Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (no spoilers)

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, our first book, is the first novel published by the British author Susanna Clarke, first published in 2004.  Set in 19th century England during the Napoleonic Wars (a series of conflicts between the French Empire and a variety of European powers across a great variety of European locales that were fought between 1803-1815 led by, you guessed it, Napolean Bonaparte and all of his 5'2" glory!) the plot, in broad strokes, centers around magic having once existed and then was gone and went and did a Justin Timberlake onto two men, Gilbert Norrell and Jonathan Strange.

The novel features Romantic (proper noun Romantic!) literary traditions that are, honestly, a bit impressive for a 21st century author.  It could be loosely described as fantasy, alternative-history, or historical industrial - if any of you care about those English Major terms.  Say it with me: "Byronic hero"   Oooo.

It took Clarke 10 years to write this novel, so ye gods I hope it's worth it - it DID make it to #3 on the NY Times Best-Seller list and in 2005 it won a Hugo Award which is given to novels in the science fiction or fantasy genre.

There IS a TV miniseries - I believe it's on Netflix but my mouse is too far away to look into that right now.  But, as we all agree and as Liz's shirt says "the book was better" so resist the temptation to watch it until you read it.