Where to Start with Susanna Clarke: A Reading Guide
Where to start with Susanna Clarke — whether to begin with Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell or Piranesi. A complete reading guide to her novels.
Susanna Clarke (born 1959) is the British novelist who spent ten years writing her debut novel and produced one of the most original and most praised works of fantasy literature of the twenty-first century. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2004) is a genuine one-off — there is nothing quite like it in the genre — and her second novel Piranesi (2020), written during an extended illness, is its complete formal and tonal opposite: intimate, concentrated, mysterious, and beautiful. She has published only two novels, but both are extraordinary.
Where to Start: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2004)
Clarke’s masterpiece — and one of the most remarkable fantasy novels ever written. Set in an alternate England during the Napoleonic Wars, where magic is real but has not been practised for three centuries, the novel follows two magicians: Gilbert Norrell, a reclusive Yorkshire scholar who has spent his life hoarding magical books and knowledge; and Jonathan Strange, a young gentleman who discovers a natural gift for magic and becomes first Norrell’s pupil, then his rival, then (during Wellington’s Peninsular Campaign in Spain) the most celebrated magician in England.
Clarke writes in an archly Victorian style — discursive, ironic, formally elaborate — with extensive footnotes citing the magical histories of an entire fictional tradition. The novel’s England is simultaneously recognizable (the social world of Austen and Dickens, the military world of Sharpe) and profoundly strange, populated by fairies from a vanished northern kingdom who are far more dangerous than they appear. Winner of the Hugo Award, the World Fantasy Award, and an enormous readership.
Piranesi (2020)
Clarke’s second novel — and its complete formal opposite. Two hundred pages, written in a voice of extraordinary innocence and strangeness: Piranesi is a young man living in an infinite House whose halls contain the sea, clouds moving through the upper corridors, and thousands of marble statues. He keeps a journal; he worships the House; he eats fish from the tidal corridors. There is one other person, the Other, who visits twice a week and asks questions about the House’s secrets.
The novel gradually reveals what the House is and who Piranesi actually is — a revelation that is among the most moving in recent fiction. Written during the illness that kept Clarke from full health for a decade, it is a novel about the mind creating its own world to survive, and about what happens when the real world returns.
Reading Susanna Clarke
Clarke’s two novels are so different in scale, tone, and form that they can seem to belong to different writers: Jonathan Strange is a Victorian epic of a thousand pages; Piranesi is an intimate novella of two hundred. What they share is a quality of absolute conviction — Clarke creates her alternative worlds (the magic-haunted England of the Napoleonic era, the House of infinite halls and tidal seas) with such precision and such consistency that the reader inhabits them completely. Begin with Piranesi if you want her voice immediately and accessibly; begin with Jonathan Strange if you are prepared for one of the great reading commitments of your life.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where should I start with Susanna Clarke?
The answer depends entirely on what kind of reader you are. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2004) is Clarke's masterpiece — a 1,000-page alternative history of English magic set during the Napoleonic Wars, written in the style of a Victorian novel with extensive footnotes, that is one of the most original and most accomplished fantasy novels ever written. Piranesi (2020) is its complete opposite: a 200-page novella, intimate and mysterious, narrated by a man living alone in a House of infinite hallways that contains the sea. If you are prepared for length and commitment, start with Jonathan Strange; if you want Clarke's voice in concentrated, immediately accessible form, start with Piranesi.
What is Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell about?
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2004) is set in an alternate early nineteenth-century England where magic exists but has not been practised for centuries. Gilbert Norrell, a reclusive Yorkshire magician who has spent his life hoarding magical knowledge, comes to London to restore English magic to practical use — and finds himself both celebrated and challenged when Jonathan Strange, a gifted young amateur, becomes his pupil and then his rival. The novel spans the Napoleonic Wars (Strange accompanies Wellington's campaigns) and is written throughout in an archly Victorian style, complete with footnotes citing fictional magical histories. Winner of the Hugo Award and the World Fantasy Award.
What is Piranesi about?
Piranesi (2020) is narrated through the journal of a young man who calls himself Piranesi, living in a vast and infinite House whose halls contain marble statues, the sea, and clouds. He is not alone — there is one other person, whom he calls the Other — but he has no memory of any other world. The novel gradually reveals what the House is, who Piranesi really is, and what has been done to him — unfolding as a mystery of identity and memory written in a voice of extraordinary innocence and strange beauty. Short, perfect, and deeply moving.
Is Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell too long?
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is genuinely long — about 1,000 pages in most editions — and it is written in a deliberately paced Victorian style that rewards rather than rushes. Readers who bounce off the first hundred pages often find that the novel opens considerably once Strange appears and the rivalry between the two magicians begins. The footnotes (some of which are extended stories in themselves) are part of the novel's pleasure, not optional extras. Most readers who commit to it find it one of the most rewarding reading experiences of their lives. Piranesi, at 200 pages, is the perfect quick alternative.
