After proving his credentials by making the statues of York Minster come to life, Mr Norrell leaves behind a reclusive scholarly life and moves to London, where he quickly becomes the toast of high society. So when a group of scholars in York discover someone capable of actually performing spells, it’s a major event. Set in the early nineteenth century, the novel describes an England where ‘theoretical magicians’ study learned texts but nobody actually practices magic. It has since been translated into many languages, and excited considerable film adaptation interest too. Yet Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2004), which took Clarke over ten years to write, became a huge publishing phenomenon. Nobody could have predicted in 2004 that an 800-page story about 19th-century magicians and fairies would top the bestseller lists. Susanna Clarke’s debut novel was nothing if not distinctive.
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