I took up Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell for the first time when I was around 13. It was one of the longest (apart from Harry Potter) and densest books I’d ever attempted to read at the time, and given my then-recent forays into the world of video games my attention span was growing shorter by the day. Before I took it up for a second time, I had patchy memories of an extremely important Book, a prophecy, and magicians participating in the Napoleonic Wars. And also bits and pieces of a style that I’d never read before, something that I would later think read like Austen with a touch of the fantastic.In short: I think I skipped around a lot. And I missed most of the important bits.Two weeks ago I picked the book up again. It was a slow start, and I wasn’t much taken in by the characters—until things started happening. Strange things. Magical things. In this world of people so (at first) drearily ordinary and proper there was a force that could reach all the way back through time and draw out the mystic and the terrifying, and bring about happenings so vivid and present that the world would never be the same. Whether it would be better or worse afterward was for the individual to decide.I slogged through the style which at some times became claustrophobic, and was rewarded with sweeping scenes of epic scale that featured power in a way I had never considered it before, histories that I recognized (but which, with the addition of magic, were much changed) and characters that I grew to care deeply about and sympathize with, even in spite of their many failings. The end, I must say, confused the hell out of me. But give me a while to think on it, and I may come to new realizations. I only finished it two hours ago, after all.—Clarke’s strengths are numerous, and her failings few.She has a way of describing magic which makes it seem utterly ordinary and everyday, and yet also making it seem on occasion great and terrible, a power that only gods should be able to master. Spells are as simple as making statues come alive to talk, and as complex as summoning beings from times long ago and realms far distant.And what’s more, magic has a very pronounced effect on individuals and their surroundings. Houses shift and change, or become near-transparent and unmoored from their physical construction. And people who deal with Fairies, beings of great magical power and cunning, are liable to be whisked away if caught unawares, to say nothing of their loved ones.She builds characters complex and deep, many with strongly-held beliefs that contrast with their doings in everyday life. Consistency is rare; men and women change opinions, skills, and objectives throughout, and also their manner of speaking or acting. The novel takes place over several years, and to have characters that are the same from beginning to end would be silly to say the least.There is also a quite lengthy list of characters, but they are introduced so gradually that it is no trouble at all to keep track of them, even if one’s reading period is lengthier and has large gaps in between sessions.And beneath everything is her description and style, Austen-esque as I have said, with flashes of more modern description when more speedy prose is needed, or when words of the 1800s fail. This is one of the very few criticisms I bear: that the style at some times seems almost more important to Clarke than the plot, and just when the reader wants more information she spends long passages setting the scene, or instead switches to another perspective entirely.The plot, as well, is both a brilliant and flawed. It not only spans years, but also continents. The characters have their own unique goals and dreams, and throughout the novel Clarke makes sure to focus on each for long enough to see their progress. Some, necessarily, are less interesting than others.But my main complaint is that moments of dullness in the lives of some are inserted at moments of extreme tension in the lives of others. This made me frustrated a number of times, and I was sorely tempted to skip around as I had before. I didn’t, though, and ultimately I was glad for it. There is so much information packed into each page that missing any would have prevented me from understanding… well, a lot, probably.In the end, however, I have very few negative things to say. It’s a brilliant book, and one that I’m now going to buy in hardback if I can find it. Then I can flip through it more easily on rainy days, and dream of the Raven King whenever a cloud passes across the sun and a shadow falls upon the page. I just finished reading Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, and it was good, if dry. I liked it, I really did, but it didn't create the sort of atmosphere for me that let me become too absorbed in it.Several things bothered me.Only Strange and Norrell were very rounded, and Norrell considerably more so than Strange. The Duke of Wellington was interesting, but everyone else really fell away without anyone noticing. Arabella was cute, but not very clever or interesting, and I wasn't torn over whether she was ever rescued or not. I liked Vinculus, and I quite liked Childermass, but I felt more pity for Stephen Black than Lady Pole, and even then...eh.The biggest thing, of course, was the prophecy. LOLWUT? “Two magicians shall appear in England,” he said. “The first shall fear me; the second shall long to behold me; The first shall be governed by thieves and murderers; the second shall conspire at his own destruction; The first shall bury his heart in a dark wood beneath the snow, yet still feel its ache; The second shall see his dearest possession in his enemy’s hand…”I got to the end of the book, and still didn't know which magician was the first, and which was the second. I had to go back and read it again, but then you get to the underlined part, and I think, "O rly?" because where is Norrell's heart, and when did he bury it beneath the snow in any sort of wood at all? I wracked my brain, and came up with nothing that truly fit. Maybes included the books at Northshire Abbey and Drawlight...I even stretched and tried to fit dead&buried Arabella in there. And, really, wasArabella ever Strange's dearest possession? And who was his enemy, the fairy? Norrell?He never really admits that the fairy has screwed him over, and he is perfectly willing to forgive Norrell his own trespasses so long as they can dally together all (night) and night in their Dark Tower of Love & Magic.I want to know what part Norrell had in Arabella's death. It's made to seem as if the fairy did it all himself, but why, then, does Norrell always seem so shifty afterwards, when she's mentioned? AND who is the fairy? For a while, I thought he was John Uskglass--corrupted after all these years, but obv. that was wrong. Or was it?Did Stephen Black become the Raven King, and if so, why? How? Was the Fairy the spirit of John Uskglass? When he died, is that how the Raven King died?These are all things that I think could (and should) have been answered somewhere within those 900+ pages. I'm disappointed because I invested myself in the story, and then it turns out to not really be a full story after all. I need some sort of closure, and I feel like there wasn't any closure here at all. Characters were brought in and dismissed at will. Assumptions were made and never proved or disproved. GIVE ME ANSWERS.
What do You think about Jonathan Strange (2004)?
This book will stay with me for a long time. Brilliant and very, very imaginative.
—Arch
Doskonała kontynuacja świetnego pierwszego tomu.
—Sabrina
Having a hard time getting in to this book...
—johnny223
This is my second reading. It's that good.
—TayTay
