Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
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Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Susanna Clarke (Author), Simon Prebble (Narrator), Macmillan Audio (Publisher)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 11,131 ratings
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English magicians were once the wonder of the known world, with fairy servants at their beck and call; they could command winds, mountains, and woods. But by the early 1800s they have long since lost the ability to perform magic. They can only write long, dull papers about it, while fairy servants are nothing but a fading memory.

But at Hurtfew Abbey in Yorkshire, the rich, reclusive Mr. Norrell has assembled a wonderful library of lost and forgotten books from England's magical past and regained some of the powers of England's magicians. He goes to London and raises a beautiful young woman from the dead. Soon he is lending his help to the government in the war against Napoleon Bonaparte, creating ghostly fleets of rain-ships to confuse and alarm the French.

All goes well until a rival magician appears. Jonathan Strange is handsome, charming, and talkative, the very opposite of Mr. Norrell. Strange thinks nothing of enduring the rigors of campaigning with Wellington's army and doing magic on battlefields. Astonished to find another practicing magician, Mr. Norrell accepts Strange as a pupil. But it soon becomes clear that their ideas of what English magic ought to be are very different. For Mr. Norrell, their power is something to be cautiously controlled, while Jonathan Strange will always be attracted to the wildest, most perilous forms of magic. He becomes fascinated by the ancient, shadowy figure of the Raven King, a child taken by fairies who became king of both England and Faerie, and the most legendary magician of all. Eventually Strange's heedless pursuit of long-forgotten magic threatens to destroy not only his partnership with Norrell, but everything that he holds dear.

Sophisticated, witty, and ingeniously convincing, Susanna Clarke's magisterial novel weaves magic into a flawlessly detailed vision of historical England. She has created a world so thoroughly enchanting that 32 hours leave readers longing for more.

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  1. Listening Length
    32 hours and 29 minutes
  2. Author
    Susanna Clarke
  3. Narrator
    Simon Prebble
  4. Audible release date
    September 23, 2005
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Macmillan Audio
  7. ASIN
    B0006SJ2G4
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 32 hours and 29 minutes
Author Susanna Clarke
Narrator Simon Prebble
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date September 23, 2005
Publisher Macmillan Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B0006SJ2G4
Best Sellers Rank #5,175 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#53 in Historical Fantasy (Audible Books & Originals)
#111 in Classic Literature
#116 in Historical Fantasy (Books)

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
11,131 global ratings
1 lb, 15 oz of Pure Delight
5 Stars
1 lb, 15 oz of Pure Delight
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is one pound, fifteen ounces of pure delight. I only mention the weight because it is long, and if I have any advice to others it is1. By all means, read it! It is an excellent use of your time, and2. Buy the kindle version! (Unless you have some masochistic love of carrying two pound books around.)It's like an historical novel, but the history is completely made up, because it's a fantasy novel. She has footnotes that reference books that never were. It's funny. I had to buy reading glasses to make out the footnotes! (Another reason to get it on kindle.) But whatever hardships I went through to read this book were entirely worth it for the pure entertainment value. The characters are very true to human emotions. The wit is dry.The plot centers around two magicians in England around the time of the Napoleonic wars. They are rivals, and amazing magicians, but also goofy and not all that amazing as people. Mr. Norrell has a simple wish: to be the only magician in England. So, he collects all of the magic books and hides them away, so no one can learn how to do magic. Jonathan Strange has a simple wish: to share magic with everyone in England. Then you throw in the gentleman with the silvery hair, an evil fairy who kidnaps people each evening from England and makes them dance all night in his ballroom of horrors, but whenever they try to tell other people in England about it, everything comes out as nonsense.The true joy in this book is reading all of the little details of the lives of the minor characters. Even the subplots have subplots, and then footnotes. And then more subplots.The TV series is fairly true to the book, but the ending is different. I like the book ending much better. As usual, the book is better all around, with all of its juicy little details.The biggest surprise of all was at the very end, when I read that this was Susanna Clarke's first book. Seriously? She has achieved quite a level of excellence for a first novel. I can't wait to read her second.
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Top reviews from the United States

Spanish Inquisition
5.0 out of 5 stars I reserve five stars for the top ONE best books I've ever read
Reviewed in the United States on August 20, 2015
Verified Purchase
The turn of the 19th century has always been a period I regard as exceedingly dull. S. Clarke somehow breathed life into the stuffy century and made it dance on it's own even before introducing magic. This is, without a doubt, the best book I've ever read. I love it so much, I actually purchased it on kindle five years after I read it the first time and revisited the story, and I *never* re-read books.

