The Sunday Salon – Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell again
Unsurprisingly, considering I started to read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell last Sunday and that it is a 1006 page book, I am still reading it. This was my third attempt and I think finally this time, I will see it through to the end. I am on page 218 (I feel like I need some sort of progress widget in my sidebar!) as I didn’t have much reading time this week, the majority of the 168 pages I’ve read since last week were read yesterday at the mother-in-laws and today. So I daresay I’ll be reading this next week to (and the week after!).
Anyway so far I am mostly really liking it, I’m still continuing with my policy of not reading the footnotes in the text as I think they detract from the story (although I live in fear that I’m going to miss something important) but other than that I think for a 1000+ story, it so far really well paced and not dragging at all. I keep finding myself comparing it to another book I’ve read recently, The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by G.W. Dahlquist (review contained near the bottom of this very long post, scroll down, you’ll find it just under the picture of the orangutan), a book that I did not get on with. The two stories are similar in that they are both very long (Glass Books is 700+ pages), both set in the 1800s and both written in a style similar to work from that period. But whereas my chief complaints with The Glass Books being that it dragged and was over-described, Jonathan Strange does not suffer (so far) from either of these points. I love the narrator of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, he (I assume it’s a he) has a certain all knowing-ness and can be quite dryly funny, with some comments that seem to echo 21st century life quite perfectly, for example, I liked this -
The Foreign Secretary was quite a peerless orator. No matter how low the Government stood in the estimation of everyone, when the Foreign Secretary stood up and spoke – ah! how different everything seemed then! How quickly was every bad thing discovered to be the fault of the previous administration (an evil set of men who wedded general stupidity to wickedness of purpose). As for the present Ministry, the Foreign Secretary said that not since the days of Antiquity had the world seen gentlemen so virtuous, so misunderstood and so horribly misrepresented by their enemies.
As I have probably said here before on the Salon, I followed Susan Hill’s Creative Writing Course and one of things she taught us was to learn from other people’s writing and I’ve found (so far) Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell to contain excellent examples of telling and not showing, courtesy of the book’s excellent narrator. The chapter introducing Jonathan Strange’s childhood is mostly telling and is consquently far more entertaining and far reaching and opposed to probably even more chapters that would have been required if the author had chosen to show the reader instead Strange’s background. I’ve also enjoyed some brilliant set scenes so far, the statues coming alive in York Cathedral, the rain ships and the scene where Norrell is talking to the green coated fairy in the blackened reflection of his study window, excellent stuff.
I also am currently reading the book, and I’m half-way through. I must say that I don’t know how you are getting on without reading the foot-notes, since they contain A LOT of information regarding the Golden Age and Silver Age magicians that Jonathan and Mr. Norrell are so obsessed with. The footnotes also clarify a lot of the spells they are attempting, and why some work and others don’t.
The footnotes also contain revelations about the future of our two protagonists. For example, the narrator of the book acts as a historian, and one of the sources he frequently cites is a biography of Jonathan Strange written by John Segundus, and published by another character in the stories. This biography has not yet been written in the chapters we’re currently reading, but it reveals something about the future relationship of Segundus and Strange before we even meet Strange.
I read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell a while ago now. It took me ages to read, but I didn’t think it dragged at any point, apart from the footnotes. I did read them as I went along, but sighed each time. For one thing they’re in such small print and continue over more than one page and I thought they were too distracting. Yet somehow I just had to read them! As Artemis writes they do contain a lot of information – sometimes too much I thought.
I have a special fondness for that book not only because I loved it (footnotes and all) but because it was the subject of my very first blog post.
I gave up on ‘The Glass Books’. I thought it was a really bad book and was at a loss to see why it was published. It’s very rare I feel that way about a book so strongly. Did you read it on a recommendation, because no one I’ve spoken to about it as got anywhere with it?
Hi everyone
Thank you for all your comments, I’ll try and read the footnotes lol, I’d hate to get half way through and realise I’d missed something!
Ann – Glass Books was on a 3 for 2 and I brought it on the strength of the reviews on the cover and never have I been so disappointed by some reviews, I think I was in a way more disappointed by the reviews, which led me to think the book was something it wasn’t (i.e. good!) than the actual book itself. The reviews were siting it as something like a cross between Sherlock Holmes and Buffy the Vampire Slayer etc. etc. all sounding really good but it wasn’t like that in the slightest. It’s made me look more closely at the source of reviews on book covers now, if I’m going to pick up a book blind in a bookstore, maybe trusting a review by the Metro isn’t the best thing!
J.
It sounds like you are making good progress with the novel. Maybe the third time is the charm! I enjoyed this book quite a bit (and my husband even more so). I, too, find footnotes distracting, but these really are worth taking the time to read. They not only add to the story but also are bits and pieces of their own stories as well.
Have a great week!
I’m getting a little late into this discussion but I adore both the books mentioned here so I had to put my 2 cents in!
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is a all-time favorite of mine, and I agree with the other commenters, you really should be reading the footnotes…they’re one of my favorite aspects of the book! I love the mystery and history and complexity of the characters of the book…I hope you enjoyed it!
The Glass Books I’m finishing for the second time (I also just read it’s sequel, The Dark Volume, which is equally amazing). I never once found it slow…I find it an absolutly exciting and thrilling mystery adventure with wonderfully if subtley constructed characters!
The footnotes to JS&MN are part of the book. It’s just part of the deliberately idiosyncratic format that part of the content goes in the footnotes, but they represent part of the book every bit as much as the rest. You might as will miss out every third chapter. Well maybe not.
I read JS&MN as an audiobook, which adds an extra dimension because of the voice of Jonathan Prebble and his characterisations. He read every single footnote out in full so I didn’t really have the choice anyway!