Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Susanna Clarke imagines a nineteenth-century England in which magic has returned through the work of Gilbert Norrell and Jonathan Strange. Set around the Napoleonic Wars, the novel centres on the relationship between these two men and mixes alternative history with fantasy. Its narrative draws on Gothic fiction and the comedy of manners, while its prose evokes nineteenth-century novelists such as Jane Austen and Charles Dickens.

This was Clarke’s first novel, published by Bloomsbury in 2004 with illustrations by Portia Rosenberg. It received the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2005. The historical pastiche is part of the reading experience, rather than a claim that its magical events actually happened.