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Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrel
Nov. 29th, 2004 01:41 amA few weeks ago, I read the first twenty-five pages of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrel. I was then obliged to put it on hold until last week, where I was able to read the remaining 750-odd pages continuously.
I enjoyed it throughly, overall. The book is very modern, but the author, Susanne Clark, endeavored to undertake the old British style of narration and dialogue that was used in about the same time period the book takes place - the early 1800's. I even saw some spellings of words I've never seen elsewhere - such as chuse and shew. She didn't quite manage to capture the eloquent style that other books I've read from that time period had - or perhaps that was just the other authors' own brilliance. But she had some very witty lines of her own.
It was hard to get into at first, rather slow, but it did pick up. I soon took a firm dislike to Mr Norrel - whom I now classify with confidence as a male Umbridge, in the sense he is "bad" on the "good side." He lacks, happily, Umbridge's malice and knowledge of what she is doing. Mr Norrel is more innocent in his workings to hinder the "good."
I also fell madly in love with Jonathan Strange. For Drawlight I picked up a fierce dislike practically the moment I met him, and I became quite fond of Lascelles until he, most regrettably, turned evil. And I believe that for very character in this novel there is no clear setting of "good" or "bad." Quite appropriate shades of gray.
But Drawlight's fate saddened me; Lascelles's left me staring at the page, shaking my head in amazement at the author's talent. I was somewhat disappointed with Stephen Black's ending situation, and the end of the novel as a whole was, as I described earlier, similar to running suddenly into a sturdy wall, leaving room only for a "...wah." It was certainly not bad, but rather...didn't close.
The theories of magic are excellently original, though not as fantastic as, say, the world of Lord of the Rings or the Sabriel-Lirael-Abhorsen trilogy. It was interesting how the author re-wrote bits of English history - not much, only a little, weaving it in so smoothly.
And now the quotes. Being mindful of the novel's length, around page three hundred I began to mark down the page numbers of especially good quotes I wanted to share, rather than dog-ear the pages. (I am reluctant to disfigure a book in new condition.)
A patrol had been sent out to look at the road between the two towns, but some Portuguese had come along and told the patrol that this was one of the English magician's roads and was certain to disappear in an hour or so taking everyone upon it to Hell - or possibly England.
"But [the trees] are blocking the light."
"So are you, Henry, but I have not yet taken an axe to you."
...he was conducting an argument with his neighbor as to whether the English magician had gone mad because he was a magician, or because he was English.
[concerning a man who had had an entire book tattooed into his skin, and the words were magically rearranged]
"So what are you now?"
Vinculus shrugged his shoulders. "Perhaps I am a Receipt-Book! Perhaps I am a Novel! Perhaps I am a Collection of Sermons!" He was excessively diverted by these thoughts and cackled to himself and capered about some more.
( SPOILERS )