Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

What a delicious surprise. This was ... quite unlike anything I was expecting. It works at so many levels: the characters, the setting, the story. The prose. Oh, the words:

The day of the visit was preceded by stormy weather; rain had made long ragged pools in the bare, brown fields; wet roofs were like cold stone mirrors; and Mr. Honeyfoot's post-chaise travelled through a world that seemed to contain a much higher proportion of chill grey sky and a much smaller one of solid comfortable earth than was usually the case.

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