review: jonathan strange & mr. norrell

Last week I finished one of the best fantasy novels that I have read in a long time. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke, is a story of two gentleman magicians in early 19th century England who use magic to help the British defeat Napoleon's army. The story is engaging and clever. Clarke uses footnotes to cite different magical books, texts, and fables (all of which she has invented) to help explain parts of the story. It is as fun to read the footnotes as it is to follow the plot.

Since I like art, I have to admit that my favorite scene in the book is when Mr. Norrell, one of the gentleman magicians, uses magic to cause all of the statues in York Cathedral to speak. Mr. Norrell performs this act of magic for a group of "theoretical" magicians (gentlemen study the history of magic but do not perform spells themselves) prove Norrell's superiority as a "practicing" magician. I really recommend that you read this scene in the book (found here on Google Books - read pages 36-41). It's very fun.

The only things that I didn't like in the book were two or three short references that mentioned/compared religion and magic. In one scene, a man was able to stop a magic spell from being effective when he took pages of a letter and placed them in a copy of the Bible. The magic was supposed to alter the letters or cause them to leave the man's possession, but the spell was ineffective because of the Bible. This magic wasn't supposed to be considered "black" by any means; it was more of a naughty trick that one magician was playing on another. However, it bothered me that the concept of religion was addressed as a type of counter-magic or antidote for a spell. When I read a fantasy novel, I would prefer that there be no references to or comparisons with religion. What do other people think about comparing/contrasting religion and magic? Does it bother anyone else, or do people like to read/think about similarities and differences between the two paradigms?

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes fantasy novels, particularly ones written by British/Scottish authors like J.K. Rowling and George MacDonald. It's a fun, relatively easy read. I also was quite pleased with the end of the book; it's the type of bittersweet ending that gives a good resolution but also leaves the reader wishing for more information or the story to continue. Hurry and read this book before the Jonathan Strange movie comes out next year!