Written by: Susanna Clarke
First line: Some years ago there was in York a society of magicians.
Why you should read this book: Seventeen years ago, Neil Gaiman called it, "unquestionably the finest English novel of the fantastic written in the last seventy years," and, as usual, I don't think I can improve upon Gaiman; this is truly a perfect book, the sort of book about which the only honest criticism could be that, eventually, it ends (although at 782 pages, it does its best to avoid that failing for as long as it can). While much studied by learned gentlemen in the early nineteenth century, English magic has fallen into disuse until revived by the prickly, prejudiced, and pompous Mr Norrell, a man as enamored with his own beliefs about magic as he is by magic itself, a man willing to take a critically hypocritical misstep to promote his own worldview. His only match is his talented pupil, truest friend, and occasional enemy, Jonathan Strange, a very different kind of magician with very different perspectives on thaumaturgical practice, one that holds the entirety of English magic, along with the fate of England, in the balance.
Why you shouldn't read this book: You never read the footnotes.
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