This blog will be a true test of my write-till-you-can’t-write-no-more abilities. Mr. Bailey, my wonderfully witty Essay Writing teacher, recommended that I try reading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, a novel by Susanna Clarke. This book is not your typical young adult fantasy story; it is definitely a higher level read. Unfortunately, I have been busy for the past week and only got a chance to read about two-hundred of its one-thousand pages. This means I will have to go into a bit more depth about what I think of the book so far, because not only have I read so little, but I also have to write twice as much because I only have one new book to discuss.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell takes place in nineteenth-century Britain during the Napoleonic wars. The story revolves around the idea that magic has declined and pretty much disappeared in England. There is a society of magicians in Yorkshire who meet once a month to discuss magical history, but they never actually do any magic. In autumn of 1806, a man experienced with the history of magic named John Segundus joins the society and asks “Why is the there no more magic done in England?” The other members grumble and don’t have an answer. One man, Mr. Honeyfoot, reminds the group of the previously heard rumors that there was another magician in Yorkshire who has a large amount of magical texts. Honeyfoot and Segundus finally visit the mysterious man, who turns out to be Mr. Norrell.

At this point in the story, we suddenly stop hearing about Mr. Segundus and Mr. Honeyfoot. I, however, was not disappointed in this change, because I found them to be a bit uninteresting compared to Mr. Norrell. Clarke uses just enough description for him, writing that he “was small, like his handwriting, and his voice was rather quiet as if he were not used to speaking his thoughts out loud,” and that “he had small blue eyes that seemed to peep out at them from some secret place inside himself.” He ends up leaving Yorkshire and moving to London, where he plans to revive magic and offer his abilities to the Government to help Britain against the French.

Mr. Norrell, with the help of Drawlight and Lascelles, manages to make his way into the classy London society. He becomes a celebrity after bringing Minister Walter Pole’s daughter back to life, who had previously died from a sickness of some sort. Mr. Norrell manages to help the British navy when he magically creates several hundred fake ships made entirely out of water, and the French become hesitant to attack. This delay allows the British to deposit spies and unload cargo.

One thing that stood out to me was the language. Clarke utilizes many alternate spellings for words like “show,” “choose,” “surprise,” and “connection,” instead spelling them “shew,” “chuse,” “surprize,” and “connexion.” I really don’t see any purpose in this, but my guess as to why she included these changed terms is that she wanted it to give the book a more unique, magical sort of feel. When I began reading the book, this stuck out as an annoyance. Every time I came across one I would snort and think to myself how ridiculous it was for Clarke to be able to get away with so many changes without criticism. However, as time went on, I grew accustomed to the special wordings and began to see them as kind of humorous. This has given me the idea to change one or two words in all of my blogg assignments from now on. I believe you can already see one of my choices, fellow blogger.

Another aspect of this Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell that I don’t see very often in what I usually read is the use of many, many footnotes. Wikipedia claims that Clarke includes hundreds of footnotes, and after flipping through the book, I wouldn’t doubt there being more than two-hundred. Some of them are even longer than the writing on the page. The longest one I’ve seen so far was two pages long, with two or three measly lines of text at the top. However, the footnotes never get boring or bothersome. Many of them are short stories that give humorous background information. My favorite one so far verifies that Drawlight, a man in London who spends his time going to dinner parties, “possessed not a single good quality”:

“He had once found himself in a room with Lady Bessborough’s long-haired white cat. He happened to be dressed in an immaculate black coat and trousers, and was therefore thoroughly alarmed by the cat’s stalking round and round and making motions as if it proposed to sit upon him. He waited until he believed himself to be unobserved, then he picked it up, opened a window and tossed it out. Despite falling three storeys (not a spelling mistake, Mr. Bailey) to the ground, the cat survived, but one of its legs was never quite right afterwards and it always evinced the greatest dislike to gentlemen in black clothes.”

The excerpts like this are what prevent me from being overwhelmed at the idea of trying to complete a thousand page novel of adult writing. They act as a sort of break from the storyline, and allow me to step back for a moment and soak in additional information about a character or place. It’s not the number of pages that’s an issue (Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide, anyone?), but the higher level of language is new for me. The transition was still easier than I thought it would be, however. It seems as though this book might be for young adult-adults, as opposed to young adults, which are widely considered tweens and teens. This would explain why an inexperienced choob (a n00b, or newbie, except a bit worse) like myself would find himself actually able to understand all of what he is reading.