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A Winter's Tale
May. 15th, 2005 12:03 am28 April 2005
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke - Bloomsbury 2004
* * * *
I had been looking forward to reading this book ever since I heard about it at the start of last year. Susanna Clarke was responsible for a magnificent short story called "Stopp't Clock Yard" that was the stand-out of the collection in which it appeared. She has a precise, dryly humorous style which clearly owes much to Jane Austen while still being uniquely her own - the use of Austenesque spellings such as "surprize" and "chuse" is perhaps a little affected, but works well enough, particularly in this book, which is set at the start of an alternate nineteenth century. I was interested to see if she could combine it with strong plots and good characterisation. As the score above indicates, in my view she didn't quite pull it off, but this is still a thoroughly worthwhile book.
( Read more... )
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke - Bloomsbury 2004
* * * *
I had been looking forward to reading this book ever since I heard about it at the start of last year. Susanna Clarke was responsible for a magnificent short story called "Stopp't Clock Yard" that was the stand-out of the collection in which it appeared. She has a precise, dryly humorous style which clearly owes much to Jane Austen while still being uniquely her own - the use of Austenesque spellings such as "surprize" and "chuse" is perhaps a little affected, but works well enough, particularly in this book, which is set at the start of an alternate nineteenth century. I was interested to see if she could combine it with strong plots and good characterisation. As the score above indicates, in my view she didn't quite pull it off, but this is still a thoroughly worthwhile book.
( Read more... )