. And their own obsessions and secret dabblings with the dark arts are going to cause more trouble than they can imagine.

A Novel

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

myantonia

He hardly ever spoke of magic, and when he

did it was like a history lesson and no one

Fore-Shadowing.  This slight reference, to think it has greater implications, it's just so clever to see.

1. The History and Practice of English Magic , by Jonathan Strange, vol. I, chap. 2, pub. John Murray, London, 1816.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell quotes

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