Folklore is filled with stories of hapless humans who find themselves captives in the Land of Fairy and of their rescue by brave knights and enchanters. But never has such a tale been told like this. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, a first novel by Susanna Clarke, is a sprawling masterpiece of fantasy that examines the problems of practical magic and the challenges of dealing with fairies from a modern Victorian perspective.
The novel is set in an imaginary England in the early 19th century. Magic is real, but since the disappearance of John Uskglass (a.k.a., the Raven King) from Northern England hundreds of years ago, it has declined and its study has become the realm of theoreticians and historians. Practical magic is effectively dead and is regarded as in poor taste, if not impossible.
Into this world shuffles Gilbert Norrell, apparently the only practical magician in England. Having spent years in solitary study, he decides that it is time to go public with his abilities and to bring magic back to England. Poorly endowed by nature for the role of either a magician or a revolutionary, Norrell is a frail, peevish little man who might be more happily employed as a banker. Norrell is a bundle of contradictions: he aspires to be a public figure but detests society; he wishes to revive English magic but is suspicious and frightened of other magicians. Strangest of all, Norrell claims to have no use for the fairy-magic of the Raven King.
As it turns out, Norrell’s antipathy for fairies is well-founded. In an attempt to court the favor of a member of Parliament, Norrell returns the MP’s deceased fiancée, Emma Wintertowne, to life with the aid of a Mephistophelean fairy, known only as “the gentleman with the thistle-down hair.” This has the desired effect of solidifying Norrell’s social and political respectability, but at the cost of dooming Miss Wintertowne (who soon becomes Lady Pole) to an enchanted half-life, in which every evening is spent dancing at Lost Hope, the fairy gentleman’s estate. Lady Pole’s companion in enchantment is her husband’s servant, Stephen Black, to whom the fairy has taken a liking. While the fairy views Lady Pole as a mere ornament, he sees Stephen as a companion, often having long conversations with him. In fact the fairy is so taken with Stephen that he determines to make him King of England.
Norrell, oblivious to the evil that he has brought to England through his dealings with the fairy, goes on to take an active part in the Napoleonic wars, using his magic to baffle the French navy. During this time, Norrell is visited by Jonathan Strange, a young man who wants to be a magician. Impressed by Strange’s talent, Norrell reluctantly agrees. Norrell’s instinctive suspicion and duplicity work against him in this relationship. By this time he has already bought up all of the books of magic in England and has sequestered them in his personal library. He only reluctantly allows Strange to read a few of these works.
Strange and his wife, Arabella, are a handsome and likable couple who get along in society far better than Norrell. The Cabinet ministers find Strange easier to work with than Norrell and send him to assist the Duke of Wellington in Spain. Although Wellington is initially contemptuous of the magician, Strange soon learns to make himself useful by magically creating roads and moving villages to the advantage of the British army.
After his success in the Peninsular Campaign, Strange finds it hard to resume his role as an apprentice to Norrell. He becomes increasingly conscious of his teacher’s many lies and omissions. Finally, Strange writes a highly critical response to one of Norrell’s articles in a magical journal, and subsequently breaks with him entirely.
The gentleman with the thistle-down hair, meanwhile, has grown tired of Lady Pole and has begun to eye Arabella Strange. He causes her to appear to die, but in actuality to exist eternally at Lost Hope.
Strange settles in Italy. Freed from Norrell’s anti-fairy influence, he is now free to attempt to summon a fairy. This is far more difficult for him than it was for Norrell and Strange has to resort to extreme and dangerous forms of magic to do it. He actively pursues madness in an attempt to make himself think more like a fairy. He briefly makes contact with the gentleman with the thistle-down hair, not realizing that he is encountering a being who passionately hates him and who has abducted his wife.
Accompanied by thunder and lightening (which he later admits was “a little overdone” and perhaps a product of his association with Lord Byron in Italy), Strange returns to England. He uses his magic to finally penetrate Norrell’s library, where he searches for ways to free Arabella. Norrell, not knowing what else to do, decides to help him and the two of them attempt to summon John Uskglass. Their magic works, although in a completely unexpected way, resulting in the destruction of Lost Hope and its proprietor and the return of Arabella to Italy. Strange and Norrell, however, find themselves both enveloped in Eternal Darkness and disappear from England together. Strange confides to Arabella that the two magicians will work on banishing their enchantment and will return to England someday.
Undoubtedly, the plot of the book is fascinating, but I think it is the style that makes it fun. It has a wonderfully Victorian feel that reminds me of Dickens in its wit and psychological insight. Like Dickens, there are hosts of sub-plots and mini-stories. One of my favorites concerns the capture of a French ship with a mermaid figure-head. Mr. Norrell was able to grant the mermaid the gift of speech, but the combination of her hatred of the English with her very nautical vocabulary made attempts to extract military secrets from her more colorful than productive.
A particularly interesting conceit that Ms. Clarke employs involves the existence of a vast body of English magical literature, which is often cited and reflected upon in footnotes. This literature includes biographies of notable magicians, spell books, theoretical and historical works on magic, and a pair of magical periodicals that were early fruits of the Norrellite revolution in English magic. These footnotes are also used as a clever means of foreshadowing, since characters and events are often mentioned here in transitu before their introduction in the story proper.
In fact, the importance of the written word is a significant theme throughout the novel. From the beginning, Norrell attempts to solidify his position as the country’s only practical magician by hoarding all the books on magic. When Strange, following their break, publishes his History and Practice of English Magic (John Murray, 1816), Norrell commits the ultimate act of censorship and causes almost all the copies to disappear. This act is so cowardly that it erodes much of Norrell’s already dwindling public support. (Speaking of John Murray, it is interesting that Ms. Clarke has a mere publisher join the ranks of the Duke of Wellington, King George III, and Lord Byron among the novel’s historical cameos.)
Ms. Clarke has a talent for atmosphere, especially where magic is concerned. Magic in her world generally ranges from merely eery (thunderstorms, flocks of ravens), to darkly horrible (the interminable dreary processions of the fairies, the column of darkness that surrounds Strange), to insanely terrifying (a wood growing up through a man, instantly crucifying him). Language, word choice, pace, all contribute to this atmosphere of gloom.
Sadly, the book’s illustrations do not. I will admit to being a harsh critic of illustrators. I like the idea of illustrated novels in theory, but find myself frequently disappointed in practice. In this case, all the subtle gradations of mood and tone in the novel are reduced to a dull, lifeless gray. We can only assume that the illustrator has confused “smudgy” with “atmospheric.”
Minor quibbles about the illustrations aside, this book is an astonishing feat, especially for a first-time writer. I understand that it is doing rather well on the market, which is a bit surprising given its daunting length. I will be recommending this to others and will be on the look out for future works by Ms. Clarke.