Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell: A Novel

The 20th Anniversary Edition of the Hugo-award winning, epic New York Times Bestseller and basis for the BBC miniseries, where two men change England's history when they bring magic back into the world, now with a new introduction from V.E. Schwab.

In the midst of the Napoleonic Wars in 1806, most people believe magic to have long since disappeared from England - until the reclusive Mr. Norrell reveals his powers and becomes an overnight celebrity.

Another practicing magician then emerges: the young and daring Jonathan Strange. He becomes Norrell's pupil, and the two join forces in the war against France.

But Strange is increasingly drawn to the wild, most perilous forms of magic, and he soon risks sacrificing his partnership with Norrell and everything else he holds dear.

Susanna Clarke's brilliant first novel is an utterly compelling epic tale of nineteenth-century England and the two magicians who, first as teacher and pupil and then as rivals, emerge to change its history.

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Published Aug 11, 2020

864 pages

Average rating: 7.93

83 RATINGS

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Megera

Apr 04, 2025

10/10 stars

AMAZING - best fantasy fiction book written. Period.

hoyt

Jun 29, 2024

While not a perfect book, this is an amazing book, and is now one of my favorites. The author has presented a completely constructed alternate version of 1800s England and Europe with a bit of magic (including inventing a whole library's worth of cited fictional references for the footnotes), and populated it with interesting, annoying, and deeply-flawed characters. It is very long, but uses all of those pages well to really immerse you in the world. Read this book!

Reanae99

Apr 26, 2024

4/10 stars

I finally finished. Every time I thought about reading this book I would get the children's song "This is the Song that Never Ends" stuck in my head.

There were two characters I actually liked and since they were both minor characters until the end of the book they weren't in it very much.

Flo Lau

Mar 23, 2024

10/10 stars

Oh lord, this was a monster of a book. I can't believe I've finally actually finished! But it was definitely a wild ride and really amazing and I enjoyed almost every moment of it. I loved all the characters and the relationships between them, and the man with the thistle-down hair is so subtly sadistic (and not so subtle at times) and I don't know this book is just so amazing and original and I've never seen anything like it before. It's a whole alternate world that you could get lost in, and the made up footnotes just helped to round out the world and made it real. Also, the writing itself was amazing. Equal parts snarky and sarcastic and just delightful overall and basically I kept describing this book as "Jane Austen meets magic" to people who asked me about it because that's what it was.

Also I really liked the ending - I thought it was fitting for everyone, and it was just so satisfying. There wasn't a character's end that I felt like didn't work or that I wanted something different/more from. (Though now I just want more stories of Strange and Norrell doing magic together and being contentious buddies who work together despite their disagreements. Like buddy cops, but buddy magicians!)

Anyway, I guess this book was so long that there really isn't any way for me to organize this review in any way that makes much sense, so it's just going to stay as mostly incoherent thoughts and flail. I just feel so accomplished!

laurennoble

Sep 24, 2023

10/10 stars

This book took me to truly unexpected places – I don't know if I've ever been this surprised, delighted, and ultimately gripped by a story. The way it escalates and changes so that by the end you feel like you're in a different world than the one where you started, and the way that change feels inevitable, is stunning. I cannot believe this was Clarke's first novel! What the hell!