A book that I read so many moons ago, but it's a historical fantasy series that I did like, but I feel like I should give a reread. I feel like if I read it now, I'd like it even more.
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (2001)
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 Revolution conception of the North-South divide in England: in this book the North is romantic and magical, rather than rational and concrete.
- ISBN:
- 9781526677181
- Length:
- 1006 pages
Genres: fantasy, historical fiction
Lists: …
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I absolutely adored Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norl and it has such an interesting concept that I think I'm really going to enjoy.
However, I didn't like it. It wasn't a fun book to read. It didn't have a payoff in the end.
this is the book that I mentioned earlier where I feel like whether this is a work of fantasy or a work of historical fiction or both is complicated
to me this is more of an achievement than panessa is an amazing magical Standalone single read but when I think about my top 10 alltime list this for me such an achievement
it's a massive book it's a piece of kind of historical reimagining with magic it's framed in a kind of an 18th century narrative style and you have footnotes in illustrations and it is wickedly funny imaginative brilliantly written everything about it I love it
I describe this as if Jane Austin wrote a thousandpage novel about English magicians. This is also one of the few books that I have finished it and said, I understand why it's so long.
which I liked a lot for some parts but some parts of the book felt so slow and so anticlimactic I still don't really know how I feel about this book it let me down but at the same time I loved it so much





