Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

By: Susanna Clarke

Narrated by: Simon Prebble

Length: 32 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

English magicians were once the wonder of the known world, with fairy servants at their beck and call; they could command winds, mountains, and woods. But by the early 1800s they have long since lost the ability to perform magic. They can only write long, dull papers about it, while fairy servants are nothing but a fading memory.

But at Hurtfew Abbey in Yorkshire, the rich, reclusive Mr. Norrell has assembled a wonderful library of lost and forgotten books from England's magical past and regained some of the powers of England's magicians. He goes to London and raises a beautiful young woman from the dead. Soon he is lending his help to the government in the war against Napoleon Bonaparte, creating ghostly fleets of rain-ships to confuse and alarm the French.

All goes well until a rival magician appears. Jonathan Strange is handsome, charming, and talkative, the very opposite of Mr. Norrell. Strange thinks nothing of enduring the rigors of campaigning with Wellington's army and doing magic on battlefields. Astonished to find another practicing magician, Mr. Norrell accepts Strange as a pupil. But it soon becomes clear that their ideas of what English magic ought to be are very different. For Mr. Norrell, their power is something to be cautiously controlled, while Jonathan Strange will always be attracted to the wildest, most perilous forms of magic. He becomes fascinated by the ancient, shadowy figure of the Raven King, a child taken by fairies who became king of both England and Faerie, and the most legendary magician of all. Eventually Strange's heedless pursuit of long-forgotten magic threatens to destroy not only his partnership with Norrell, but everything that he holds dear.

Sophisticated, witty, and ingeniously convincing, Susanna Clarke's magisterial novel weaves magic into a flawlessly detailed vision of historical England. She has created a world so thoroughly enchanting that 32 hours leave readers longing for more.

©2004 Susanna Clarke (P)2004 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC, and Bloomsbury Publishing

Critic reviews

• Hugo Award Winner, Best Novel, 2005

• World Fantasy Award Winner, 2005

• Audie Award Finalist, Literary Fiction, 2005

"A smashing success....An exceptionally compelling, brilliantly creative, and historically fine-tuned piece of work." (Booklist)
"Extraordinary....Immersion in the mesmerizing story reveals its intimacy, humor, and insight, and will enchant readers of fantasy and literary fiction alike." (Publishers Weekly)
"Ravishing...superb...combines the dark mythology of fantasy with the delicious social comedy of Jane Austen into a masterpiece of the genre that rivals Tolkien." (Time)
"Clarke welcomes herself into an exalted company of British writers - not only, some might argue, Dickens and Austen, but also the fantasy legends Kenneth Grahame and George MacDonald - as well as contemporary writers like Susan Cooper and Philip Pullman." (The New York Times Book Review)

32 hours of English magic.

I got the audible version of the book after watching two episodes of the BBC series based on the book. The pacing here is in no hurry, which I think is much easier to settle in with when someone is reading the story to you. the reader has a voice for each major character's dialogue, which is very helpful. The reader also chooses to read the footnotes (this is a work of fiction with footnotes) as they occur in the main text. This also slows the advance of the story but balances that by adding greatly to the verisimilitude of the world of English magic being described. Events accelerate a lot as the book nears its conclusion, but the finale is mostly well prepared. I listened all the way to the conclusion over three weeks or so, I think, and enjoyed the immersion in this book's attitude toward time.

Amazing!

simply one of the finest books I've had the pleasure of reading.
just like to add .
a must read

dry, long, slow

I struggled to finish this book. It definitely picked up after the first third, but it was still not an adventure. It so slow and the climax was so drawn out it was anti-climactic. I am not sure why this book is getting literary praise, maybe there's something to it that as a general reader I didn't get. But as a general reader I do not think this was worth the time.

UNEXPECTED AND EXCEPTIONAL

I don't know who Susanna Clarke is- but I want to. This is a brilliant and clever book and a pure delight to read - or as in my case if once isn't enough - to have e read to you by the talented Mr. Pebble.

Don't do it

I was unable to tell if this book was so bad because of the poor chap reading the story, or if the actually book was that bad. I found myself struggling to listen and couldn't wait for it to be done. Perhaps the following books are better, but this one is a looser.

I loved it, I don't care what realists say.

I loved this book. I got the audiobook because it's narrated by Simon Prebble and he always does a fantastic job and I wasn't disappointed. The BBC is doing a TV series of it and it got me interested, but Susanna Clark's style is a lot like Neil Gaiman and is what ultimately kept me listening. I loved the story. I would recommend it to pretty much everyone I know. Although, I tend to get a little over-enthused, so this might just come off as rambling.

great book if you like Dickens and fantasy

performance is amazing. fits the 19th century aesthetic of the story perfectly. story is great.

Magic Lives

I was surprised how excellent the book was read and written. Very presently enjoyable!

what a charming novel

took a while to adjust to the style, but a marvelous book in the end

Slow build, worth the time

I wasn't sure what to expect when I started. then by halfway through I thought it was meandering through plot with no story. But by the end it all comes together really well and makes it worth the time commitment.