Susanna Clarke’s (debut!) novel Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is delightful, magical, and very difficult to describe.

It’s a book about a pair of magicians trying to return magic to an early 1800s alternative-universe England. It’s half historical fantasy, half Gothic novel with Jane Austen vibes, half magical realism (I know it’s too many halves, but that book is more than a sum of it’s parts). It’s meandering, wide and sprawling, but it satisfyingly meets itself in a single point at the end. It’s full of magic that feels at the same time extraordinary and normal. It’s slow and gripping. It’s witty and detached and deeply involved and emotional. It’s so well written. It’s a real masterpiece.

When I first tried to read this book some 20 years ago (not long after it came out in 2004), I didn’t get past page 200. Out of its almost 800 pages. It’s a real chunk. It wasn’t the book’s fault though. What stopped me back then was that the character of Mr Norrell, who is the only protagonist for the first quarter of the book, is – how to put it… – not very inspiring. The book takes place in this incredible world of 19th century England where magic, fairies, and all that jazz is real, but nobody has been doing practical magic for 300 years; the study of magic now limits itself to magical history. Until Norrell comes around, that is, and does actual magic. Except he’s a disagreeable grumpy old fart that makes everything sound super boring. And since my younger self had no patience for boring magic, nor disagreeable main characters, I gave up.

But those are some of the things that actually make this novel so good. The characters are rich, human, multifaceted and interesting. Mr Norrell does, indeed, have his redeeming qualities. And the world they live in is so beautifully and deeply fleshed out, that it can’t help but feel a bit (too) normal. But that is also an illusion, as the whole world becomes a character of its own in this story.

One thing I was incredibly curious about, was how the book would end. How could Clarke tie in all these pieces together? But, oh boy, did she deliver! The magic got more magical, the stakes rose higher, and she had me sitting on the edge of my (metaphorical) seat, biting my (metaphorical) nails, rooting for these characters I have followed for so long, and trying to speed up through the 200 page-long finish sprint.

I’m not going to spoil the ending of this 20-year old book for you. It wasn’t one I expected, but it was so beautiful. The ending was satisfying, and it had a slight taste of eucatastrophe (it’s like the opposite of catastrophe – a sudden turn of events, but a good one). I feel like a good eucatastrophe is hard to pull off, because it can feel like deus ex machina. But this one was so very earned. I closed the book and found myself in the real world that was suddenly much more magical than I have left it before I dove into this enchanting story. In that, it reminded me of Piranesi – her second novel – much, much shorter, very different, but just as perfect and magical.

Susanna Clarke is a master storyteller, and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is well worth the read.