Christopher Hart
Talking Statues
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
By Susanna Clarke
Bloomsbury 782pp £12.99
AFTER THE SUCCESS of other pastiche nineteenth-century door-stoppers such as Tipping the Velvet and The Crimson Petal and the White, here is another addition to that fashionable set. Although the events of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell actually take place during the Regency (between the years 1807 and 1817), in spirit it certainly has more in common with the loose, baggy works of Dickens or Thackeray, with its huge, proliferating plot and cast of colourful characters, than with a Jane Austen miniature.
Susanna Clarke's remise is that in the earlu 1800s there were plenty of people still studying magic, but no one actually practising it. One group of occult scholars, the York Society, gets to hear of a reclusive Mr Norrell of Hurtfew Abbev (the names are to be relished), who is
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Knowledge of Sufism increased markedly with the publication in 1964 of The Sufis, by Idries Shah. Nowadays his writings, much like his father’s, are dismissed for their Orientalism and inaccuracy.
@fitzmorrissey investigates who the Shahs really were.
Fitzroy Morrissey - Sufism Goes West
Fitzroy Morrissey: Sufism Goes West - Empire’s Son, Empire’s Orphan: The Fantastical Lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah by Nile Green
literaryreview.co.uk
Rats have plagued cities for centuries. But in Baltimore, researchers alighted on one surprising solution to the problem of rat infestation: more rats.
@WillWiles looks at what lessons can be learned from rat ecosystems – for both rats and humans.
Will Wiles - Puss Gets the Boot
Will Wiles: Puss Gets the Boot - Rat City: Overcrowding and Urban Derangement in the Rodent Universes of John B ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Twisters features destructive tempests and blockbuster action sequences.
@JonathanRomney asks what the real danger is in Lee Isaac Chung's disaster movie.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/eyes-of-the-storm