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Title: Too Much Like Assigned English Reading
Review: Many of the reviews of this book have noted how faithfully it recreates the literary ambiance of Regency or early Victorian novels. As far as I am concerned, that is the besetting flaw of this book--it is endlessly discursive. I freely admit that books of this nature were required reading for university English literature coourses, and being forced to read them may have poisoned my view of ALL novels in the genre, whether originals or, as here, deliberate copies. Nevertheless, I must say that "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell" reminds me of nothing so much as a cross between "The Hobbit" and either "Silas Marner" or one of Anthony Trollope's more lugubrious novels.
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