Jonathan Strange & MR Norrell - by Susanna Clarke

About the Book

Book Synopsis

The 20th Anniversary Edition of the Hugo-award winning, epic New York Times Bestseller and basis for the BBC miniseries, where two men change England's history when they bring magic back into the world, now with a new introduction from V.E. Schwab.

In the midst of the Napoleonic Wars in 1806, most people believe magic to have long since disappeared from England - until the reclusive Mr. Norrell reveals his powers and becomes an overnight celebrity.

Another practicing magician then emerges: the young and daring Jonathan Strange. He becomes Norrell's pupil, and the two join forces in the war against France.

But Strange is increasingly drawn to the wild, most perilous forms of magic, and he soon risks sacrificing his partnership with Norrell and everything else he holds dear.

Susanna Clarke's brilliant first novel is an utterly compelling epic tale of nineteenth-century England and the two magicians who, first as teacher and pupil and then as rivals, emerge to change its history.

Review Quotes

"Clarke's imagination is prodigious, her pacing is masterly and she knows how to employ dry humor in the service of majesty." --Gregory Maguire, The New York Times Book Review

"The book I wish I'd written." --R. F. Kuang, #1 New York Times bestselling author of BABEL and YELLOWFACE

"A fiercely funny, beautiful writer, Clarke attacks her subject with the wit and craft of a Dickens or Austen, effortlessly mixing historical figures and events in with her magical ones. And that magic: nobody writes about magic the way Clarke does . . . She writes about magic as if she's actually worked it." --Lev Grossman, TIME Magazine

"The writing is captivating, the characters charming, and the notion that perhaps there's more to reality than what our senses tell us is, as Clarke might say with a smile, simply enchanting." --NPR

"Ms. Clarke's fertile imagination takes her readers to many a mysterious realm." --The New York Times

"The most sparkling literary debut of the year." --Salon

"Susanna Clarke writes with an intelligence and beauty that seems at times miraculous." --Katherine Rundell

"Many people have leapt into the historical fantasy space since Clarke, but no one has ever written anything quite like this-I'm not sure anyone ever will." --LitHub

"A classic for a thousand reasons which have been more eloquently stated by a thousand individuals other than myself. It is, simply, in a class amongst itself." --Roshani Chokshi, THE LAST TALE OF THE FLOWER BRIDE

"Notable for its own delicious 'Dickens/Austen with magic' brilliance, also worth mentioning since it is one of the very few fantasy novels to have a really good screen adaptation." --Garth Nix, THE LEFT-HANDED BOOKSELLERS OF LONDON

"This luxe new version of Susanna Clarke's alternate-history epic-now 20 years old-is 864 pages of pleasure for someone in need of serious escape." --Vulture

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