Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

By Susanna Clarke

A little bit like “Harry Potter” meets “Jeeves and Wooster.” Lots of cleverness in this book, wrapped up into a pretty good story. An eccentric little man, who embodies the contradictory forces of solitary research and restoring the glory of Magic to England, meets a mysterious young man, who finds his life’s calling as magician-explorer. They become each other’s teacher, cric, enemy, soul-colleague.

One of the intriguing and amusing elements of the book is the fictional “History of English Magic;” Clarke supplies the reader with copious footnotes about the important names and anecdotes in this field of supposed historic scholarship.

In spite of all the esoteric details, there is a lot of mystery carried through the entire book. I think I got a little frustrated with how the various storylines did not intersect until the very end of the book. Some characters knew things that other characters needed to know… and then all of a sudden we’re told that they found something out but not how they discovered it.

I feel there is a major flaw in the wrap-up: multiple characters had been under an enchantment by the villain, and when he dies those enchantments are all lifted except the one affecting the two main characters. It didn’t make sense, I wish Clarke had just mentioned why this enchantment was different from the rest rather than making me speculate after I’d finished the last page.