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Title: Astounding!
Review: "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell" is, quite simply, one of the most breathtaking works of imagination I have ever had the pleasure to read. Not only does Susanna Clarke successfully create a sense of place in her novel, she creates a sense of place that is real and unreal, subject to wonder and enchantment, humor and terror. The characterizations in the book are fantastic; the wit is pervasive. The footnotes to events reinforce the depth of the story, weaving a mythology throughout the novel. The last third of the novel turns dark, very dark indeed, and I found that soon I was possessed by a sense of dread as events unfolded.For all of the length of "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell," I felt that the novel ended too soon: such is the world that Susanna Clarke created. Magic, with its natural roots and stones and wind and water and flame and fire, seems so probable here. And so elemental. And so English!I cannot recommend this novel highly enough.
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