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Susanna Clarke: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Yeah, you are right!

And I did, as mentioned up thread, see the airport version of this book and indeed it is a paperback. However, Amazon is selling the hardback for about 10 pounds right now and the airport paper back was around 12 :)

Off topic :D

You know what I can never figure about airports? Why do you find luggage shops after you go through security control? WHO buys it? I mean, you are going on holiday so you HAVE your luggage. You either checked it in or you are holding it with you. And it can't be that you're gonna buy THAT much stuff in the airport shops that you will need to buy a huge case???? You might need it on the return but surely you would buy it at your destination when a) it's cheaper and b) you know how big to buy as you know how much extra stuff you have. So who the hell is buying them and WHY? lol I think it's a plot by those penguins.
 
Abulafia said:
The reviews on Amazon appear favourable although there is the usual twat who thinks that it should be the next Da Vinci Code, or worse, The Rule of Four when it is supposedly far better than either of those titles and concerns much more.
Click to expand...

lol best thing i've read all week LOL :D
 
Just finished this, I've been taking it slow as I didn't want it to end. I was impressed from start to finish, completely original, the footnotes were a hoot, and she managed to keep the narrator's tone completely Jane Austen, with perhaps a little more heart. Want to recommend it to everyone I know, but I'm afraid they'll want to borrow my copy and won't return it. Perhaps I will find it cheap somewhere and give it to everyone for Christmas.

As with many great books, I'm left with a lot of questions.
Do magicians manage a kind of immortality? Does Jonathan Strange actually love his wife? Is magic a truly English phenomenon, or do other countries have their own version? If so, how did it disappear so completely from everywhere?
 
Oooh, it's all I can do to keep from reading your spoiler, Ash. But I must show restraint as I've officially added this book to my Christmas wishlist. I've dropped a few hints, so hopefully someone in my family will pick up on them. :)
 
Just downloaded it today from Audible.com to my Ipod. It'll be my next listen as soon as i'm done with Starship Troopers!
 
I just finished Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. My impressions:
1. It's too damn long.
2. That's probably because the first half of the book plodded on very slowly.
3. The language (minus the strange word spellings) is very beautiful. I like the way she phrases things - she's very good at it.
4. Unfortunately, she knows it too, and seem to overdo it at times. See Point 1. (I know there are others who love the book precisely *because* of this)
5. It's funny.
6. Footnotes are funny and highly amusing.
7. Things start to get *really* interesting about 2/3 of the book onwards.

There was a perceptible effort on my end to get through the first half of the book (dragged for over a month), but finished the second half in a spurt of effort over the last few days. Worth the effort in the end. The book could have been much shorter though.

ds
 
Thanks for the info :)

Phew, really don't know if I am going to like the book or not. One the one hand there are things that make it sound really great and on the other hand there are things that make it sound really crappy. I did give the first few pages a read in a book shop quite awhile ago and that tiny bit I read didn't impress me at all. Anyway, I am SURE to give it a go at some point :)
 
Well, I am now concurrently reading "The Falls" and "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell". God only knows what this will do to my brain.

Both of them are far too good to stop reading, so I'm stuck with the situation.

:rolleyes:
 
Okay, I'm now about one fourth of the way through JS and MN.

Stewart -- go ahead and take off the plastic; this one's a keeper. It's not the best book I've ever read, or by any means my all-time favorite, but it's very definitely one that I'm happy to be reading. It's entertaining, to say the least.
 
Durn...

This book is turning out to be just the tiniest bit too phantasmagorical for my tastes. The only characters I've found who've actually roused my curiousity for further reading so far are Lord Byron and Percy Shelley

Anybody have any recommendations for me when it comes to Byron, Shelley, et al?

(The parts about the Duke of Wellington have left me cold, although I had to laugh when the magician, upon hearing complaints about the soldiers' boots wearing out on Wellington's forced marches on rough roads, decided to make the roads smoother, instead of creating a better boot!)

:D
 
You won't find these to be spoilers, Wabbit. They're only the minor-est characters and incidents in the immensity of this book!
 
Here comes the spoiler!

SPOILER

Close your eyes, Wabbit.

Oh!

They are closed! ;)

:)

:p

:D

:eek:

:(

Enough diversionary tactics?

Are your eyes still closed?

Okay, guys.

Only you who aren't going to read JS & MN, now!

You know how you can't stand to see some books end? Well, it was a relief in this case. In my case, in this case.

(Sorry I had to report back in this way -- the book did cost about a zillion dollars...)

At least now I can go back to reading "The Falls" to which I am giving five stars, at least.

:rolleyes:
 
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