Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell – Susanna Clarke

‘“Can a magician kill a man by magic?” Lord Wellington asked Strange. Strange frowned. He seemed to dislike the question. “I suppose a magician might,” he admitted, “but a gentleman never could”’

This may sound odd, but I didn’t really get into this fully until somewhere around page 500, at which point I was only halfway through. A book really needs to justify being this long, but this pulls it off with aplomb – I read the last few hundred pages in a couple of days.

The central conceit is the existence of Faerie magic (think Midsummer Night’s Dream) in early eighteenth century England, and the book could be read as a winning pastiche of the Austen/Thackeray style. The depiction of Waterloo, in particular, recalls the most memorable sequence of Vanity Fair, and Northanger Abbey came to mind throughout.

I tended to read it as superior fantasy literature, the sheer level of imagination raising it above the level of most exponents of the genre. There are brilliant stories, often tossed off as footnotes or asides, on almost every page.

I would have liked the relationship between the magicians and the church explored more thoroughly – there was plenty of space to do it in, after all – but the issue is mentioned but never really explored.