Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is a book about the events of the miraculous Revival of English Magic, written by Susanna Clarke and first published by Bloomsbury in 2004.

The nature of the book is highly curious; at the first blush it is a scholarly history, but the authoress seems possessed of a preternatural, nearly omniscient knowledge of the events between 1806 and 1817 concerning English magic. The work is almost entirely oblivious to the developments of the following two centuries, with only scant reference to events past the latter year, and none at all past 1830. While this might imply an authorship date nearer to that year, the prose is modern in construction, yet archaic in ornament.

A clew may be found within this ornament, as the spellings given for many of the words in the text are identical — or nearly so — to those of the works of the celebrated novelist Jane Austen. It may reasonably be concluded that the volume itself is of a most rare species: books that have been written with the aid of magic. Likely Miss Clarke used scrying spells of some sort to obtain her facts, and collaborated, or at least consulted, with the summoned spirit of Miss Austen to assist in their final arrangement.