A third kind of magic exists in Clarke's world, the magic of fairies. We have become used to the Disneyfied versions of fairy tales in which fairies are either good or playfully mischievous. Clarke brings back the Fairy of ancient Irish and British folktales. Creatures that are terrifying in their amorality. Fairies that are completely unaware and unconcerned with the consequences of their actions. A fairy may lay waste to an entire city in search of a lost musical instrument or a fairy may kill a thousand people on his way to visit a human friend. There is no malice behind these actions and this makes fairies the most frightening and frustrating characters to encounter.
Mythical fairytales are only part of the rich background material Clarke has assembled for the novel. She has even included an extensive use of footnotes to add to the depth of detail. These footnotes fall into three types. The first can extend for pages and tell entire myths and folk tales. The second are used to enhance the illusion that the book is actual history by referencing biographies and other source materials. The final type is more offensive to the reader as she uses footnotes to overly explain the main text rather than trusting the reader's intelligence to infer the allusions included in the main text. Unfortunately so much of the novel involves establishing this alternative world and its fictional history that little room is left for an actual adventure that will stir most readers. This perhaps would not be such a drawback if it was clear that this novel was the beginning of a series of novels that will take place in this elaborate world, but so far I have seen no indication that the ten years it took to create this novel will be followed quickly by additional books.
Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell has been called the adult Harry Potter, but the comparison puts unfair pressure upon Clarke's first novel. The comparison seems to be mostly based on both novels being British and involving magic. It is sort of like saying Jaws was the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn for the twentieth century because they both involved water and were set in America. If a comparison must be made it is closer to 19th century novels of British drawing room society and perhaps even to the Graduate in which the career advice to a young man isn't the future is in plastic but the future is in magic.
