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Even though reading a 1,006 page book might seem like a daunting task, it can also be totally enjoyable, as you will find if you pick up Susanna Clarke’s novel, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. The book, which takes place during the Victorian era, almost seems like it was written during the same time. Clarke’s writing has a hint of Wilde in it as she shares the adventures of two magicians with the reader.

Magic has been elusive and scarce in England for several centuries when Gilbert Norrell, a reclusive Yorkshire man, stuns the country with a magical feat and he immediately begins the restoration of English magic. He takes on a pupil, Jonathan Strange, who helps the British win the Napoleanic wars with his skill and illusions. The book is mostly about the friendship and competition between the two magicians, but there is also a great faerie side plot entwined in the story.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is a fun book and a well developed adventure, full of mysteries and magic, mad kings and OCD bookworms, enchanted ladies and speaking statues, and is a book that any Tolkien fan should investigate. Don’t be scared by it’s size, there is a story just as big inside!