A society of magicians meets each month in 1806, in York, England.
They can't actually work magic, but they study the history of the
practice. When newcomer John Segundus joins the group, he asks a
naïve yet pertinent question: Why is magic no longer practiced
in England? The query throws the club into an uproar. Although they
don't actually know the answer, the irate members respond
defensively, asking Segundus why magicians must practice magic when
it is their duty to study it.

One magician, Honeyfoot, sides with Segundus. The two seek out and
visit a magician named Norrell, who is a stranger to the group.
Visiting Norrell is a mysterious experience full of happenings the
two men can't explain to the York group. But one message strikes
home: Mr. Norrell can actually PRACTICE magic.

The group challenges Mr. Norrell, who strikes a bargain with them.
He will prove he can practice magic or never again call himself a
magician. But in return, they must do the same. All the magicians
but Segundus sign the agreement. When Mr. Norrell (from the comfort
of his own home) causes all the cathedral statues to come alive, he
and Segundus become the only magicians left in Yorkshire.

Mr. Norrell moves to London in his quest to bring magic back to
England. Segundus has written a letter to the London newspapers
describing Mr. Norrell's amazing feat of magic. London society
welcomes Mr. Norrell, but when he offers his assistance in the war
efforts with France, he is rebuffed and told that magic is not
respectable. That opinion is reversed, however, when Mr. Norrell
raises a government official's fiancée from the dead. The
British ministers immediately begin to argue over which of
Britain's dead leaders Mr. Norrell should resurrect…until Mr.
Norrell mentions the phrase "condition of the body." Oh, dear. On
to Plan B!

Meanwhile, a young man named Jonathan Strange meets a street
sorcerer who prophesies that Strange will be one of the two great
magicians of England. On a whim (and mostly to impress the woman he
hopes to marry), he announces his intention to study magic.
Easygoing Strange becomes persnickety Norrell's pupil. An evil
force is about. Norrell bargains with it, but it is Strange whose
personal life is most affected.

When Strange joins the troops on the battlefield to lend a magical
hand, the commanding officer, Lord Wellington, asks hopefully, "Can
a magician kill a man by magic?" Strange replies, "I suppose a
magician might…but a gentleman never could." Yet he assists
the war effort in many sometimes droll and sometimes nightmarish
ways.

Fans of Dickens and Austen will dive headfirst into this book, but
I must confess that I found the beginning a long, hard slog. It is
a hefty, dense and heavily footnoted text, and I initially found
the authorial voice to be intrusive and annoying. However,
somewhere before the 100-page mark, I fell happily in love with the
story and greedily devoured the remainder. (Readers who stumble in
the early chapters should consider forging ahead; I guarantee it's
worth the effort.)

This is an amazingly detailed, ornate tapestry of a saga with
shimmering moments of wry humor, threaded through with true
tragedy. It is fantasy and historical fiction realistically
combined and worth pondering, and sure to become a classic. I
admitted that it was a slow read for me at the very beginning;
after the middle, I dawdled for a different reason. I simply could
not bear to see the end of the story approaching. There is a
magician alive and well in England today --- Susanna Clarke, author
of JONATHAN STRANGE & MR. NORRELL. Long may she continue to
enchant her readers!