Frankly, I’m really not sure why I volunteered to write a review for this book given I barely remembered it and knew I would need to reread it: all one thousand and six pages of the paperback version. I do vaguely remember that the first time I read the book; it was on a fourteen hour flight in the anticipation that carrying one large book would be better than five, and the other thought being that Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell was THE book to read at the time -- even surpassing the babbling hype of Harry Potter for a brief moment.

Why it was the book of the moment and garnered so much praise perhaps lies with the very complex world building Clarke manages to convey and technically, it is written with a very authentic feeling Austen-esque style -- and as such it means layers. There is a real wit to the language; deeper meanings and nuances buried in almost bone-dry and formal prose. As the narrator comments that Norrell believed Strange’s lack of discussion of his wife’s restoration means he doesn’t feel deeply about it, the reader knows, conversely, that Strange is deeply affected. It’s a very hard thing to pull off, especially for a modern writer in a society which no longer talks the same way, but somehow Susanna Clarke manages it. However, the Austen style unfortunately doesn’t quite equate to Austen brevity and while I can quite happily idle away a couple of hours on Pride and Prejudice enjoying the contrast between what is said and what is meant, after rereading the first 100 pages of Clarke, I was beginning to grit my teeth and contemplate how much weight I would gain if I rewarded myself with chocolate every ten pages (the answer is a LOT: not recommended).

The reason why the book is so long is the incredibly slow-burning and intricate plot. Possibly the plot is too complex for my understanding because I think it effectively boils down to this: both Strange and Norrell are magicians who lose a woman to enchantment -- one unintentionally, one intentionally. This is married alongside a prophecy of magic returning to England, which includes the two magicians, and the mysterious Raven King. Really, the bulk of the action (such as it is) happens in volume III as people become aware that Lady Pole and Arabella Strange have been enchanted and the fight begins for their restoration, and the enchanted butler Stephen Black defeats their enchanter and assumes the role of the King of the Faeries. Indeed, it is only in this part of volume III that the story truly sucks me in and I find myself engrossed and not needing the chocolate.

Part of that is the slow build-up of Stephen Black as a character throughout the novel from the moment he first encounters the Gentleman with the Thistle-down Hair in volume I to the moment he defeats him in volume II. I love Stephen Black. He’s the true hero, the one who defeats the Gentleman with the Thistle-down Hair and there is an intriguing note of vagueness on whether he is the Raven King or not left at the end which I rather enjoy (although this could be because I don’t fully understand the plot). I also love Arabella for all that she appears so rarely; she’s as feisty and insightful as Elizabeth Bennett, and the love story between her and her husband is a nice thread in the book. The rest of the characters are a mish-mash of odd side characters, historical figures, and the main figures: Norrell and Strange. The two magicians are almost two-dimensional in their characterization; cold and obscure in some way that means it isn’t easy, for this reader anyway, to relate to them. Some of this could have been intentional but it seems bizarre when it’s the main characters.

Another aspect that adds to the disassociation is the use of footnotes. The footnotes serve to act as a way of world building that expands on the text but it doesn’t make for the easiest reading experience ever. Do you interrupt the narrative flow to read the footnote or not? It’s annoying. I decided to ignore the footnotes and perhaps this explains why I don’t fully understand the plot, but I have issues with a plot that cannot stand alone without a whole series of explanations buried in footnotes.

It’s this sense of distraction in the main plot and the additional disassociation with the main characters that are actually the book’s ultimate failures. For me, the WOW moment is Stephen Black’s; the WOW character is Stephen Black with a side of Arabella. If the plot had shifted to make this their story, this may have been a captivating read. It may even have been a memorable read.

As it stands, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is too meandering in its plot, too cold in its characterization to leave a lasting impression. It’s an imaginative concept but I’m left with the notion that it was heralded more as a classic because of an innate literacy snobbery that says if people don’t fully understand it, it must therefore be very clever rather than a simple truth that if people don’t fully understand it, the book has failed in clarity of prose. Either way, like many books heralded as a classic, I find it’s not an entirely enjoyable experience even with liberal application of chocolate.
 
  -- Rachel Day