The story is slow in the beginning, before J. Strange enters the scene, but it's all quite necessary. Gilbert Norrell is so humorously unpleasant that I found it easy enough to read every page, and the world is so artfully-crafted that you do a true disservice by skipping any thing. The story is replete with historical fact, masterfully wound with fantastical fiction to provide an ambience so rich as to be believable.

The characters, both loathsome and delightful, are a joy to explore as they develop steadily. I felt as though I was actually getting to know H. Lascelles as he progressed from his first impression of rude haughtiness to his true character of despicable cruelty. Drawlight is just as shallow as I suspected, but with a small, sad twist. G. Norrell is easily pinned down by his concrete worldview and yet piteous in his uncertainty about the world. And J. Strange... The wonder of Arabella, plain on the outside and devastatingly beautiful on the inside... The insane wonder of the gentleman and his disturbing parallel with the selfish thoughts of my own logical, human mind... The honorable, mistreated Sir Walter Pole... All of the characters have just the right depth to make the story verily populated with real people; a smattering of sociopaths, a dash of dementia and now you have a dark comedy devoid of overwrought tropes and offenses.

I could write a novella about what this novel does best and I fear that, in my eagerness to convey what I love about the book, I have so tied myself up in words and accolades as to miss the concise description that would bring readers by the thousands to S. Clarke's masterpiece.

My TL;DR follows:

If you enjoy dark comedy with vibrant characters and rich language, and will blithely sit for hours at a stretch to read only the next chapter, just one more paragraph- If you have the patience and wit to solicit each dark, hidden laugh or sublime philosophical insight- If you yearn to read a book that ventures in new territory, dispelling the old conventions of fantasy forged new by literary giants of decades past- this book is for you.

No bargain will match the eight dollars that I paid for this book in hardback five years ago. I can't wait to share it with more people.
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M. Walker
4.0 out of 5 stars It is Very Important to Know What You are Getting Into with this Book
Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2024
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To put it as simply as I can, this book is a well-crafted, slow burn journey into England in the 1800s with a sprinkling of magic. If this sounds enjoyable to you, then I highly recommend reading this book. If you prefer epic fantasy, or really any form of fantasy, you might want to re-think reading this book. I know it's marketed as historical fantasy/fantasy realism (which is correct BTW), but it reads and feels like historical fiction. The fantastical elements to this story are ... underwhelmingly bare. However, the historical elements of this book, the prose, the characters, the environments and world building, are all well done.

Mr. Norrell is an older magician who has come to the conclusion that magic should be safeguarded because it can be very dangerous otherwise. He buys all of England's books on magic theory and puts them in his personal library where only he can access them. He is the only magician in England performing practical magic (there are theoretical magicians who have studied magic but do not perform magic), and he goes through great lengths to prove his credibility and usefulness. He is a very shy and neurotic individual, and so he has two-three people who interact with society on his behalf. But once he establishes himself as a real magician, he can decide what magical feats will be beneficial for his country and what would be dangerous or impractical. He is England's sole authority on magic ... until he takes a student.

Jonathan Strange also has an affinity for practical magic and comes to London to study under Mr. Norrell. Although Norrell agrees to teach Strange, they find that their beliefs on magic differ greatly. Mr. Norrell wants to mold Jonathan into a perfect replica of himself, and so he lectures Jonathan about the correct way a magician should be and only allows Jonathan very limited access to his vast magical library.

