Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell Reviews

Where to start? First, what it’s about. Two magicians in England set about to re-discover the art which has been lost for a few hundred years. This takes place in the early 19th Century, while Britain is fighting off the advancing French army led by Napoleon.

As you can imagine in being an interesting storyline, the two don’t start off as a “team” first thing in the book. Actually, Mr Norrell makes a big impression on all of England with his talent. While Jonathan Strange comes along later, after being told he is part of a prophecy.

The interaction between all the characters is quite good. And though the character development is good, I didn’t come across as really caring for all of them. At one point a character dies, and I didn’t feel any shock or the slightest twinge. It was just part of the story.

As for Ms Clarke’s style, that seems to be a hot topic. In my opinion, it is very good. Even though it is a bit of jumbled up bits of different styles. At times the book presents itself as if the narrator is sitting in front of you telling you the story. Other times it comes across as a biography or history book about the two magicians. But I found myself enjoying the the prose, and dialect of the characters.

The story itself really grabbed me at first. Right from the onset, the way things are presented and set up, I was hooked. Clarke at times would bring chapters to and end with wrapping up a problem. This gave it a biographical/historical feel to it. But other plotlines spanned chapters, if not the whole book. At times this really worked well with the book. Other times it tended to drag it down. And there was a section in the middle that I really had to push myself to get through. But once some of the plotlines were played out to develop the ending, it really cooked. The last 200 pages really made it hard to put the book down. The overall storyline really came into focus, and the events really made for good reading.

Despite it’s faults, this is quite a charming book. I know that sounds like a rather odd thing to say about a 782 page book about two English magicians during the reign of Napoleon. But it is the best way I can put it. There are things about it that scream the fact that this is Ms Clarke’s first novel and make it obvious that it took her 10 years to write it. But there are also things in it that show the brilliance of such a story and her writing and storytelling abilities.