Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (First U.S. Edition)

Susanna Clarke (author); Portia Rosenberg (illustrator)

ISBN 10: 1582344167 / ISBN 13: 9781582344164

Published by Bloomsbury USA, New York, 2004

About this Item

Bloomsbury USA, New York, 2004. First U.S. edition. First printing, with full number line to 1. A very fine (as-new) copy in a very fine (as-new) jacket. A clean copy with price ($27.95) intact on front flap. Comes with archival-quality jacket protector. A beautiful copy of Clarke's debut novel. This title was issued in the first printing with a white dust jacket or a black dust jacket. This is the BLACK jacket. Rear Stacks.

Seller Inventory # FLAHIVE-3903

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (First U.S. Edition)
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA, New York
• Publication Date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1582344167
• ISBN 13: 9781582344164
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: As New
• Dust Jacket Condition: As New
• Seller catalogs:
  • First Editions

About this title

Synopsis

English magicians were once the wonder of the known world, with fairy servants at their beck and call; they could command winds, mountains, and woods. But by the early 1800s they have long since lost the ability to perform magic. They can only write long, dull papers about it, while fairy servants are nothing but a fading memory.

 
But at Hurtfew Abbey in Yorkshire, the rich, reclusive Mr Norrell has assembled a wonderful library of lost and forgotten books from England's magical past and regained some of the powers of England's magicians. He goes to London and raises a beautiful young woman from the dead. Soon he is lending his help to the government in the war against Napoleon Bonaparte, creating ghostly fleets of rain-ships to confuse and alarm the French.

All goes well until a rival magician appears. Jonathan Strange is handsome, charming, and talkative-the very opposite of Mr Norrell. Strange thinks nothing of enduring the rigors of campaigning with Wellington's army and doing magic on battlefields. Astonished to find another practicing magician, Mr Norrell accepts Strange as a pupil. But it soon becomes clear that their ideas of what English magic ought to be are very different. For Mr Norrell, their power is something to be cautiously controlled, while Jonathan Strange will always be attracted to the wildest, most perilous forms of magic. He becomes fascinated by the ancient, shadowy figure of the Raven King, a child taken by fairies who became king of both England and Faerie, and the most legendary magician of all. Eventually Strange's heedless pursuit of long-forgotten magic threatens to destroy not only his partnership with Norrell, but everything that he holds dear.

Sophisticated, witty, and ingeniously convincing, Susanna Clarke's magisterial novel weaves magic into a flawlessly detailed vision of historical England. She has created a world so thoroughly enchanting that eight hundred pages leave readers longing for more.

About the Authors

Susanna Clarke lives in Cambridge, England. This is her first book.

Susanna Clarke lives in Cambridge, England. This is her first book.