The Raven King
Book Review
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
by Susanna Clarke
The first time I laid my eyes on this book, I felt apprehensive. Such a thick book! Will I ever finish it? And the first few pages gave me some hints that the story would be quite intricate, and maybe boring, because the language was so English. Well, 19th century England was the story's setting, so that was to be expected. It seemed to me, at first, that reading this book would be quite a daunting task.
Now, after almost one month (and 700-or-so pages) later, I discovered that I felt really sad having a good story coming to an end. As I came to the last page, I just wished that it would never end, that somehow the book will magically add a few hundred more pages to continue its story. Such a wishful thinking.
In her first debut, Susanna Clarke has crafted a wonderful fantasy world of 19th century England, mixing actual history with fiction, where magic seemed to have diminished, but its presence still lingered among the trees, stones, rivers, the weather, and among shadows. Magicians, at the start of the story, were only theoretical magicians. They didn't practice any kind of magic, but only talked about it and read books about it. However, the advent of Gilbert Norrell has changed all that. The coming of Norrell, with his ambition to revive English magic, and later of Jonathan Strange, had started a chain of events that has been foretold in a prophecy by the Raven King, a human child taken in by the faeries and became The King of North England, Faerie and a land that borders near Hell.
The book might seemed a bit 'threatening' at first. Especially when the readers find footnotes littered about in many pages of the book. But do not be discouraged. The book is a pleasure to read. Yes, even the footnotes are a pleasure to read. It's as if the book is a collection of interconnected fairy tales, each could stand alone in its own right, but strongly related to one another. One could always skip the footnotes, but doing so might prevent a reader to fully appreciate the depth and intricacies of the story. It's not that kind of book that you read to know what would happen next, but the kind of book you read just for the pleasure of reading it. Add to that the whole dark and brooding fairy-tale mood, and the readers are in for a wonderful dream, or even, a wonderful nightmare.
Readers who are looking for magic in a Harry-Potter sense of way should not look here. Because they would not find wand-waving, fireball-shooting kind of magic in this book. This book is about character building, mood building, an intricate tale that weave it's plot around deep, fleshed-out, believable characters (this is especially true for the characters Gilbert Norrell and Jonathan Strange) and deep, fleshed-out, and mysterious setting of 19th century England. Two-third part of the book was spent on developing characters and mood. Only during the last third part of the book that the story picks up pace. The magic aspect takes first place here of course, but the author has manage to create a mood where it is never too emphasized, but still there nonetheless. It's like an actor or an actress whose appearance on stage went unnoticed by the audience, but the audience realized his or her presence in the play nonetheless, constantly dancing, trotting, weaving, acting among the other actors and actresses without basking too much in the spotlight. The nature of the magics themselves ranged from mundane to magnificent. But the way they were presented were subtle.
So, in the end, I would like to say that no, you don't 'run' with this book. Reading this book is more like a wonderul walk in a park to enjoy a slightly cloudy day, with light breeze brushing your hair, and a little tinge of magic in the air. A highly recommended piece of literature.
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
by Susanna Clarke
The first time I laid my eyes on this book, I felt apprehensive. Such a thick book! Will I ever finish it? And the first few pages gave me some hints that the story would be quite intricate, and maybe boring, because the language was so English. Well, 19th century England was the story's setting, so that was to be expected. It seemed to me, at first, that reading this book would be quite a daunting task.
Now, after almost one month (and 700-or-so pages) later, I discovered that I felt really sad having a good story coming to an end. As I came to the last page, I just wished that it would never end, that somehow the book will magically add a few hundred more pages to continue its story. Such a wishful thinking.
In her first debut, Susanna Clarke has crafted a wonderful fantasy world of 19th century England, mixing actual history with fiction, where magic seemed to have diminished, but its presence still lingered among the trees, stones, rivers, the weather, and among shadows. Magicians, at the start of the story, were only theoretical magicians. They didn't practice any kind of magic, but only talked about it and read books about it. However, the advent of Gilbert Norrell has changed all that. The coming of Norrell, with his ambition to revive English magic, and later of Jonathan Strange, had started a chain of events that has been foretold in a prophecy by the Raven King, a human child taken in by the faeries and became The King of North England, Faerie and a land that borders near Hell.
The book might seemed a bit 'threatening' at first. Especially when the readers find footnotes littered about in many pages of the book. But do not be discouraged. The book is a pleasure to read. Yes, even the footnotes are a pleasure to read. It's as if the book is a collection of interconnected fairy tales, each could stand alone in its own right, but strongly related to one another. One could always skip the footnotes, but doing so might prevent a reader to fully appreciate the depth and intricacies of the story. It's not that kind of book that you read to know what would happen next, but the kind of book you read just for the pleasure of reading it. Add to that the whole dark and brooding fairy-tale mood, and the readers are in for a wonderful dream, or even, a wonderful nightmare.
Readers who are looking for magic in a Harry-Potter sense of way should not look here. Because they would not find wand-waving, fireball-shooting kind of magic in this book. This book is about character building, mood building, an intricate tale that weave it's plot around deep, fleshed-out, believable characters (this is especially true for the characters Gilbert Norrell and Jonathan Strange) and deep, fleshed-out, and mysterious setting of 19th century England. Two-third part of the book was spent on developing characters and mood. Only during the last third part of the book that the story picks up pace. The magic aspect takes first place here of course, but the author has manage to create a mood where it is never too emphasized, but still there nonetheless. It's like an actor or an actress whose appearance on stage went unnoticed by the audience, but the audience realized his or her presence in the play nonetheless, constantly dancing, trotting, weaving, acting among the other actors and actresses without basking too much in the spotlight. The nature of the magics themselves ranged from mundane to magnificent. But the way they were presented were subtle.
So, in the end, I would like to say that no, you don't 'run' with this book. Reading this book is more like a wonderul walk in a park to enjoy a slightly cloudy day, with light breeze brushing your hair, and a little tinge of magic in the air. A highly recommended piece of literature.
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