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Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
Possibly the best thing I have read in years. The prose are quite wonderful. An amazing recreation of the regency novel.
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
the novel started out ok....it was a good idea and the characters were interesting. after several chapters it became tedious, then about halfway thru it was torture. style for the sake of style is acceptable, but SOMETHING has to happen to keep the book interesting. you have to have some kind of conflict. the drama in this book is as intense as watching a river push rocks downstream. i thought by the time strange went to war the book would finally start moving but....ah well it doesn't matter what happened.the book was dull, dull, dull; all style and no weight. a complete waste of time that goes nowhere and leaves you with nothing.
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
This book has some magic, some characters that are moderately interesting, and very vaguely--a plot. But in my many years of reading, it is plainly the most boring book I have ever read. That list of boring books includes many of the so-called classics we were forced to read in grade school. I kept trying. I got three-fourths of the way through when I gave up. The footnotes did not bother me too much, I have seen that happen in some very good textbooks and classics. It was just that nothing much happened. There would be something happened and some 100 pages of nothing much. Just a lot of "explanatory" text. I am sorry, because I wanted it to be good. Even the characters were boring. Mr. Strange was somewhat interesting, but that did not help much. As far as I am concerned, it could have been half as long, and been a much better book. If you enjoy long expositions of society and life and how magic is not around, then you will enjoy the book. Otherwise, skip it.
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
I picked up this book because it won the Hugo award, but it was boring, boring, boring!I gave up after chapter seven, the story goes nowhere very fast.The only thing that I found interesting about this book was that is actually sounded as if it had been written in 1808. It reminded me of The House of Mirth.Update - I thought that I would give this book a little more time to grow on me. I am now at Chapter 31, and it is still as boring as ever, if not more so! The Harry Potter of adults my eye.Another update - after investing so much time in this book I thought that I might as well finish it. It ends as it begins, meandering along a road of pretty prose with no real end in sight.Apparently we are being set up for a sequel.If you like Dickens, read Dickens, and if you like Melville, read Melville, but don't call this a classic just because of the lovely way it is written.
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
After all the 'hype' of this successful 'first novel' in England, I couldn't wait to get it. Ms. Clarke took ten years to research the early history of England and the magic they used, uses a lot of detail and long footnotes. It just had to be good -- too good to put down, right?I found it to be along the lines of Harry Potter only for adults. This involved "masterpiece" is about two magicians in 1806 seeking the wisdom and abilities of the Raven King, purportedly taken by fairies as a child and grew up to become King of England & Fairie in the twelfth century. He was considered to be the forebearer of English magic.Too good to be true, I soon learned as I tried to plow through all the non-magic inessential mismash to find the truly magical. First, two non-practicing magicians seek out one whose reputation had become known, a Mr. Gilbert Norrell, at Hurtfew Abbey, 14 miles from York, where a band of old gentlemen met only to discuss (but not practice) magic.Mr. Norell has an extensive library filled with the ancient magic manuals, but his discussion group of elderly men are only interested in reading and talking about magic, that is, until young Jonathan Strange arrives on Norvell's doorstep. Because of his enthusiasm at the sight of all the out-of-print writings of scholars of long ago, Jonathan persuades Mr. Norrell to teach him the old practices; as a consequence, they became involved in the wars, using supernatural skills summoning ghost ships and such.She tells good stories unknown to Americans, but from English lore. In Camelot, we discovered Merlin as Arthur re-lived his strange childhood through memories of the magic. In eleven years (1806-1817), much confusion and misconceptions occur between these partners in crime, as illustrated at intervals throughout the long, wordy history of English wars and fairy intervention. I counted twenty-four shadowly sketches, few and far between which added a slight diversion, but nothing else.It took Rowling five volumes and movies to get Harry Potter to his potential. Ms. Clarke spent ten years and only one very wordy volume to show the potential of Jonathan Strange with Mr. Norrell's direction to learn what he could do.This has been accepted as a 'piece of wonder' in Britain, but I really doubt its popularity in the States. Only to the faithful who read all five Potter novels would some of this make sense. Had she divided this tome into five books to let the gory parts subside in between, it might be palpable. The difference is that Harry Potter was supposedly written for children but even educated adults could enjoy the simplicity, this book of adult magic makes our Civil War seem like child's play.It was just not my "cup of tea."
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
It's hard to fathom why so many of you love this book, to say nothing of the inference that A.S. Byatt would appreciate it. I gave up around page 200, as this was too simple a work, and too tiresome for further perusal. Having just finished a couple of really well written novels, I can also say that there was nothing special about the author's prose whatever...Who is reviewing this work-fans of Harry Potter? Finally, if you want to read an intelligent, throw-back kind of novel with real drama, well drawn characters and a truly epic feel, pick up Palliser's "The Quincunx". Light satire and pale imitations of Jane Austen do not a classic make.