Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is a slow starter, as it begins with a group of theoretical magicians in York. Some might enjoy these snippets into the history of magic but it just seemed quite jarring to me. I read every single one as I thought I might miss something if I did not, but by the end of the book while the stories were mildly interested they dragged my attention from the main story and seemed unimportant. And this would have been fine if the footnotes were one line each but some of them spanned pages of separate story. It made it read like an academic book which I wasn’t a fan of as I just wanted to read the story. The one thing I really didn’t like about this novel was the author’s use of footnotes. It also integrated real history very well, to make a plausible alternative version of events. This book is a deviation from the form of most novels these days and it really impressed the literature student in me by using the Victorian triple-decker form. Over 1000 pages, split into 3 parts.ĭespite this I decided to give it a go anyway, as I’ve seen it popping up all over the internet (and on the TV, though I haven’t watched it yet). It took me an entire month to read, as if there’s one thing you note about this book when it is first picked up that is the fact that it is really realllly long. My first read of 2016 was Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke.
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