It just feels all convoluted and bloated.
Welcome to the Historical Fiction Online forums: a friendly place to discuss, review and discover historical fiction.
If this is your first visit, please be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above.
You will have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed.
To start viewing posts, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.
If this is your first visit, please be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above.
You will have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed.
To start viewing posts, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
- Rowan
- Bibliophile
- Posts: 1462
- Joined: August 2008
- Interest in HF: I love history, but it's boring in school. Historical fiction brings it alive for me.
- Preferred HF: Iron-Age Britain, Roman Britain, Medieval Britain
- Location: New Orleans
- Contact:
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
I'm currently listening to this huge novel because trying to read it became tedious for me. I'm pretty well into it, but I am wondering if any of these events that happen to people ever tie in together. It feels like the author goes off on tangents that don't seem to be related to anything at all, but then you are reminded of how the character fits into the tale. But why, then, would the author continually do this?
It just feels all convoluted and bloated.
It just feels all convoluted and bloated.
Last edited by Rowan on Wed April 29th, 2015, 2:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I started it more than six years ago, but didn't have the time to really concentrate on it. It is a bit jumpy and very detailed (those footnotes!), but I hope to begin again very soon. I've set my DVR to record the TV adaptation and am really looking forward to binge-watching it.
We are the music makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams ~ Arthur O'Shaughnessy, Ode
- Margaret
- Bibliomaniac
- Posts: 2440
- Joined: August 2008
- Interest in HF: I can't answer this in 100 characters. Sorry.
- Favourite HF book: Checkmate, the final novel in the Lymond series
- Preferred HF: Literary novels. Late medieval and Renaissance.
- Location: Catskill, New York, USA
- Contact:
The first time I tried reading this novel, I dropped out after a few pages. The second time, I got hooked by the tongue-in-cheek style of the footnotes, read it all the way through, and loved it. A big part of the pleasure of this novel is the way it pokes fun at academia, and the footnotes are integral to that. It's hard for me to imagine how they could be handled effectively in a books-on-tape (or CD) format.
Browse over 5000 historical novel listings (probably well over 5000 by now, but I haven't re-counted lately) and over 700 reviews at www.HistoricalNovels.info
- MLE (Emily Cotton)
- Bibliomaniac
- Posts: 3566
- Joined: August 2008
- Interest in HF: started in childhood with the classics, which, IMHO are HF even if they were contemporary when written.
- Favourite HF book: Prince of Foxes, by Samuel Shellabarger
- Preferred HF: Currently prefer 1600 and earlier, but I'll read anything that keeps me turning the page.
- Location: California Bay Area
This is another book I started, but also didn't get far into. The dry humor on academia is an integral part of the style, but it reminds me of CS Lewis' That Hideous Strength, which I found so boring that I only got through it because it was a bookgroup read.
But then, I confess to not being much of an academic. Despite spending a large amount of my youth pounding the halls of various campuses of higher learning (courtesy of the GI Bill) My ADHD style just doesn't fit well into a classroom. And reading about them sends me cross-eyed.
Maybe I'll like it when it comes on Netflix. The change in format certainly improved Wolf Hall. (No pronoun confusions in film.)
But then, I confess to not being much of an academic. Despite spending a large amount of my youth pounding the halls of various campuses of higher learning (courtesy of the GI Bill) My ADHD style just doesn't fit well into a classroom. And reading about them sends me cross-eyed.
Maybe I'll like it when it comes on Netflix. The change in format certainly improved Wolf Hall. (No pronoun confusions in film.)
- blueemerald
- Reader
- Posts: 99
- Joined: October 2014
- Location: Seattle, WA, USA
I am amongst the minority who enjoyed this novel. Probably because my feeble mentation processed it on a fairly simple level. Nonetheless, I appreciated the magical realism story, the presentation as if it was an academic text complete with detailed (curious and curiouser) footnotes, and the topic the history/teaching of magic. Toward the end, the story seemed to become too wrapped up in itself. It risked imploding, and exploded instead (or both). I admit I had to frequently re-commit to continue reading it. It was a different read than my typical and I'm satisfied having read it.
- Nefret
- Bibliomaniac
- Posts: 2994
- Joined: February 2009
- Favourite HF book: Welsh Princes trilogy
- Preferred HF: The Middle Ages (England), New Kingdom Egypt, Medieval France
- Location: Temple of Isis
Re: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
Have any of you read 'The Ladies of Grace Adieu'? (Reading that and the novel again.)
Into battle we ride with Gods by our side
We are strong and not afraid to die
We have an urge to kill and our lust for blood has to be fulfilled
WE´LL FIGHT TILL THE END! And send our enemies straight to Hell!
- "Into Battle"
{Ensiferum}
We are strong and not afraid to die
We have an urge to kill and our lust for blood has to be fulfilled
WE´LL FIGHT TILL THE END! And send our enemies straight to Hell!
- "Into Battle"
{Ensiferum}
Re: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
I actually bought this novel some time ago and then lost it in my ever-expanding collection of books However, I have just started watching the TV series and enjoying its dark, off-beat vibe very much.