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Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell
by Susanna Clarke
(Bloomsbury, 777 pages, advance reading copy reviewed, available in
hardback, September 2004, priced £17.99.)
Review by John Toon
England, at the dawn of a new century -- the nineteenth century. Magic
left England some three centuries earlier and has not been  practised
since, although there is no shortage of gentlemen who wish to study
the lost art and pronounce themselves expert in it. Indeed, theoretical
magic is one of the noblest callings for the rich idler, while those
who claim to be practical magicians -- generally street conjurors and
petty criminals -- are held in the lowest regard. Into this milieu arrives
a learned recluse with genuine practical ability. This is Gilbert Norrell,
a man whose aim is the restoration of English Magic -- and to ensure
that it's done his way, he goes to great lengths to buy up every magical
text in the country and to put down every other would-be magician.
It's therefore somewhat of a surprise for him when a dashing young
man by the name of Jonathan Strange appears on the London scene, claiming
to be a self-taught magician. Rivalry seems to be on the cards, but
instead Norrell takes Strange on as an apprentice; together the duo
undertake magical projects for the British government, and work to confound
the ambitions of the French Emperor Napoleon by sorcerous means. Yet
all is not well. Norrell, opinionated but duplicitous, has secretly
performed fairy-magic of the sort he publicly condemns, and has unleashed
a rapacious evil on London society. Strange, whimsical but headstrong,
harbours a desire to retrace the steps of John Uskglass, the Raven King
-- former three-hundred-year ruler of the North of England -- and indulges
his obsession to the exclusion and at the expense of all else. The two
inevitably come to blows, but while they focus their attentions on each
other, danger threatens Strange's wife and the household of Norrell's
patron.
Strange & Norrell has a flavour to it that I, being largely
ignorant of nineteenth century literature, consider Dickensian. There
are the immoral grotesques, such as Norrell's self-appointed assistants
in London, to whom Dickensian justice is meted out, and the good-hearted
womenfolk and working men, who get Dickensian injustice instead. The
first part of the book opens with a faintly Pickwick-esque society of
theoretical magicians, which gives way in the second part to a similarly
clubby relationship between the gentlemen magicians and the government
ministers who employ them. The published version promises 27 illustrations
which are lacking in the review copy, although I'd envisage something
in the style of Boz's engravings. Clarke's wonderfully dry wit, however,
and her use of the particular literary phrasing of the period are decidedly
Austenesque. (Damn! that's blown a perfectly good lazy comparison.)
But leaving aside all this, it's the story itself that makes Strange
& Norrell the great book that it is. If I'm going to stick with
a book this size and enjoy it, it needs to be pretty gripping. I can
honestly say I resented having to put Strange & Norrell down
to do little things like work, eat and sleep. Chapter after chapter
of incident and intrigue kept me thoroughly hooked, and Clarke keeps
us guessing about the resolution of the various plotlines until the
very end. The persistent footnotes, I imagine, will irk as many readers
as they entertain, although personally I'm entertained. Little side-stories
plucked from a fantastic mythos of English magic fill the bottoms of
the pages, fleshing out an entire world beyond the confines of the book.
The overall effect is, so to speak, spell-binding.
The superlatives haven't yet been invented that could do this book
justice. An 800-page monster written in a nineteenth-century style,
it might not seem at first to be The Book For You. Think again; Strange
& Norrell has already been nominated for awards, not least the Booker
Prize (it made the longlist, but sadly not the shortlist) -- and it's
only been in the shops a month or so. This book deserves recognition,
and your time. There is one word I can think of to describe it: Magic.
Strange & Norrell has taken the very notion of magic and made
it its own.
Elsewhere in infinity plus:
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