Reasons to Read Jonathan Strange

As all of you know, I'm sure, I'm in love with Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke. I read it a year and a half ago, and I decided to read it again this year. It's different the second time (though not worse). I can understand now how people say that it's difficult to get into. It is rather slow at the first 1/3rd of the book. The reason for this is because it's split into three main parts, one about Gilbert Norrell, one about Jonathan Strange, and one about John Uskglass, who is also known as the Raven King. Mr. Norell is by far the least enjoyable of these characters and his story is the beginning 3rd of the book. However, I must ask any potential readers to promise to make it at least to the introduction of Jonathan Strange before giving up.

The story is about two (wealthy) gentlemen who live in England at the beginning of the 19th century, and who are destined to bring magic back to England, which has been nonexistent for two hundred years. I often laugh out loud at several parts of the book. I've listed some here, to give you a taste of the hilarity that could be ensuing in your own living room.

This is a part of the book before Mr. Norrell meets Jonathan strange (who is many years younger and much more likable), and he has summoned a fairy to help him with a particularly daunting task. He is the first person to do this in many hundreds of years. Mr. Norrell is the first speaker.

"Were I the sort of magician who is eager to entrust all his business to another person, then your offer would be more welcome. But unfortunately... I fear... In short I have no notion of employing you - or indeed any other member of your race - ever again. "
     A long silence. 
     "Well, this is ungrateful indeed!" declared the gentlemen, coldly. "I have put myself to the trouble of paying you this visit. I have listened with the greatest good nature to your dreary conversation. I have borne patiently with your ignorance of the proper forms and etiquette of magic. And now you scorn my offer of assistance. Other magicians, I may say, have endured all sorts of torments to gain my help. Perhaps I would do better to speak to to the other one. Perhaps he understands better than you how to address persons of high rank and estate?" The gentlemen glanced about the room. "I do not see him. Where is he?" 
     "Where is who?"
     "The other one." 
     "The other one what?"
     "Magician!" 
     "Magici..." Mr. Norrell began to form the word but it died upon his lips. "No, no! There is no other magician. I am the only one. I assure you I am the only one. Why should you think that...?"
     "Of course there is another magician!" declared the gentlemen, as if it were perfectly ridiculous to deny anything quite so obvious. "He is your dearest friend in all the world! ... He has red hair and a long nose. And he is very conceited - as are all Englishmen!"

These are smaller passages, this one is from one where Jonathan Strange's father, a cruel man, get a new manservant, and the other servants warn him about their master's temper.

The new manservant thanked them for the information and promised to remember what they had said. But what the other servants did not know was that the new manservant had a temper to rival Mr. Strange's own; that he was sometimes sarcastic, often rude, and that he had a very high opinion of his own abilities and a correspondingly low one of other people's. Though he often found himself quarrelling with his friends and neighbours, he was always puzzled to discover the reason and always supposed that it must be their fault.

This next passage is when we first meet Jonathan Strange, who is not at all aware of his destiny to become one of the future magicians of the world. A man named Vinculus, who is acting out his own purpose in life, delivers him the Raven King's prophecy.

     Vinulus approached Strange. 
     "Two magicians shall appear in England," he said. 
"The first shall fear me; the second shall long to behold me;
The first shall be governed by thieves and murderers; the second shall conspire at his own destruction;
The first shall bury his heart in a dark wood beneath the snow, yet still feel its ache;
The second shall see his dearest possession in his enemy's hand..."
     I see," interrupted Strange. "And which am I, the first or the second? No, do not tell me. It does not matter. Both sound entirely dreadful. For someone who is anxious that I should become a magician, I must say you do not make the life sound very appealing. I hope to be married soon and a life spent in dark woods surrounded by thieves and murderers would be inconvenient to say the least. I suggest you chuse someone else."

You love these characters. Mr. Norrell is a huge pain and a terrible little man, the likes of whom you hope you never meet, but he's incredibly well-developed. Jonathan Strange is such a charming person. You love everything about him, and forgive him his faults because of his charisma. The Raven King fascinates you. You are constantly grasping at any tiny pieces of information. He's mythical and mystical; you feel that as a reader, the same way these characters do. These passages are all very amusing (though perhaps just to me, I don't know), but there is still another reason to read Jonathan Strange. The writing is very, very good. Not only is it clever and witty (the author is very liberal at poking fun of herself and the Englishness of it all: ... his attention was given to the argument he was having with his neighbour as to whether the English magician had gone mad because he was a magician, or because he was English.), but it is also very moving. It's about something larger: the connection between the earth and its people. The following passage speaks to that theme.

... Stephen understood without ever actually waking that the gentlemen with the thistle-down hair was singing. 
     It may be laid down as a general rule that if a man begins to sing, no one will take any notice of his song except his fellow human beings. This is true even if his song is surpassingly beautiful. Other men may be in raptures at his skill, but the rest of creation is, by and large, unmoved. Perhaps a cat or a dog may look at him; his horse, if it is an exceptionally intelligent beast, may pause in cropping the grass, but that is the extent of it. But when the fairy sang, the whole world listened to him. Stephen felt clouds pause in their passing; he felt sleeping hills shift and murmur; he felt cold mists dance. He understood for the first time that the world is not dumb at all, but merely waiting for someone to speak to it in a language it understands. In the fairy's song the earth recognized the names by which it called itself. 

Isn't that beautiful? The earth recognizes the names by which it calls itself. It makes you want to learn that language and connect with the earth in this way. This is what makes the fairies such amazing magical creatures. They understand that everything is connected, and when you speak the language of the trees and the earth and the whole world, you can ask it to do anything and magic becomes a simple part of being alive. What an amazing thought. Unfortunately, though fairies are very magical, they are barely sane. Humans, on the other hand, are generally very reasonable, but their magical abilities are few and far between. Enter the Raven King, a man who was raised by fairies, who brought magic to his English kingdom, long, long ago. Before him, there was no English magic, and because of him, humans understood how to use it. One of his followers wrote:

Above all remember this: that magic belongs as much to the heart as to the head and everything which is done, should be done from love or joy....
     And if we honour this principle we shall discover that our magic is much greater than the sum of all the spells that were ever taught. Then magic is to us as flight is to the birds, because then our magic comes from the dark and dreaming heart, just as the flight of a bird comes from the heart. And we will feel the same joy in performing that magic that the bird feels as it casts itself into the void and we will know that magic is part of what a man is, just as flight is part of what a bird is.
     This understanding is a gift to us from the Raven King, the dear king of all magicians, who stands between England and the Other Lands, between all wild creatures and the world of men.

Now if the character development, the wit, the comedy, and these moving passages aren't enough to get you interested, I don't know what will.