Two magicians shall appear in England. The first shall fear me; the second shall long to behold me The year is 1806. England is beleaguered by the long war with Napoleon, and 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 opposite of Norrell. So begins a dangerous battle between these two great men which overwhelms the one 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.

Accolades

Winner of Hugo Award: Novel Category 2005.
Winner of World Fantasy Award 2005.
Winner of British Book Awards: Newcomer of the Year 2005.
Longlisted Man Booker Prize, 2004.

Reviews

“An instant classic, one of the finest fantasies ever written.”-Kirkus Reviews

“Unquestionably the finest English novel of the fantastic written in the last seventy years. It’s funny, moving, scary, otherworldly, practical and magical, a journey through light and shadow-a delight to read, both for the elegant and precise use of words…and for the vast sweep of the story, as tangled and twisting as old London streets or dark English woods.”-Neil Gaiman

“Ravishing…A chimera of a novel that combines the dark mythology of fantasy with the delicious social comedy of Jane Austen into a masterpiece of the genre that rivals Tolkien…What really sets Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell apart is its treatment of magic. Clarke’s magic is a melancholy, macabre thing, confabulated out of snow and rain and mirrors and described with absolute realism … Clarke has another rare faculty: she can depict evil … [she] reaches down into fantasy’s deep, dark, twisted roots, down into medieval history and the scary, Freudian fairy-tale stuff. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell reminds us that there’s a reason fantasy endures: it’s the language of our dreams. And our nightmares.’ -Time

'This is, in both the precise and the colloquial sense, a fabulous book, a highly original and compelling work' Sunday Times

'This peerless tale of magic pulled me in filled with fascinating tales and fairy lore. A stunning achievement' Independent on Sunday

'Dazzling, witty and gleefully entertaining A triumph this is an energetic, engaging and inventive tale that simply kidnaps the lucky reader to participate in a rare experience' Irish Times

“Extraordinary…Will enchant readers of fantasy and of literary fiction alike.” -Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

'*Starred Review* It's surprising that this first novel works at all. Readers have to accept an especially fanciful premise but, as it quickly becomes obvious, acceptance presents no difficulty. This novel took 10 years to research and write, according to publicity material; for readers at least, the author's arduous task results in a smashing success--it's an exceptionally compelling, brilliantly creative, and historically fine-tuned piece of work. The brilliance of the novel lies in how Clarke so completely and believably creates a world within a world: the "outside" world being early-nineteenth-century England, as Napoleon the eagle looms over all of Europe; the "inner" world being the community of English magicians. At the story's outset, magic in the land is moribund; magicians, who convene in various convocations, "did not want to see magic done; they only wished to read about it in books." But circumstances arise that cause magic again to become manifest, not simply discussed as an academic subject; this resurrection has extensive consequences for the heretofore stately state of magic in the English realm. History and fantasy form a beautiful partnership in this detailed, authentic, and heartfelt novel, which is part fairy tale and part epic. The inner world it creates is completely furnished and credible; the outside world is exact in its accuracy. Written in a style correlative to the writing and speaking of the time, which the reader will come to find quite mellifluous, this novel is, in a word, charming. Comparisons to Harry Potter are inevitable but not distracting, for this novel stands on its own." Brad Hooper, Booklist

Author Biography

Susanna Clarke lives in Cambridge. This is her first novel. It was longlisted for the Booker in 2004 and won the British Book Award Newcomer of the Year Award, Hugo Award and World Fantasy Award.