by Susanna Clarke Illustrations/Photography by: Portia Rosenberg Signed first American edition. New.

In the Hugo-award winning, epic New York Times Bestseller and basis for the BBC miniseries, two men change England's history when they bring magic back into the world.

In the midst of the Napoleonic Wars in 1806, most people believe magic to have long since disappeared from England - until the reclusive Mr. Norrell reveals his powers and becomes an overnight celebrity.

Yet the cautious, fussy Norrell is challenged by the emergence of another magician, the brilliant novice Jonathan Strange. Young, handsome, and daring, Strange is the very opposite of Norrell. He becomes Norrell's student, and they join forces in the war against France. But Strange is increasingly drawn to the wildest, most perilous forms of magic, straining his partnership with Norrell, and putting at risk everything else he holds dear.

Susanna Clarke's brilliant first novel is an utterly compelling epic tale of nineteenth-century England and the two magicians who, first as teacher and pupil and then as rivals, emerge to change its history.

About the author: Susanna Clarke was born in Nottingham in 1959, the eldest daughter of a Methodist minister. She was educated at St Hilda's College, Oxford, and has worked in various areas of publishing. In 1990 she left London to teach English in Turin and Bilbao for two years, returning to England to work at Simon and Schuster as a cookery editor.In 1992, she began working on Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell which was finally published in 2004 by Bloomsbury to widespread critical acclaim and commercial success. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell was filmed as a major BBC drama that aired in 2015. She followed with a collection of short stories, The Ladies of Grace Adieu (2006). Her short story “Mr Simonelli, or The Fairy Widower” was short-listed for a World Fantasy Award in 2001. Susanna lives in Cambridge with her partner, the novelist and reviewer Colin Greenland.

A selection of awards:

Winner of 2005 Hugo Award for Best Novel

Time Magazine’s best novel of 2004

British Book Award for Best Newcomer of the Year

Reviews:

"Clarke's imagination is prodigious, her pacing is masterly and she knows how to employ dry humor in the service of majesty….Clarke’s giddiness comes from finding a way at once to enter the company of her literary heroes, to pay them homage and to add to the literature, to slot this big fat book into our own libraries of spells.” Gregory Maguire, New York Times, September 5, 2004.

"Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is at heart a book about the present's relationship to the past….[It] may or may not be the finest English fantasy of the past 70 years. But it is still magnificent and original, and that should be enough for any of us. Right now all we really need to do is open to chapter one and start reading, with mounting excitement: ‘Some years ago there was in the city of York a society of magicians. . . .’” Michael Dirda, the Washington Post, September 5, 2004. Published in 2004 by Bloomsbury, New York ISBN: 1582344167 Edition: First Edition, First Printing Binding: Hardcover Condition: New Dust Jacket included. Condition of Dust Jacket: new Comments: Distributed to the trade by Holtzbrinck Publishers

Description: 782 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.

LCCN: 2004002402 Signed Copy