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schneefinkI went running with my dad on Friday, I enjoyed it a lot. It was nice to go running with him: he used to run marathons and run very regularly even after that, but then he had to stop for a while because of knee problems so for once we're both equally out of practice. It was also mostly sunny on Friday and then it started snowing yesterday, it looks nice but it would not be fun for running.
I finally finished Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell today, which I got from my mom for Christmas. Last year she got me "Piranesi" and she was delighted by how much I enjoyed it, and we were both hoping I would like this one as much. Unfortunately I didn't. I think a large part of why I didn't enjoy it as much was because not only did I have high expectations, but also I focused on specific things right at the start of the book that I wanted to know more about and unfortunately those weren't the things the book wanted to tell me more about. There were several things I liked but also large parts were frustrating.
Apparently the book wasn't currently available in English paperback so I read it in German, which was slightly odd at first. I have very different associations with the words "Zauberei" und "Magie," and I was curious if the English version used "wizardry" or "magic."
Immediately when the book started talking about there not being practical magic in England anymore I started thinking "okay but what about the rest of the world?" But, in very British Empire fashion, the rest of the world was barely considered. When the Napoleonic wars became a plot point it was mentioned that France didn't have practical magic either, and later it's strongly implied that there's no other practitioners of practical magic in all of Europe, but what about the rest of the world? We get to see in detail what difference a powerful magician makes in a war, so if there is practical magic in the rest of the world how in the hell did England keep its colonies after they lost theirs? But if there's only ever been practical magic of this strength in England, how did they not conquer all of Europe yet?
Yes I'm aware it's a kind of a necessary premise for the setting but still, it kept bugging me.
The other thing I wanted from the very beginning of the book was to know more about the narrator. From the early footnotes I concluded very soon that the narrator was a character in their own right with their own opinions who influenced who gets to tell the story and how, and I was really looking forward to finding out more about them and who they're telling the story to and why like this etc.; and then that never happened and I was disappointed. Feels a bit like I imagined an entire extra level of story that turned out to not really exist.
Getting the disappointing things out of the way first, I was also really hoping for more interactions between Stephen Black and any other people, especially Sir and Lady Pole but also others. He's the nameless slave and at the end he has the powers of a king and to take revenge on his and his mother's behalf against the country who enslaved her; he prioritizes killing the Gentleman with the Thistledown Hair, which is completely understandable, and then loses those powers, but it would still have been nice to see more of the background of his (hypothetical) decision.
I really liked how class was a constant topic throughout, especially clear of course in the stories of Stephen and Childermass, but also other details like how Strange's two ~gentleman students are oh-so-generous to accept his third, most talented but lowborn Jewish student and pretty much treat him as an equal except of course he's expected to clean up after them.
Btw, the German translation had Norrell call Childermass by the informal "you", I think it could have gone either way: I was surprised because the informal address almost suggests familiarity that I'm pretty sure was unintended, while the formal address would have implied more distance; but it also could have implied almost "inappropriate" respect. Using the formal "you" for servants but their first name is something that is still often used today e.g. for cleaners. But I'm sure there's regional and especially historical differences, it's a tricky choice for translators.
Especially tricky with Norrell and Childermass, because it's unclear for much of the book what exactly the relationship between them is, and in this case the informal address added to that. I would have liked to eventually find out more about how Childermass came to be Norrell's servant. The scene where Norrell chose Lascelles over Childermass was well done, Norrell making the wrong choice as pretty much always, and I also really enjoyed Childermass meeting the Raven King shortly afterwards without realizing (and then not remembering.)
I really liked how the Raven King was built up, all the stories behind him and his magic, and first he seems like this very mythical figure but eventually we start to find out that he's still very much present in the minds of the people in the North. Leaving so much a mystery works, though ngl I think I would have preferred just a liiittle bit more answers about what happened.
I'm curious if there was something ~special about Norrell and Strange that magic worked for them and not for any other magician - at first at least - there's the prophecy, of course, but I suspect it was also simply a matter of being in the right place at the right time.
I also wish that the relationship between Jonathan and Arabella Strange had worked better for me, and/or that we got to see more of Arabella. That most likely would have made the ending feel more tragic too. Like this it seemed like it mostly ended up working out well, both Strange and Norrell can focus on their true passion while Arabella and her friend are freed from the spell and she makes a new friend as well and hopefully lives a happy life.
Pacing-wise I felt like the middle dragged, especially during the war in Spain, and I set the book aside for a while several times, and then in the end several things still seemed like they could have used more build-up.
As for the main characters, I appreciated both of them as self-created tragedies both together and apart, and I'm glad they reconciled in the end.
I finally finished Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell today, which I got from my mom for Christmas. Last year she got me "Piranesi" and she was delighted by how much I enjoyed it, and we were both hoping I would like this one as much. Unfortunately I didn't. I think a large part of why I didn't enjoy it as much was because not only did I have high expectations, but also I focused on specific things right at the start of the book that I wanted to know more about and unfortunately those weren't the things the book wanted to tell me more about. There were several things I liked but also large parts were frustrating.
Apparently the book wasn't currently available in English paperback so I read it in German, which was slightly odd at first. I have very different associations with the words "Zauberei" und "Magie," and I was curious if the English version used "wizardry" or "magic."
