Imagine then the interest that surrounded Miss Wintertowne! No young lady ever had such advantages before: for she died upon the Tuesday, was raised to life in the early hours of Wednesday morning, and was married upon the Thursday which some people thought too much excitement for one week." Here we have all the defining features of Clarke's style simultaneously: the archly Austenesque tone, the somewhat overdone quaintness ("upon the Tuesday"), the winningly matter-of-fact use of the supernatural, and drollness to spare. Desperate to impress the London government ministers whose class prejudice frustrates his goals, he enlists the aid of a terrifyingly amoral Faerie king to bring an influential politician's newly deceased fiancée back to life.Ĭlarke deadpans: "It has been remarked (by a lady infinitely cleverer than the present author) how kindly disposed the world in general feels to young people who either die or marry. Gilbert Norrell, Yorkshire scholar-supreme, astounds them all by performing feats of "practical" magic - an ungentlemanly pursuit that earns him instant renown. By 1806, English magicians have been reduced to ineffectual theoreticians and antiquarian book-collectors.
If I ever decide to practise magic, I'll be sure to use Ravilious's spells rather than Omskirk's.Īll this faux-erudition underpins the book's central conceit: the revival of English magic during the Regency period, after several centuries of disuse. ("We" are assumed to be Victorians - a neat touch.) Clarke's punctilious scholarship - particularly in her copious footnotes - has such an authoritative air that we can scarcely resist believing she's filling gaps in our general knowledge. Susanna Clarke concocts a wickedly credible parallel history of Britain in which magicians were as active and prominent as anyone else we learned about at school.
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