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"Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell" is truly an epic. I started this several years ago on audio, but I had to stop due to a change in my work/commute situation. Recently, and several years later, I was able to pick this up again. I was spurred in part by my love of Magic stories, historical fiction, epistolary and meta-fiction, and also because I had watched the miniseries, which is currently on Netflix. I was interested in this book, but I will admit it is a commitment. Things unfold very leisurely, and assuredly, that's the seductive aspect of this book.

Jonathan Strange and Gilbert Norrell almost seem like polar opposites, or at least two sides of the same coin. Their worldviews are slightly different. Jonathan Strange loves the mystery and practice of magic. He is experiential. He is truly passionate about magic. Norrell is scholarly, fearful, and controlling. He wants to keep all the goodies for himself, but at the same time, he never dives in deep into the well of knowledge. It's really kind of sad, to me. Norrell is a very good magician. He knows magic, but applies himself in a very scholarly and unimaginative way. For him, his practice is skimming the surface. They form an alliance, on Strange's part, it's to gain access to the enormous body of knowledge that Norrell has on tap, in the voluptuous collection of books on magic that he jealously keeps to himself like Smaug does with his gold hoard.

Clarke takes great care to build her characters so that we think we understand them very well. As the story goes along, we realize that they don't even understand themselves. But before this book is over, they will start that process and get very far down that journey, and the reader is there to join them.

Susanna Clarke takes England and gives it a fantastic origin story of sorts in that English Magic has been a huge part of what it means to be English, since the great King of the North, John Uskglass, who was once enslaved to the Faerie race as an infant, but became one of their great kings, and who brings magic to England. Many years later, the glory of English Magic has mostly faded, and Norrell, who believes himself completely righteous in his quest to Restore English Magic, does his very best to quench any authentic magic that is not practiced by his own hands, and on a very small level (comparatively speaking). I really enjoyed how England is revealed as a distinctive place in which magic is not a possible but a reality, and how John Uskglass' legacy is part of the stone and in the roots of England itself. In some ways, Uskglass is a bit of a King Arthur figure, if Arthur was actually Merlin, with some Mordred thrown in.

Another part about this book I loved was all the footnotes. If there's anything that makes my bibliophile heart giddy, it's the use of footnotes in a fiction book that refer to other fictional books. I always have this urge to track down the books. To be honest, I would not have found this book so compelling or accessible without the footnotes. I feel that including the footnotes highlights Norrell's selfish wrongheadedness about what England needs. I think that it offends me deeply because of my love of knowledge and my passion about education. I hate the idea that someone tries to deny knowledge to others or access to that knowledge. He is in fact, keeping England from reaching its full potential by squirreling away all the knowledge and jealously gatekeeping and guarding it.

While I vastly preferred and liked Strange, I do think on some levels he did neglect his wife, or at least, took her for granted. Although I think by the end, he learned exactly the enormous cost of that. Jonathan's great love was magic, and while he loved his wife, I did feel that he loved magic more than he loved her. It's almost as though this aspect of the story is another way to critique the characters against each other. While Strange seems more adjusted and more open, his prioritizing magic over his wife doesn't do him credit in comparison to Norrell, who seems to have decided early on in life that magic would be his spouse, so to speak. I have to say, I think Norrell would have been an awful husband.

There are inherent critiques of 19th Century English society. Classicism, racism, sexism, bigotry, xenophobia to a certain extent. All of this comes under the microscope, but in a thoughtful way.

Stephen Black is a compelling character and he becomes the stand-in for the reader, and I believe him to be the more sympathetic and relatable character. Stephen is a black man who is servant to Sir Walter Pole, whose young, beautiful wife Emma, Lady Pole, becomes a pawn in a deep game that involves Norrell and a spiteful, murderous faerie named "The Gentleman with the Thistledown Hair". Norrell, in his selfishness, isn't even privy to what he has wrought and the suffering he has brought down on Lady Pole and Stephen Black. Norrell goes on about his business, hiding his deep, dark secret and continuing to consolidate his power as the authority on English Magic. But Stephen is deeply involved, and the reader feels deeply for him, and if they are like me, root for him.

Stephen Black's character allows the reader to examine the inherent racism of English society. Stephen is not considered an Englishman, even though he's lived there his whole life. All he can help to achieve is to be the butler to a great man like Sir Walter. When "The Gentleman with the Thistledown Hair" takes a shine to him, and promises to elevate him to the role that a great prophecy has predicted, Stephen still maintains his inherent sense of justice and goodness, and a great deal more loyalty than is owed. At this time, slavery was not legal on English soil and within the English Navy. So, while Stephen is technically free, his ability to live as a free man with all the rights of an Englishman is in effect limited by the darkness of his skin. Now, on top of this, he is bound to the will of a capricious faerie and subject to being privy to the monstrous creature's machinations. He also feels an extreme amount of concern and sympathy for Lady Pole.

Lady Pole is a prisoner of the fairy due to the bargain made by Norrell with the faerie, dancing night after night in his home in Lost-Hope in Faerie. Her husband, neglectful at best, believes her to be ill and mad, and continues to take the advice of the wrong people, doing nothing to help her situation. So it's a double whammy. Lady Pole is trapped by her situation as a woman in a male-dominated society and also subject to the whims of a faerie. I think that considering what she goes through, she shows a lot of strength that she is able to retain her sanity with all she suffers.

There is a cast of secondary characters who help move the story along, and also play pivotal roles in the rivalry/partnership of Strange and Norrell, and also interact with the magicians and they serve the cause of English Magic (and their own aspirations).

Childermass, Norrell's servant (who pretty much acts as his right hand), struck me as a figure who has much more importance in ways that didn't quite develop in this book. I feel that I'm meant to see more of him. I don't know if there's a sequel in the works, but I believe that Clarke should spend some time delve into his mysteries. Also, I would love to see more of John Uskglass.

While this book unfolds at a leisurely place, and in some ways, it's more of an intellectually engaging read, I did find myself very emotionally involved in the story. I felt for Strange and his wife Arabella, the battle scenes really hit me hard, and I laughed out loud many times. Of course, there is so much pathos in Stephen Black and Lady Pole's situations. "The Gentleman with the Thistledown Hair" is so monstrous and I really disliked him. And then there are Norrell's hanger on-ers, Lascelles and Drawlight, are utter scoundrels. And oh, there's a cameo by Lord Byron himself, who finds inspiration in Strange's bizarre turn of luck much later in the book.

The description of the magic is not so much into the light show and special effects. It's described more as a deep connection to nature that causes the magic or as something that happens through natural processes. Sometimes the characters feel a twisting in their gut or dizziness when the spell is working. But don't look for really sparkly pyrotechnics here. The spells have the most quirky names, and Clarke goes all in with footnotes to explain why they are named as such. It's pretty fun.

The narrator is really good. He has an excellent voice for this type of fiction, and is able to vary his voice to fit the personalities of the characters. He manages to have just the right tone for each one that they feel distinctive from one another.

I think that this book is so clever in all the right ways. It's a quiet read that sneaks up on you, but you find yourself deeply drawn in, until the very last sentence ends.