forthcoming books to buy

[cimorene]

First-time novelist weaves £1m magic

Historical tale billed as 'Harry Potter for adults' set to be a
world blockbuster

> David Smith, arts and media correspondent
> Sunday February 22, 2004
> The Observer (UK)

> Watch and learn, Harry Potter, and stand by for some serious
magic. The company that championed the schoolboy wizard is about to launch one of the biggest marketing campaigns in publishing history for its new international blockbuster - but this time it's magic for
grown-ups. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by first-time novelist Susanna Clarke, is an 800-page epic about the rivalry between the last two magicians in England, set during the Napoleonic wars and featuring real-life characters including Lord Byron and the Duke of Wellington. Its combination of historical wit and spellbound fantasy has prompted comparisons with Jane Austen and Philip Pullman.


> Bloomsbury, the publishing house that hit the multi-million-pound jackpot with J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books, bought the rights a year ago and is planning a publicity onslaught involving everything from newspaper serialisations to deliveries by horse and carriage.
>
> Clarke, 43, the daughter of a Methodist minister, began the novel 10
years ago, well before Rowling, Pullman and company made magic the new must-read. She has spent most of her career publishing other
people's books, most recently editing cookbooks by chefs including Antony Worrall Thompson.
>
> Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, which has already been sold to a
dozen countries and attracted interest from Hollywood, looks set to
make her a millionaire and has enabled her to quit the day job to become a full-> time writer.
>
> Alexandra Pringle, editor-in-chief at Bloomsbury, said: 'We have
our small magician who's worked wonders; now we'll have grown-up
magicians. At first my heart sank at the sight of such a big book, but it is an incredibly funny adventure, erudite and utterly compelling. what's amazing is how she's worked out a world that's so full and vibrant.
>
> 'It is funny in a sly Jane Austen way and very literary with
elements of fantasy - Jane Austen meets Philip Pullman is a fair way to describe it. There is definitely a film in it and we've already had a lot of interest in the film rights.'
>
> Such is industry confidence in the book that publishing rights
have been sold to 12 countries, including Brazil, South Korea and
Thailand, for simultaneous worldwide publication on 4 October, making it an early favourite to top the Christmas bestseller list. Bloomsbury itself will target the lucrative US market and plans themed teasers in the countdown to publication, including period stationery and mock newspapers in coffee shops.
>
> The story follows Mr Norrell, a reclusive magician who is called
up to help the war effort against Napoleon. While in London he meets
the brilliant young magician Jonathan Strange and takes him on as a
pupil. Together they dazzle the country with their feats, but then
become rivals.
>
> Clarke, who lives with the science fiction writer Colin
Greenland in Cambridge, said: 'I have a fascination with magicians. I always liked them in the books I read by authors like C.S. Lewis and J.R.R.Tolkien - the Narnia Chronicles were my favourite as a child. I spent years trying and failing to write a detective novel, but I loved Jane Austen and that world, so it seemed a good period in which to set this one.
>
> 'It is an adult, not a children's, book. I had difficulty
describing it to people when I had to boil it down to two or three sentences. Byron and the Duke of Wellington come into it. The more I read about Wellington the more I realised what an amazing person he was - you could not make him up.'

[end of article]

Comments

[wolfsage.livejournal.com]

i love philip pullman. so i'll probably have to read this one. ^_^ but what is it called?

[cimness.livejournal.com]

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.

not due till oct, says the article.

[wolfsage.livejournal.com]

oh, a while. but that's alright... i have so much to read in the meantime. looks pretty cool though!

[cimness.livejournal.com]

yeah, i'm excited. it might be slashy! ::slaps self::

[wolfsage.livejournal.com]

we can always hope. *sigh*

[godofwine.livejournal.com]

it might be slashy!

Sign of a true slashaholic, finding the gay before the book comes out!

[cimness.livejournal.com]

you say this as if it's something to be PROUD of.

[godofwine.livejournal.com]

Well it's either "I'm here, I like queers, GET USED TO IT!" or "Hi, I'm Chelsea, and I'm addicted to gay porn." ("Hi Chelsea.")

And the first one makes me sound so confident and righteously bitchy.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

oh, sure. it's just i'm slightly ashamed to be shallow enough to look for gayness in potentially extremely good books entirely before the fact. i mean, slashiness is not actually related to the value of a good book.

[godofwine.livejournal.com]

Oh, hmm, I thought you were joking at first so...

I don't think it's slashiness that makes the book worthwhile, but good books (especially extremely good ones) should allow for the ambiguity of affection to potentially read hidden inclinations into relationships. I mean, yes, there is the desired understanding of the teacher/pupil turned rivals dynamic but good writing would never make it so rigid that a person couldn't identify slashy elements. And especially since it's the conflict between the two characters that the plot is focusing on and promoting, it's probably good to already read another layer into it.

But that could just be my way of justifying my likewise shallowness (if it is indeed shallowness)...;)

[cimness.livejournal.com]

i don't know. a good writer can make any *one* thing good. there are an infinite number of elements in a fictional universe. it's a bit thick to say good writing will always leave ambiguity in character relationships.

of course in another sense, all writing, good or ill, is ambiguous. there's plenty of room for interpretation, as literary criticism demonstrates.

[godofwine.livejournal.com]

Well, I meant specifically in this situation, I think there needs to be vagueness in the depth of affection between the two men to make it a superior work because of evolution of their relationship. The article sets up a feel of breaking apart, betrayal, etc. but there must remain some questioning of connection even after the schism to make it really realistic. And of course, this characteristic of mediocre writing as well, but the feel of conflict between the two roles that each character plays is especially prevalent in "good" writing.

I keep thinking of Star Wars (though hardly the fountain of good writing) for lack of a better example offhand but sort of the fight between Obi-Wan and Vader and the tension between past and present. Ambiguity in their motivation/desire and perhaps also their understanding of it.

Of course, almost all slash is based on ambiguity, subtext. I always thought of it more as allowing yourself to read something one way even if you truly believe it's intended to be seen in another.

And, um, I was really just trying to say that slash could be not shallow, not to make a statement on what is necessarily good literature.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

i didn't say slash was shallow, but that my tendency to seek out the quick gratification of homosexual tension in other media and automatically award those other bits of literature points based on it was.

[godofwine.livejournal.com]

Hmm, perhaps then we've just had a mutual misunderstanding about each other's intentions.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

quite possibly.

[hollsh.livejournal.com]

Ohhh, that sounds good!

Hopefully by then I can afford to buy a book!