Jonathan doesn't really want a professor; he wants a colleague. He needs access to the resources that Mr. Norrell has (because Mr. Norrell owns almost every book there is about magic). Since Norrell is an older magician, Jonathan wants Norrell to tell him about his full experiences with magic instead of leaving him in the dark about certain topics that Mr. Norrell feels should no longer be explored. Jonathan is an explorer. He is young and eager to improve as a magician. He wants to eat the entire magical pie, if you will, but Mr. Norrell refuses to do more than slowly spoon feed Jonathan a single slice of the pie, creating an undercurrent of animosity between the only two practical magicians in the country.

Further complicating their relationship is their differing views of English politics, wars, and the role a magician should play in English society.

And there is also the gentleman with the thistle-down hair. An invisible foe to Jonathan Strange, and a foe that Mr. Norrell chooses to ignore. This gentleman, for me, was the most interesting character in the book. I do not see him as an antagonist (although I feel he is meant to be one). He is simply acting within his nature. Mr. Norrell on the other hand ...
Stephen Black, Mrs. Strange, and Lady Pole are definitely the clear protagonists of this story, because they are the only characters who aren't morally gray.

I cannot stress enough how interesting this story is ... if you can get into it. I made the mistake of reading a high-fantasy trilogy before this book, and I read this book as a stand-alone palate cleanser before starting a new series. I suffered through the first 40% of this book and almost DNF'd it because I was not in the right mindset to be reading it. Eventually I gave myself an attitude check and stopped trying to change this book into something that it wasn't. I wanted a story that had me hooked from the beginning, a book that I couldn't bring myself to put down because I was so engrossed with the story ... and this wasn't it.

I gave this book four stars because although I enjoyed it, I have to be honest and say this book could've been cut by a good 200 pages and the story wouldn't have suffered. It's too long. I have read Piranesi from this author and I was blown away by what she accomplished with that 250 page book, so I am saddened to say that the brilliance displayed in Piranesi isn't really felt in this book until the third act, which of course, takes forever to get to. Also, the footnotes are completely unnecessary. If you are engrossed in this story, read them. If you're struggling to make it to the end, skip them.

I would recommend this book, but only to a specific audience. I'm also looking forward to watching the series :)
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Lenore Di Kaat
5.0 out of 5 stars Sólo para los más cometidos.
Reviewed in Mexico on July 5, 2023
Verified Purchase
Este libro es una verdadera obra maestra. Yo lo tengo en mi top 10 de fantasía, junto con Babel de R.F. Kuang. La cosa es, si estás buscando acción, adrenalina y escenas súper impresionantes de combate con magia; no las vas a encontrar aquí. Este libro no es para todos (eso no quiere decir que no sea bueno), es más cómo una ficción histórica con magia para condimentar la narrativa; pero si son de los pacientes que deciden darle una oportunidad, no se van a arrepentir.
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Artur Barretto Lins
5.0 out of 5 stars Quando a magia retorna, muito ainda há a ser feito.
Reviewed in Brazil on July 13, 2021
Verified Purchase
Intrigas, reinos perdidos, história, guerras napoleonicas, tudo isso e muito mais está aqui nessa obra. Suzanna Clarke domina as palavras, cria personagens psicologicamente ricos, brinca com nossas percepções, é uma verdadeira "contadora de histórias".
Ela consegue unir a pompa superficial da aristocracia e da fleuma inglesas à circunstância de um conto de fantasia, de magia.
Recomendo demais para quem gosta de algo como se Downton Abbey tivesse sido escrita por Neil Gaiman.
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Artur Barretto Lins
5.0 out of 5 stars Quando a magia retorna, muito ainda há a ser feito.
Reviewed in Brazil on July 13, 2021
Intrigas, reinos perdidos, história, guerras napoleonicas, tudo isso e muito mais está aqui nessa obra. Suzanna Clarke domina as palavras, cria personagens psicologicamente ricos, brinca com nossas percepções, é uma verdadeira "contadora de histórias".
Ela consegue unir a pompa superficial da aristocracia e da fleuma inglesas à circunstância de um conto de fantasia, de magia.
Recomendo demais para quem gosta de algo como se Downton Abbey tivesse sido escrita por Neil Gaiman.
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3 people found this helpful
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Aditi Ganguly
5.0 out of 5 stars Don't miss this.
Reviewed in India on November 13, 2023
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Beautifully written and extremely funny.
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Alex
5.0 out of 5 stars espectacular
Reviewed in Spain on January 3, 2022
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Este es sin duda uno de los mejores libros que he leído. Al principio estaba un poco insegura. El estilo es (deliberadamente) anticuado y el ritmo es muy lento. Si no tienes paciencia para eso, entonces este no es el libro para ti; sospecho que cada una de las reseñas de 1 estrella se debe al estilo. Un editor no lo ha cortado ni cortado en cubitos para alcanzar el punto de beneficio moderno de 70-80k palabras (y muchas gracias Bloomsbury por entender la necesidad de dejarlo así. Cortarlo al tamaño deseado para un nuevo autor lo habría destruido).

