Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

I've got about 50 pages left to go.

It has required some effort to get through but that's mostly because I don't get a lot of time to read.

I love the language that it uses and I adore some of the footnotes. That was enough to keep me going and interested during the long, slow parts of the book but when the rivalry heats up and really strange things start to happen I was glad that so much time had been given to character development.

I also like the very Dickensian names that people and places are given: Childermass, The Library at Hurtfew, etc. Even the names Gilbert Norrell and Jonathan Strange let you know that one is stodgy and the other vivid.

I don't want to post anything that will spoil it for you but if you want to discuss any parts that you come across I'll be happy to join in.

Welcome to A2K, dora!

that is exactly how i felt about where it started picking up, then i was glad that she had taken some time to build up to it. then it was like all the pieces she'd set up started to fall into place. i still have a long way to go though...i'm only about 400 pages in...

Interesting to read this - it is STILL sitting in my "to read" list!

I am glad you two are liking it.

It was an interesting attention grabber to publish it in two colours, no? (Assuming this little trick also occurred in the US!)

Book marketers are so clever - although, I noted when I was in the USA, that your covers are, to Australian and English taste, anyway, very garish and best-seller/thriller looking - even for serious books, it really stood out.

I didn't see it published in 2 colors, dlowan... maybe it was just marketed that way outside the u.s. what do you mean by two colors, like 2 different covers? All i saw was the black cover w/ white letters.

Ah - we also have a white cover with black letters.

Ha!

My copy has a red cover with white letters.

It only has the title and a ourline of a raven - not garish or thrillery at all.

There was another book I bought not too long ago that was released with a few different covers. I'll have to search my brain to see if I can remember what it was.

I finished it!!! that took quite a while, and now i can't get it out of my head. ever had one of those books that you read for so long that when you're done, you keep expecting to pick it up and keep going?
I am a little puzzled on the ending...anyone else read it that might be willing to discuss it w/ me?

<spoiler alert>

specifically the Darkness...anyone got any thoughts on why it didn't go away with the defeat of the gentleman? all his other spells ended when Stephen buried him...was it not a spell of his?

Hmmmm.....

Strange brought his wife out through the fairy road and that ended her enchantment.

And they returned the finger to Lady Pole to break her enchantment.

I didn't really think of thistle-down-hair-guy being burried was the thing that broke all of the enchantments so I guess that is why the darkness remaining didn't puzzle me but now you've given me something to think about.

The thing that really left me with questions was Vincullus (spelling?) and the book. He seemed like such a minor character to end up with/being such an important element.

And

Was Stephen the Raven King? He was obviously the slave without a name wich was another way they refered to the Raven King.

I finished reading it in the car on the way to the beach so I didn't really have time to savor it. I think I need to go back and read the ending over again.

yeah, i read the ending a couple times and sort of reviewed things. I thought there was a connection between the gentleman being defeated and the spells ending because at some point (don't ask me where ) one of the magicians mentioned that if you kill the creator of an enchantment, the enchantment is broken, and i thought that was why Arabella was released. did i remember that wrong about spells being broken if the creator is killed or do you think that might have been a connection??

i was surprised about vinculus too! he became so significant, and it really intrigued me that the writing on him changed... I liked the way he saw himself as "The Book" and he was so happy to imagine what he might say once the prophecy was gone; "I might be a Reciept!..." etc. Pretty amusing scene.

i wondered about Stephen too. one of the footnotes said that there had been several human kings in Faerie, and i wondered if they were all supposed to be incarnations of the raven king.

But my main question: what did it mean when one character (vinculus?) said that Norrell and Strange were both just parts of a spell that the raven king was working... ???

if that's so, what was the purpose of the spell? to return magic to England? or maybe even to defeat the thistle-down hair gentleman, since the boy who greeted Stephen mentioned all the sorrow that the gentleman had caused? hmm...