Immediately when the book started talking about there not being practical magic in England anymore I started thinking "okay but what about the rest of the world?" But, in very British Empire fashion, the rest of the world was barely considered. When the Napoleonic wars became a plot point it was mentioned that France didn't have practical magic either, and later it's strongly implied that there's no other practitioners of practical magic in all of Europe, but what about the rest of the world? We get to see in detail what difference a powerful magician makes in a war, so if there is practical magic in the rest of the world how in the hell did England keep its colonies after they lost theirs? But if there's only ever been practical magic of this strength in England, how did they not conquer all of Europe yet?
Yes I'm aware it's a kind of a necessary premise for the setting but still, it kept bugging me.
The other thing I wanted from the very beginning of the book was to know more about the narrator. From the early footnotes I concluded very soon that the narrator was a character in their own right with their own opinions who influenced who gets to tell the story and how, and I was really looking forward to finding out more about them and who they're telling the story to and why like this etc.; and then that never happened and I was disappointed. Feels a bit like I imagined an entire extra level of story that turned out to not really exist.
Getting the disappointing things out of the way first, I was also really hoping for more interactions between Stephen Black and any other people, especially Sir and Lady Pole but also others. He's the nameless slave and at the end he has the powers of a king and to take revenge on his and his mother's behalf against the country who enslaved her; he prioritizes killing the Gentleman with the Thistledown Hair, which is completely understandable, and then loses those powers, but it would still have been nice to see more of the background of his (hypothetical) decision.
I really liked how class was a constant topic throughout, especially clear of course in the stories of Stephen and Childermass, but also other details like how Strange's two ~gentleman students are oh-so-generous to accept his third, most talented but lowborn Jewish student and pretty much treat him as an equal except of course he's expected to clean up after them.
Btw, the German translation had Norrell call Childermass by the informal "you", I think it could have gone either way: I was surprised because the informal address almost suggests familiarity that I'm pretty sure was unintended, while the formal address would have implied more distance; but it also could have implied almost "inappropriate" respect. Using the formal "you" for servants but their first name is something that is still often used today e.g. for cleaners. But I'm sure there's regional and especially historical differences, it's a tricky choice for translators.
Especially tricky with Norrell and Childermass, because it's unclear for much of the book what exactly the relationship between them is, and in this case the informal address added to that. I would have liked to eventually find out more about how Childermass came to be Norrell's servant. The scene where Norrell chose Lascelles over Childermass was well done, Norrell making the wrong choice as pretty much always, and I also really enjoyed Childermass meeting the Raven King shortly afterwards without realizing (and then not remembering.)
I really liked how the Raven King was built up, all the stories behind him and his magic, and first he seems like this very mythical figure but eventually we start to find out that he's still very much present in the minds of the people in the North. Leaving so much a mystery works, though ngl I think I would have preferred just a liiittle bit more answers about what happened.
I'm curious if there was something ~special about Norrell and Strange that magic worked for them and not for any other magician - at first at least - there's the prophecy, of course, but I suspect it was also simply a matter of being in the right place at the right time.
I also wish that the relationship between Jonathan and Arabella Strange had worked better for me, and/or that we got to see more of Arabella. That most likely would have made the ending feel more tragic too. Like this it seemed like it mostly ended up working out well, both Strange and Norrell can focus on their true passion while Arabella and her friend are freed from the spell and she makes a new friend as well and hopefully lives a happy life.
Pacing-wise I felt like the middle dragged, especially during the war in Spain, and I set the book aside for a while several times, and then in the end several things still seemed like they could have used more build-up.
As for the main characters, I appreciated both of them as self-created tragedies both together and apart, and I'm glad they reconciled in the end.
no subject
Date: 2023-01-24 10:47 pm (UTC)I agree with you very strongly on the whole "...but what about the rest of the world" aspect. The book has the struggle that other ones with similar ideas have, that is, if there's X, *why is world history exactly the same*. And it doesn't really answer it.
I also had tons of pacing problems with the book; the book could have been half the length and twice as good.
no subject
Date: 2023-01-25 08:37 pm (UTC)E.g. the Temeraire series has a similar problem, and iirc in later books it turned out that world history wasn't the same at all - with the exception of England and France, pretty much, because that was the original premise.
In this book, I don't know what the best way to handle it would have been. As soon as you admit that of course world history would be completely different that opens up an entire new can of questions, you have to be very careful how you handle things like the war etc. I suspect that it didn't bother readers who early on accepted the premise that this takes place in the Napoleonic wars.
I'm not sure about half the length but I feel like you could definitely have cut a couple hundred pages.
no subject
Date: 2023-01-26 09:45 am (UTC)For reasons of my own I find this really interesting! Probably, as you suggest, just an artifact of where the boundaries on the story the author wanted to tell were, but there's so much interesting world-building that could be done...
(Also enjoyed reading your review in general; I tried reading the book in question and couldn't get through it a while back, but you make it sound worth a try.)
no subject
Date: 2023-01-26 09:17 pm (UTC)Glad you enjoyed my review! Let me know if you want to know anything else to decide if you want to try it :)