Si tienes paciencia o eres fanático de la ficción de los siglos XVIII y XIX, ¡cómprala! ¡Cómprelo ahora! Es fabuloso. Hay una rica historia ficticia que se expone lentamente a través de notas al pie de página, junto con la historia de dos hombres profundamente defectuosos, cada uno de ellos tropezando por un camino mágico que creen entender, pero que está completamente oculto en su punto de vista. Aquí no hay héroes ni villanos obvios. Sin valores morales claros. Se cometen errores y se sienten las consecuencias.

Es raro que lea un libro que me haga exclamar en voz alta las acciones de un personaje, sabiendo que causará caos y, sin embargo, teniendo la más mínima noción de cuáles serán las consecuencias. Es aún más raro leer algo en el que realmente no sé hacia dónde va. No hay un camino literario bien gastado aquí, ni historias cansadas.

Sin decir demasiado y estropearlo no sé qué más decir. Solo cómpralo. Hazlo ahora.
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ElRob
5.0 out of 5 stars Magical!
Reviewed in Canada on August 22, 2016
Verified Purchase
OK, here comes a long and a perfectly earnest one for a change.

I must say that I was thoroughly impressed by Susanna Clarke's book start to finish, even though reading it was an ambitious undertaking in the weeks following my first child's birth. I won't pretend to be too objective, then, when I say that the amazing tale of the two English magicians has in a sense become intertwined in my imagination with a very magical time of my own life.

I can see why it would be so polarizing, however, especially in a post-Harry Potter world. People hear "England and Magic" and reckon that they'll get some thrilling quidditch action and some tender insights into the joys and hurts of growing up, but that's not to be found here. Instead, we get a wonderful and at times whimsical mash up of classic Regency-era literature (like Pride and Prejudice or Vanity Fair with modern-day magical realism along the lines of One Hundred Years of Solitude or Midnight's Children.

The huge page count, the interminable footnotes (many of which, incidentally, are more amusing and creative than the main story they append), the coy affectation of period spellings like "shew" or "surprize"...in a lesser book, these seeming indulgences would be infuriating, but the way they are employed by the author was brilliant, they just drew you in even further. Also, it becomes apparent only over many many pages that this is not just a work of alt-historical fiction, positing strange events during a time and at a place well known to most readers of English Lit, but a sly redesign of English history to render a fantasy setting at the same time familiar as it is uncanny. Well known figures from the period such as King George III (the "mad" one), the Duke of Wellington and even Lord Byron play active parts as well as Ms. Clarke's beautifully rendered duo and their assorted friends, foes and contemporaries.

Was it absolute perfection? Of course not. I particularly didn't care for Lascelles sudden turn to sociopathy, or his saw-it-coming-a-mile-away ultimate demise But a tour-de-force, and a unique, humorous, and moving reading experience start-to-finish that I cannot recommend highly enough to those with the patience and the time to devote to it.
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