2004 fantasy. In Regency England, magic is much more an historical
curiosity than an occupation for gentlemen… until Mr Norrell of
Hurtfew Abbey starts actually doing it again.
This is a gentle and subtle book – and a very slow one, at least
to start with. In spite of its setting, the style does not seem like
that of Austen; it reminded me very much more of Trollope's The
Warden in its careful insinuations about people's characters and
motivations (though without the desperate lack of subtlety of that
book, where Trollope fears the reader might miss a joke unless it's
explained three times).
The problem, though, is that while there are interesting and even good
people in the book, the narrative spends very little time with them,
preferring to deal with Norrell's social climbing (by buying and
hiding away the old books that are the only way to learn magic he
attempts to be the only magician, and to be valued for that reason
in spite of his lack of charm) and Strange's unfocused pursuit of
whatever seems interesting at the time. Most of the troubles they
encounter are caused by their own carelessness. I don't like these
people. (I'm not meant to, of course. But I don't enjoy reading about
people I don't like.)
And magic is undefined. I'm not asking for a table of spells with
casting costs and ranges; but the magicians seem to be able to do
whatever the plot needs them to do (such as rearranging the terrain of
Spain for Wellington's benefit, before breakfast, then moving Brussels
across the Atlantic) but not anything that would be inconvenient to
the progression of the plot. One never knows whether a problem will be
solved by actual work or by someone saying "aha, why don't we try
(this spell that's never been mentioned before)", which works against
any tension that might be built up.
These problems are more unfortunate because the rest of the book is so
good. Clarke's narrative voice is lovely, a pleasurable pastiche of
the early 19th-century style, and while it's vanishingly rare for me
to say this about a book of more than 300,000 words, I really don't
believe it would have benefited from cutting. Everything that's here
needs to be here. The research is clearly deep, but no more than is
necessary has made it onto the page. There's a huge and complex world
that's gradually revealed as needed.
It's a good book, quite possibly a great book, but I couldn't love it.
Comments on this post are now closed. If you have particular grounds for adding a late comment, comment on a more recent post quoting the URL of this one.