It inverts the Industrial Revolution conception of the North–South divide in England: in this book the North is romantic and magical, rather than rational and concrete. It has been described as a fantasy novel, an alternative history, and a historical novel. Centred on the relationship between these two men, the novel investigates the nature of "Englishness" and the boundaries between reason and unreason, Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Dane, and Northern and Southern English cultural tropes/stereotypes. Its premise is that magic once existed in England and has returned with two men: Gilbert Norrell and Jonathan Strange. Published in 2004, it is an alternative history set in 19th-century England around the time of the Napoleonic Wars.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is the debut novel by British writer Susanna Clarke.
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