Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

by Susanna Clarke

Volume I: Mr Norrell

{{Quote box | title = | quote = He hardly ever spoke of magic, and when he did it was like a history lesson and no one could bear to listen to him.

| source = Description of Mr Norrell | align = right | width = 30em | border = 1px | fontsize = 85% | bgcolor = #c6dbf7 | title_bg = | title_fnt = | salign = right }} The novel opens in 1806 in northern England with The Learned Society of York Magicians, whose members are "theoretical magicians" who believe that magic died out several hundred years earlier. The group is stunned to learn of a "practical magician", Mr Gilbert Norrell, who owns a large collection of "books of magic", which he has spent years purchasing to keep them out of the hands of others. Norrell proves his skill as a magician by making the statues in York Cathedral speak. John Childermass, Mr Norrell's servant, convinces a member of the group, John Segundus, to write about the event for the London newspapers.

Segundus's article generates considerable interest in Mr Norrell, who moves to London to revive practical English magic. He enters society with the help of two gentlemen about town, the superficial Christopher Drawlight and the shrewd Henry Lascelles, and meets a Cabinet Minister, Sir Walter Pole. To ingratiate himself, Mr Norrell attempts to recall Sir Walter's fiancée, Emma Wintertowne, from the dead. He summons a fairy—"the gentleman with thistle-down hair"—who strikes a bargain with Mr Norrell to restore Emma: half of her life will be spent with the fairy. After news spreads of Emma's resurrection and happy marriage to Sir Walter, magic becomes seen as respectable; and Mr Norrell uses his magic to aid the government in their ongoing war against Napoleon.

While living in London, Mr Norrell encounters Vinculus, a street-magician, who relates a prophecy about a nameless slave and two magicians in England, but Norrell dismisses it. While travelling, Vinculus later meets Jonathan Strange, a young gentleman of property from Shropshire, and recites the same prophecy, which prompts Strange to become a magician. Meanwhile, the gentleman with thistle-down hair takes a liking to Stephen Black, Sir Walter's butler, and promises to make him a king. Emma (now Lady Pole) lapses into lassitude. She rarely speaks, and her attempts to communicate her situation are confounded by magic. Without the knowledge of the other characters, each evening she and Stephen are forced to attend balls held by the gentleman with thistle-down hair in the Faerie kingdom of Lost-Hope, where they dance all night long.

Volume II: Jonathan Strange

{{Quote box |width = 30em |border = 1px |align = right |bgcolor = #c6dbf7 |fontsize = 85% |title_bg = |title_fnt = |title = |quote = "Can a magician kill a man by magic?" Lord Wellington asked Strange. Strange frowned. He seemed to dislike the question. "I suppose a magician might," he admitted, "but a gentleman never could." |salign = left |source = Conversation between Strange and the Duke of Wellington }} Volume II opens in 1809 with Strange learning of Mr Norrell and travelling to London to meet him. They immediately clash over the importance of John Uskglass (the legendary Raven King) to English magic. Strange argues that "without the Raven King there would be no magic and no magicians" while Norrell retorts that the Raven King abandoned England and should be forgotten. Despite their differing opinions and temperaments, Strange becomes Norrell's pupil. Norrell, however, deliberately keeps some knowledge from Strange.

The Stranges become a popular couple in London. Lady Pole and Strange's wife, Arabella, become friends and during one of her visits Arabella meets the gentleman with thistle-down hair, whom she assumes is a relative. The Cabinet ministers find Strange easier to deal with than Norrell, and they send him to assist the Duke of Wellington on his Peninsular Campaign. For over a year, Strange helps the army: he creates roads, moves towns, and makes dead men speak. After he returns, he fails to cure George III's madness, although Strange manages to save the king from the gentleman with thistle-down hair, who is determined to make Stephen a king. Strange then helps defeat Napoleon at the horrific Battle of Waterloo.

Upon returning to England, Strange finds that Drawlight has been stealing money from eager English citizens with prospects of fulfilling their wishes through Strange's magic. Drawlight disappears and is arrested by Lascelles. Norrell strongly wishes for Drawlight to be hanged for his crime, but Strange disagrees. Lascelles starts to become closer to Norrell, challenging the relationship between Childermass and his master.

Frustrated with being Norrell's pupil, Strange pens a scathing review of a book outlining Norrell's theories on modern magic; in particular, Strange challenges Norrell's views of the Raven King. The English public splits into "Norrellites" and "Strangites"; Norrell and Strange part company, although not without regret. Strange returns home and works on his own book, The History and Practice of English Magic. Arabella goes missing, then suddenly reappears, sick and weak. Three days later she dies.

