Bleeding Fiction

I purchased Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell the week, if not the very day, that bookshops placed it on their shelves. I had heard many good things about the book from people that I respect and admire. If you were to check the dates attached to the two pages I just linked you might note that, although my purchase of the novel came in a timely manner, my commentary on it was perhaps a little delayed. I have nothing to offer in my defense. I will simply gesture in silence to my bookshelves, weighed down with books as they are, and consider my point made.

(The polite reader will refrain from noting that both gentlemen I referenced above have more shelves with more books on them than I, and doubtless busier schedules as well.)

As a book, Jonathan Strange &c. is not hard to describe. It is square, some eight hundred pages in length, and each page with a delightfully ragged edge. It stands near ten inches tall at the shoulder, almost six and a half inches wide and just over two inches deep and it weighs in at a robust two pounds. As to its subject, the novel concerns itself with the revival of English magic in the early years of the nineteenth century. It is, in no uncertain terms, a work of brilliance, by turns both grotesque and humorous and, on occasion, both at once. It is filled with style, such as this poor attempt at witty formality cannot mimic. It has characters both admirable and detestable, footnotes of an informative nature and such persons in as might be considered fairies. Its ending is not something I care to spoil, but I will note that, like a great deal of good literature, the novel ends the only way it could.

This is what you must do: Approach your nearest bookseller and procure for yourself a copy of this novel. Following directly, read said novel to your profound enjoyment. You may instead, if you like, mail a cheque for the novel's cost directly to its author, Ms. Susanna Clarke, care of her editors. You will deprive yourself of the opportunity to read this wonderful story, but at the least you will not deprive Ms. Clarke of the reward she deserves for her effort.