In an alternate early nineteenth-century England, magic once existed but has faded into a topic for dusty scholars. Mr Norrell, a miserly recluse in Yorkshire, is the one practising magician and he wants to bring magic back, respectably and under his control. Then the younger, more adventurous Jonathan Strange appears and becomes his pupil. The Napoleonic Wars give them work, and the two differ over the nature of magic, especially the shadowy figure of the Raven King, medieval ruler of northern England. Susanna Clarke writes in the manner of a Regency novel, complete with footnotes that invent a whole history of English magic and the fairy gentleman with thistle-down hair.
It is aimed at those who enjoy long, witty, atmospheric fantasy in the vein of Jane Austen and Dickens, who relish invented scholarship, and who do not mind a slow pace. The reward is a world richly and wryly imagined.
Deep; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Deep Diver. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 2016
- Publisher
- Longanesi
- ISBN
- 9788830447684
- Language
- IT
