Not every reader will enjoy Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. (1) It's too long. (2) Not much happens in the first half of the book. (3) It's about magic, but without elves, dragons, swords, or even all that much magic.

Still, for certain readers, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is essentially perfect. The book takes place in an early nineteenth-century England in which magic has become an academic rather than practical subject. But in the book's very first chapter, the fusty world of English magic is shaken by news of an actual magician, one Mr. Norrell, who immediately sets tongues wagging -- a feat made even more impressive by the fact that those tongues were originally made of stone. Mr. Norrell proceeds (rather reluctantly) to take London by storm, and he soon attracts the attention of a young aristocrat named Jonathan Strange who thinks he may have something of a magical touch himself. The two begin a tetchy mentor/mentee relationship for years before they begin to realize that their dabblings may have attracted some unwanted attention from an inhuman realm.

The novel's assets are three.

The world! Susanna Clarke has invented a mythology that is original not in its inspiration (Faerie has deep literary roots) but in its voluminous details. The novel is peppered with footnotes that contain brief, delightful snippets about her alternate world, most of which have to do with England's nearly forgotten Golden Age of Magic. Although these micro-stories are almost all asides, the sense of history that they convey pervades the main narrative and gives the novel the same depth and comprehensiveness that anchored The Lord of the Rings.

The voice! Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is almost parodically British. The characters are circumlocutory in their diction and unerringly polite in their manners, even at extremities. (The ending is a classic example.) The disembodied narrator is proper, but bland; wide-eyed over mundanities and briskly matter-of-fact over the most astonishing events; afflicted with a tendency to overuse such English natterings as "quite," "rather," and "entirely"; and, above all else, leisurely. In other words, the voice of the novel is completely charming, if you're into that sort of thing.

The story! True, the book is slow to get going. But several hundred pages in, I realized with a start that there was a plot! And it was good! And, more importantly, it didn't come out of nowhere: the novel's early meanderings established deep undercurrents that carried the book to its wonderful conclusion.

And beyond? Some people think Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell begs for a sequel. I disagree: Susanna Clarke has brought her world to the brink and back, and despite obvious room for growth there was no dramatic reason for her to continue the story. It would be a shame, though, for such a fertile world (and such a beguiling pen) to lie fallow for too long.

Copyright © 2006 Steven Wu