Comments on: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell http://www.catholicfiction.net/2007/04/05/jonathan-strange-mr-norrell/ news, views & reviews Sat, 22 Nov 2008 20:16:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Debra Murphy http://www.catholicfiction.net/2007/04/05/jonathan-strange-mr-norrell/#comment-97 Debra Murphy Mon, 21 May 2007 22:17:04 +0000 http://www.catholicfiction.net/2007/04/05/jonathan-strange-mr-norrell/#comment-97 I'm on my second reading of this (audio)book, and feel quite safe, I think, in predicting that Neil Gaiman was quite right in identifying this book as the most important work of fantasy to be published in many decades, for my money since Tolkien's <em>The Lord of the Rings</em>. In fact, I think Clarke may be pulling off (once we read the rest in the series) precisely what Tolkien set out to do: to create a mythology for England; especially since Tolkien, in fact, created a mythology for the West. I hesitate to speculate, too, but there is a certain sense in which this book might be read almost as an allegory for that "true" Romanticism which longed for a return to the medieval ages/the Age of Faith, and yet was not afraid to recognize that this involved an embracing of a certain danger that ensues whenever one messes with "more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in our philosophies." Of course, the fact is probably that those dangers, as Mr. Norrell learns, cannot be avoided anyway, no matter how much we seek to Bowdlerize and contain them. Magic will out. I’m on my second reading of this (audio)book, and feel quite safe, I think, in predicting that Neil Gaiman was quite right in identifying this book as the most important work of fantasy to be published in many decades, for my money since Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. In fact, I think Clarke may be pulling off (once we read the rest in the series) precisely what Tolkien set out to do: to create a mythology for England; especially since Tolkien, in fact, created a mythology for the West.

I hesitate to speculate, too, but there is a certain sense in which this book might be read almost as an allegory for that “true” Romanticism which longed for a return to the medieval ages/the Age of Faith, and yet was not afraid to recognize that this involved an embracing of a certain danger that ensues whenever one messes with “more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in our philosophies.” Of course, the fact is probably that those dangers, as Mr. Norrell learns, cannot be avoided anyway, no matter how much we seek to Bowdlerize and contain them. Magic will out.

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