Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
core novel 2004 Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Record
| First published | 2004 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.88 (262,751 ratings, collected 2026-09-14) |
| Page count | 1006 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9781582344164 |
Synopsis
Set in an alternate nineteenth-century England during the Napoleonic Wars, the novel imagines a country where practical magic once flourished but vanished centuries earlier, surviving only as a subject for antiquarian theorists rather than actual practice. That changes when the reclusive Mr. Gilbert Norrell proves himself a true working magician and enters London society, offering his services to the government against Napoleon and quickly attracting fame, rivals, and the attention of the fashionable world. His quiet, orderly dominance of English magic is upended by the emergence of a second magician, the charming, impulsive, and far more reckless Jonathan Strange, whose growing power and independent methods put the two men on a collision course that neither fully anticipates, even as older, stranger magic begins stirring at the edges of their rivalry.
Where it sits
- Universe: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
- Series: not part of a registered series (standalone work within its universe)
- Author: Susanna Clarke
Awards (verified)
- Hugo Award (Best Novel), 2005: won
- World Fantasy Award (Best Novel), 2005: won
- Locus Award (Best First Novel), 2005: won; Locus reader-poll winner (1st place). The win is in Best First Novel, some secondary sources sloppily cite 'Best Novel'.
- Mythopoeic Fantasy Award (Adult Literature), 2005: won
- Man Booker Prize, 2004: nominated; Longlisted, rare mainstream literary recognition for a genre fantasy novel.
- Whitbread Book Awards (First Novel Award), 2004: nominated; Shortlisted; Whitbread-era name (renamed Costa in 2006).
- Guardian First Book Award, 2004: nominated; Shortlisted.
- Nebula Award (Best Novel), 2005: nominated; SFWA files this under the 2006 ceremony year for 2005-eligible work; lost to Joe Haldeman's Camouflage.
- British Fantasy Award (August Derleth Award (Best Novel)), 2005: nominated
- BSFA Award (Best Novel), 2005: nominated
Notes
- Alternate-history Regency England (1806-1817) in which practical English magic, dormant since the medieval reign of the Raven King, is revived by two rival magicians. Written over roughly a decade; pastiche 19th-century style with extensive scholarly footnotes constructing a fictional history of English magic. Clarke's only novel in this world.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (standalone work): position 1 of 3: next The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories (2006)
Sources
← Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.