The Sacksville-Baggins look upon it quite as their own, I dare say
The New Zealand Herald reviewed Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, a fantasy novel said to be heavily influenced by Jane Austen, in both tone and style.
The quite enthusiastic review called the novel “a reminder of what fantasy can be when it stops trying to recycle Tolkien and draws on the same deep wells of fairy tale and mythology Tolkien used himself.”
From the book:
Some years ago there was in the city of York a society of magicians. They were gentleman magicians, which is to say they had never harmed anyone by magic — nor ever done anyone the slightest good. In fact, to own the truth, not one of these magicians had ever cast the smallest spell, nor by magic caused one leaf to tremble upon a tree, made one mote of dust to alter its course or changed a single hair upon anyone’s head. But, with this one minor reservation, they enjoyed a reputation as some of the wisest and most magical gentlemen in Yorkshire.
We had thought this to be the only Tolkien/Austen merger in existence.
ETA: The Hindustan Times was not quite as kind to the novel.
Here’s the story behind the headlines. JS & Mr N is a boring, dreary and unimaginative novel of manners, not magic. Unimaginative? Yes. Believe it or not, there’s less imagination and originality displayed in these almost-800 large pages than in ten pages of a Harry Potter novel — and I’m not even a Harry Potter fan!
October 23rd, 2004 at 9:18 pm
Did you know that when Terry Pratchett, the author of the Discworld novels,was 15 years old he wrote his first novel, a version of Pride and Prejudice that contained an invasion by Orcs (from lord of the Rings)??!!!!So, who came first?
October 23rd, 2004 at 11:40 pm
Wow–orcs at Longbourn? The mind reels.
October 24th, 2004 at 7:32 pm
Susanna Clarke “unimaginative”? Bah. Philistines.
I’d pay real money to read about orcs at Longbourne.
October 24th, 2004 at 8:28 pm
Me too.