Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
by Susanna Clarke · first published 2001
68% recommend32% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Inventive, richly detailed alternate-history fantasy set in 18th/19th-century England, with footnotes pointing to invented books and a fresh take on fairies. Suits readers who like long, immersive, rereadable novels.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Published in 2004, it is an alternative history set in 19th-century England around the time of the Napoleonic Wars. Its premise is that magic once existed in England and has returned with two men: Gilbert Norrell and Jonathan Strange. Centred on the relationship between these two men, the novel investigates the nature of "Englishness" and the boundaries between reason and unreason, Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Dane, and Northern and Southern English cultural tropes/stereotypes. It has been described as a fantasy novel, an alternative history, and a historical novel. It inverts the Industrial Revoluti
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- "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell" by Susanna Clarke. I usually can't read a book after seeing the movie or show, but the BBC version was so good and I read reviews that they left out quite a bit. The book definitely had a lot more detail, and was even more entertaining. - "Flash for Freedom" by George McDonald Fraser. A part of series of historical fiction starring Harry Flashman, a cowardly de
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2016?” ↗The Evolution of Cooperation - Robert Axelrod Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell - Susanna Clark Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace The Informant - Kurt Eichenwald The Visual Display of Quantitative Information - Edward Tufte Liar's Poker - Michael Lewis
on “Ask YC: favorite books” ↗Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman and maybe Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
on “Ask HN: Please name two of your most favorite books.” ↗…(http://www.amazon.com/Hild-Novel-Nicola-Griffith/dp/12500560...) is one of the best written books I've read. edit: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell is up there http://www.amazon.com/Jonathan-Strange-Mr-Norrell-Novel/dp/0... I find J G Keely's judgement aligned to my own: http://starsbeetlesandfools.blogspot.com/2012/06/suggested-r...
on “Harper Lee has died” ↗…one that introduced me to post apocalyptic fiction. Giant plants might sound silly, but its no more silly than walking corpses. And in fact the walking dead and 28 days later owe a lot to this book. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke - beautifully inventive fantasy novel about two magicians bringing magic back to Britain during the Napoleonic wars. Fab read. Gateway - Frederick Pohl - pulp sf at its best. Humans…
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite books of all time, and why?” ↗The Liveship Traders trilogy (Robin Hobb) The Earthsea tri(penta)logy (Ursula LeGuin) Tigana (Guy Gavriel Kay) Gentlemen Bastards (aka Locke Lamora) series (Scott Lynch) Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (Susanna Clarke) If you're in the mood for something more modern, I'm highly recommending the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch.
on “Amazon to Adapt J.R.R. Tolkien’s Globally Renowned Fantasy Novels” ↗…so much deeper than what I learned from the media, and he explores the how (not too technically, as it's for a general audience) far more than I expected. Very glad I read it, and it's an easy read. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke 18th century alternative history about two rivals restoring supernatural magic to the country, causing chaos, helping out in the wars with the French, and mostly hating each other. Very…
on “Ask HN: Best books you've read in 2019?” ↗Oddly Piranesi's name has surfaced a number of times for me over the last few months, Clarke's book being one of them, a volume I ordered when I finished the wonderful Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. I'm now tempted to order a book of his prints, particularly the "Imaginary Prisons" [0]. Looking at them, there is a voice in the back of my head whispering "Quake wads!". [0] https://en.wikipedia.org
on “Giovanni Battista Piranesi: The Perpetual Provocateur” ↗My non-fiction pile is very peculiar to me (maths, probability, gambling, Rust and Elixir books, a backlog of a load of recent Humble Bundle deals), but I have some solid fiction recommendations: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin is the sort of novel where you start to get sad as the weight of unread pages in your right starts to lighten. A novel about some friends who build s
on “Ask HN: What are you reading these days?” ↗"Best" is always too hard - here are a handful that I love. Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austen Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susannah Clarke The Crow Road - Iain Banks Equal Rites - Terry Pratchett Three Men in a Boat - Jerome K. Jerome A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson Black Holes & Time Warps - Kip Thorne The Inventions of Daedalus - David E H Jones The Cuckoo's Egg - Cl
on “Ask HN: What are the best books you've ever read?” ↗As long as we're using "best" in air quotes, I'll throw in a suggestion for Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. It's victorian-era alternate reality fantasy. Which is something I never would have imagined liking. Yes, it borrows a LOT from existing stories. To the point that it's nearly a pastiche.…
on “Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?” ↗Susannah Clarke's glorious Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell has some footnotes that exceed the typical page count of some people's short stories. Not as many puns as Pratchett, but suffers the same UI problem on Kindle.
on “Discworld Rules” ↗This reminds me of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, that’s the only book I’ve read that treats fairies in the sense they are described here.
on “In the Halls of the Mountain Kings” ↗Piranesi is a very good book that has the misfortune to come after an even better book. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is one of the great books of the last half-century. It's a stunning achievement, the kind that seems like it would take an author's entire lifetime. It begs rereading to connect all of the dots, and craving…
on “A Labyrinth for Our Time” ↗Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norrell Post Captain (well, basically all of the Patrick O'Brian series)
on “Ask HN: Please name two of your most favorite books.” ↗