Volume III: John Uskglass

{{Quote box |width = 30em |border = 1px |align = right |bgcolor = #c6dbf7 |fontsize = 85% |title_bg = |title_fnt = |title = |quote = It is the contention of Mr Norrell of Hanover-square that everything belonging to John Uskglass must be shaken out of modern magic, as one would shake moths and dust out of an old coat. What does he imagine he will have left? If you get rid of John Uskglass you will be left holding the empty air.

|salign = right |source = Jonathan Strange, Prologue to The History and Practice of English Magic, pub. John Murray, London, 1816 }} Volume III opens in 1816 with Lady Pole attempting to shoot Mr Norrell. Childermass takes the bullet himself but is not killed. Afterwards, Lady Pole is cared for in the country by John Segundus, who has an inkling of the magic surrounding her. During travels in the north, Stephen meets Vinculus, who recites his prophecy: "the nameless slave shall be a king in a strange country ... " Stephen believes it applies to him, but the gentleman with thistle-down hair argues that it applies to the Raven King.

Strange travels to Venice and meets Flora Greysteel. They become fond of each other and Strange's friends believe he may marry again. However, after experimenting with dangerous magic that threatens his sanity to gain access to Faerie, he discovers that Arabella is alive and being held captive in Lost-Hope. The gentleman with the thistle-down hair curses him with Eternal Night, an eerie darkness that engulfs him and follows him wherever he goes. Thereafter, Strange's strenuous efforts to rescue Arabella take their toll, and his letters to his friends appear crazed. At Strange's request, Flora moves with her family to Padua and secludes herself within her home, along with a mirror given to her by Strange. Drawlight is sent by Lascelles and Norrell to Venice to find out more about Strange's activities and Strange uses his magic to bring Drawlight before him. Strange instructs Drawlight to deliver messages to Norrell, Childermass and the magical community within England before dismissing him. Strange then re-invokes the old alliances that exist in England between the forces of nature and John Uskglass. This sparks a magical renaissance and reopens roads to Faerie, but Norrell fails to grasp its significance.

Drawlight attempts to deliver the messages to their recipients, but is intercepted by Lascelles, who murders him, as Norrell learning the truth would damage Lascelles' control over Norrell. Strange, bringing the "Eternal Night" with him, asks Norrell to help him undo Arabella's enchantment by summoning John Uskglass. Childermass explores a corner of Faerie and stumbles upon a castle where he is challenged to a duel by its guardian; he declines the duel. Lascelles challenges the guardian himself, wishing to preserve English honour, and succeeds in killing him, but is magically entrapped into the position of the guardian himself.

Childermass meanwhile eventually receives the message meant for him by Strange and uses it to break the enchantment over Lady Pole. Enraged by this, the gentleman with the thistle-down hair intends to place a second deadly curse on Lady Pole, as Faerie tradition demands. En route, he murders Vinculus after they encounter him, with Stephen Black forced to watch. During these events, Norrell and Strange attempt a spell that would cause the nature forces of England to pay homage to John Uskglass. Not knowing his true name, they dedicate it to the "nameless slave". However, the two magicians' belief that this is Uskglass is mistaken, and instead the power is devoted to Stephen. He uses his momentary control of all English magic to destroy the man with the thistle-down hair. Then, leaving England forever by one of the Faerie roads, Stephen becomes the new king of the now-blossoming Lost-Hope.

Childermass discovers Vinculus's body and notes that it is tattooed with the last work of John Uskglass. As he tries to preserve the tattoos in memory, a man appears. He calls Childermass his servant (giving him the misapprehension that it is Norrell in disguise), then brings Vinculus back to life and performs other feats of magic with ease. The mysterious man, heavily implied to be John Uskglass himself, then disappears, removing Childermass's and Vinculus's memories of the encounter as he goes.

As a result of the imprecision of the fairy's curse, which was placed on "the English magician", Norrell is trapped along with Strange in the "Eternal Night", and they cannot move more than a certain distance from each other. Upon the gentleman with the thistle-down hair's death, Arabella comes through the mirror in Padua, where Flora is waiting for her upon instruction of Strange. Childermass informs The Learned Society of York Magicians that their contract is void, telling them they can study magic again. He shows the now-restored Vinculus as proof that John Uskglass's book of magic remains, tattooed upon his body. Two months later, Strange has a conversation with Arabella, who is still living in Padua, and explains that he and Norrell are working to undo the eternal darkness they are both trapped in, but are planning to adventure into other worlds. Neither wishes to take her to Faerie again, so he instead promises to return to her when he has dispelled the darkness and tells her not to be a widow till then, which she agrees to.