Reading Order
Jonathan StrangeJonathan Strange & Mr Norrell Reading Order
Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2004) is the most formally ambitious British fantasy novel of the twenty-first century — set in an alternate-history Napoleonic England where magic is real but dormant, and the reclusive Mr. Norrell attempts to restore English magic to the world, only to find himself challenged by his brilliant pupil Jonathan Strange. Clarke spent ten years writing the novel, which is narrated with the tone of a nineteenth-century historian and footnoted throughout with references to a fictional tradition of English magical scholarship. It won the Hugo Award for Best Novel (2005) and is widely considered one of the greatest fantasy novels of recent decades.
Where to start
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Complete Jonathan Strange Book List
- 1Buy
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Susanna Clarke·2004·The complete standalone novel — approximately 800 pages plus extensive footnotes, published by Bloomsbury. A BBC television adaptation (2015) covers the main plot in six episodes and is an excellent companion. - 2Buy
The Ladies of Grace Adieu
Susanna Clarke·2006·The companion story collection — eight stories set in the same alternate-England magical history, expanding the world of the novel, illustrated by Charles Vess. Best read after the main novel. - 3Buy
Piranesi
Susanna Clarke·2020·The second novel — entirely different in style, shorter and stranger, a puzzle-box narrative about a man living in a vast House of statues and tidal seas. Same author, same ability to create a fully realized world, different tone entirely.
Jonathan Strange — Frequently Asked Questions
How long is Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and is it difficult to read?
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is approximately 800 pages long in most editions, plus substantial footnotes. It is written in a pastiche of nineteenth-century English prose — the style of Jane Austen or Walter Scott — and requires patience with that register. Most readers who persist through the first hundred pages find it completely absorbing. The novel is not difficult in the sense of being obscure, but it is long and it rewards slow reading. The BBC television adaptation (2015) is an excellent six-hour companion that covers the main plot faithfully.
Who is the Raven King in Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell?
John Uskglass, the Raven King, is the mythological figure whose return looms over the entire novel — the greatest English magician, who ruled the North of England for three hundred years in the Middle Ages, keeping a court half in England and half in Faerie, and who disappeared around 1434. Mr. Norrell and Jonathan Strange both invoke him and study his tradition, but he never appears directly in the main narrative. He is the source of English magic's power and the answer to many of the mysteries the novel raises. Clarke's story collection The Ladies of Grace Adieu contains the story 'John Uskglass and the Cumbrian Charcoal Burner,' which features him directly.
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