User:Chuckhoffmann/sandbox/Ch6

"Magic is not respectable, sir." is the sixth chapter of Susanna Clarke's history of the return of English magic, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. It takes place in October of 1807, immediately after the end of chapter 5.

Summary

The chapter begins by describing the current deplorable situation of the Government, which is poorly regarded due to reversals suffered in the war against Buonaparte. Sir Walter Pole, a government minister, is a capable and clever politician burdened by debt. Fortunately, he has found a match in Miss Emma Wintertowne, a pretty young lady who also comes with an income of a thousand pounds per year.

It is at Mrs Wintertowne's house in Brunswick-square that Mr Norrell arrives to meet with Sir Walter, who introduces him to Mrs Wintertowne and Miss Wintertowne, although Mr Norrell only sees Mrs Wintertowne. He clarifies a misunderstanding about magic he has not done, but is unable to explain in any but the driest and dullest terms the magic he has done.* It is then that Miss Wintertowne's presence is revealed: she has been sitting on a sopha in the room the entire time, and it is only by a severe coughing fit that she has made herself knowable. Mr Norrell is alarmed at how ill Miss Wintertowne appears, but neither Sir Walter nor Mrs Wintertowne acknowledge anything wrong with the young lady.

Mrs Wintertowne does not much care for magicians, and relates tales of her youth when she and her siblings were watched over by the incapable and incompetent Dreamditch, her stepmother's magician. The memory is not a fond one and Mrs Wintertowne has not a single word of praise for Dreamditch. Emma Wintertowne puts forth her contrasting view that magicians are necessary to interpret England's long magical history. Sir Walter ends the interview stating that “Magic is not respectable, sir. It is not serious” and the government will not avail itself of Mr Norrell's services.

Mr Norrell returns to his house in Hanover-square, and later that evening Drawlight listens to him bemoan his failure. Drawlight's temper has been piqued by Mr Norrell's independence of thought: hoping to convince Mr Norrell's that his stature has been diminished, Drawlight spends the next week taking him only to quiet dinners held by people of "as little consequence, influence, or fashion, as possible". Norrell does not notice, as he is consumed by the idea that Sir Walter's patronage will grant him the access to government he seeks.

Notes

*. The magic he has not done is the tale of fairies' cleaning of the soiled laundry imagined by Drawlight and promulgated by him [5]. The magic Mr Norrell has done is the awakening of the stone statues at York, but instead of the wonder it truly was Norrell manages to make it seem a rather dull affair and one well-missed [3].