Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
First published 2001
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About this book
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.
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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.
Source: Open Library
Book information
- Author
- Susanna Clarke
- First published
- 2001
- Edition
- Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Language
- ENG
- ISBN-13
- 9781408856888