Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Two magicians revive English magic during the Napoleonic wars, and the fairies who answer are not friendly.
England, during the Napoleonic wars, has not had a practising magician in three hundred years, until the reclusive Mr Norrell revives the art and takes on a pupil who turns out to be his opposite in every way. Clarke writes it as a period novel complete with scholarly footnotes, and the fairies in it are genuinely alarming rather than whimsical. It took ten years to write, runs to eight hundred pages, and won the Hugo.
Recommended by 1 Person
Jo Walton
I don’t love it. I admire it no end. But I don’t love it, because it doesn’t let you ever be comfortable, and you are always on edge reading it. Which is right for fairies! Fairies are an uncomfortable thing. They’re an element that puts you on edge. But it makes it less lovable than some of these other books. Clarke’s more recent book, Piranesi – which has no fairies – I just love.
Interview · March 2026
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