Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Description

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. 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.

First Sentence

SOME YEARS AGO there was in the city of York a society of magicians.

Subjects

Other Editions

• Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell: A NovelMass Market PaperbackTor Books2006-08-01
• Jonathan Strange and Mr. NorrellBloomsbury Publishing Plc2004-01-01
• Jonathan Strange and Mr NorrellPaperbackBloomsbury Publishing PLC2004-09-06
• Jonathan Strange and Mr. NorrellHardcoverBloomsbury Publishing PLC2004-09-20
• Jonathan Strange and Mr NorrellAudio CDBloomsbury Publishing PLC2004-12-06
• Jonathan Strange & Mr NorrellBloomsbury2005-01-01