Cool book, I did not vibe with the faux old timey writing style and the various foot notes. I also watched the TV series before I started reading, which I liked. Might have something to do with why I didn't finish it. ( )

I didn't finish it... It's just taking way too long to get started. I love the narrator's voice but please give me a reason to keep going in this slow paced, numbing story... ( )

Got too tedious at times, waiting & waiting for something to happen, & not liking the main character much. It was a cold book, almost like from a horror genre. I usually love anything from this time period, but not this book. I still think her alternative history was ingenious & love how fans have made an online wiki--so convincing that it totally feels real. For these reasons I loved the brilliant DVD series. At times I found myself going to the book to satisfy cravings for more detail. ( )

This is not my kind of book, and I doubt that I’ll ever reread it.

It’s a very long and very fanciful book about magicians and fairies, set mainly in England in the early 19th century, and gives the impression of having been written at that time—being written in a deliberately old-fashioned style and with a deliberately old-fashioned view of magic and fairies, as though the author had never read any fantasy story written since the 19th century. She has put the 20th and 21st centuries out of her mind entirely in writing this book.

Clearly she has done plenty of research into history, geography, and the traditional roots of magical legend.

The story rambles on and on, digressing freely, and I felt obliged to follow it through, rather like the wedding guest listening to the Ancient Mariner. In the end there is what amounts to a happy ending, although the happiness seems oddly muted and the story ends without a bang.

I dislike the way magic is presented in this book. Magicians perform spells, but we never get to hear the spells or understand how they work in any way. Evidently the magicians understand more about it than we do, but we never get to share in their knowledge, the magic remains mysterious, and its limitations unknown; although it's extremely powerful and perhaps has no limitations. I don’t approve of fiction in which anything you want to accomplish can be done with an unexplained spell; it strikes me as cheating. I prefer to read about magic that has rules and limitations and some kind of theoretical basis.

I also fail to be enchanted with the characters, which are well presented but curiously unappealing. Jonathan Strange is a relatively sympathetic character, but even he falls somewhat short of real likeability, perhaps because he’s obsessively devoted to magic. ( )

In the beginning was a preface, and then an introduction, followed by some exposition, and then an opening.

Looking through the reviews, it appears many people either adore it or hate it. Frankly, I'm in neither camp, because I can't work up enough emotion to care. It took a long time to become interested, and I finally had to resort to a strategy of reading only a few chapters at a time, setting free any expectation that this was a book that would pull me in and never let me go. It became the perfect book to read before bed, a non-habit forming Ambien that avoided unpleasant dreams while lulling me into sleep. The language and structure of the tale is a formidable barrier to easy enjoyment; this is [b:Great Expectations|2623|Great Expectations|Charles Dickens|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327920219s/2623.jpg|2612809], the original, uncut director's copy, thick enough in mass market paperback to soak with water and turn into a paper-mache brick. The final obstacle to delight is the general distastefulness of Mr. Norrell. This is improved somewhat when Jonathan Strange enters the tale, and for a while I was able to read without Mr. Sandman paying a visit.

I found much of the tale to be philosophizing about the character of England, and the distinctions between the north and the south tedious as they are somewhat non-accessible and lack relevance to the non-English. In some ways, I suspect the cultural conflict might resemble American regional conflicts, but it takes a talented author to make the conflict relevant across oceans and time. I understand Clarke is doing; I just lack interest in the subject matter, so the voice starts to sound a lot like the adults in Charlie Brown. Muhua wa wa...

Unfortunately, the writing style and its take on various popular Victorian styles is monotonous for me. Although I enjoy the 19th century British mysteries, and Wodehousian humor, Clarke has neither the tightly woven mystery nor the snappy dialogue that keeps me interested in those forms. When it comes to writing style, I can see why some people would find her writing interesting, especially if they are fans of the time period; it just fails to resonate for me in the way it is presented. The footnotes are occasionally amusing as they frequently contain opinionated commentary. I read recently that Clarke wrote the story in "bundles" and ended up working at fitting them together. In retrospect, this might explain some of the jumps in plotting and setting, and account for the way plots were set down and then picked up a hundred pages later.

I was pleased to discover the magical or supernatural elements play a larger role than I expected from reading other reviews. One of the characters and plotlines I struggled with was that of the "white-haired gentleman." While it certainly brought magical elements to the story, I felt like he was a distraction and never fully woven into the plot. His obsession with Stephen, was particularly odd, and I never felt like I understood it's connection to Norrell and Strange.

Clarke does sprinkle gentle humor throughout the story that occasionally caused twitters or giggles. One of the first lines to make me laugh:

"He was so clean and healthy and pleased about everything that he positively shone--which is only to be expected in a fairy or an angel but is somewhat disconcerting in an attorney."

Cross posted at http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2013/01/01/jonathan-strange-mr-norrell-or-ambien-... ( )