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)

Slow start, but good

It took me a while to really get into the book, but after Johnathan Strange came onto the scene, the story got much better.

One of my all-time favorite audiobooks

If you enjoy Harry Potter, and would love something more mature...
If you enjoy British literature, especially authors such as Dickens or Jane Austen...
If you appreciate the use of "magic" is great stories...
If you are a fan of Lev Grossman's Magician's series...

If any of the above apply to you, I feel it is highly likely you will deeply appreciate this book, especially the audiobook version. In fact, I consider the audiobook version of Clarke's book to be a finer experience than reading the book. I often _dissuade_ friends from reading this and instead tell them to experience the audio. So far, I've logged ZERO disappointments.

Hope you enjoy it!

Delightfully Charming and Just Mysterious Enough..

... to be a window into something perfectly alien.

Slow to start. Patience needed for character building to gain momentum.

a fantastic weaving tale

loved this book. yes it takes a bit to get into but all the background information is important and adds a lot of depth to the story.
Mrs. Clarke created a highly detailed world or alternative history so well that by the time I wasn't even half way through the story, I was practically convinced that all of this actually happened.
Highly recommend

Completely Spectacular!

What does Simon Prebble bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

This is a spectacular audio presentation, worthy of both the book and the BBC television adaptation. Listening to the audiobook is a treat. The slower pace allows the listener to savor Clarke's writing. The format and voice of the book are especially suited to the audiobook format. I can't recommend this highly enough. Truly smashing!

The story did get better...

I had a hard time getting into this book. Glad I stuck it out and finished listening because I did get into the flow of the story and did enjoy it.

wonderfully inventive story.

A wonderful inventive story that had me at times smiling and at other times quite angry. I enjoyed the footnotes which I believe some folk find distracting, but which I thought didn't distract from the narrative.

Well done

Thiis was a long complicated novel that I throughly enjoyed while knitting. The performance was very good.

fantastic

it seems to me a rare thing that an author can me feel like I know characters as though they are old friends. to the point that finishing this listen, makes me sad in the same way as when I know that I will not see a good friend or brother for a long while.
this book seems to take a more human and practical look at magic, and how it could be the pride of a nation, but also how such a thing could be feared and despised as well as every grey area in between.

the writing style and cadence is paced, but not slow and moves with the story and events naturally. I personally found the footnotes enlightening and humorous, although I suspect that some may find them to be a bit of a distraction.

Simon Prebble only adds to the enjoyment of this book. although I have not listened to anything he has narrated before, I will be listening to some books solely because he is reading them.
His narration is rich and clear, and he seems to have no trouble keeping up with different cadences and intonations of the various characters.

yup

all other reviews are spot on. rough start, yet charming. worth sticking through it until strange apears