Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
Oct. 22nd, 2005 11:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieAm continuing my read of "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell" because I remember ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
queenofthorns really liking it. (First attempt ended when I was 30 pages in, got sidetracked by another book and forgot about this one).
I am 100+ pages in and I will finish it this time because I enjoy the writing style. However, the plot doesn't really seem to exist so far which is a bit of an indulgence for an author more than 1/8 of the book in. Not to mention we haven't yet even been introduced to Jonathan Strange, who is one half of the title!
I think SC is trying too hard to be Dickens-like, but her characters aren't sharply drawn enough, she doesn't have the talent for backgrond quirks and quick sketches that Dickens did. This is no "Pickwick Papers." No character has so far caught my fancy. But a certain whimsicality of the writing is keeping me amused so I'll continue. Not to mention the description of society with magic treated like surgery or law, another sort of middle class profession.
queenofthorns really liking it. (First attempt ended when I was 30 pages in, got sidetracked by another book and forgot about this one).I am 100+ pages in and I will finish it this time because I enjoy the writing style. However, the plot doesn't really seem to exist so far which is a bit of an indulgence for an author more than 1/8 of the book in. Not to mention we haven't yet even been introduced to Jonathan Strange, who is one half of the title!
I think SC is trying too hard to be Dickens-like, but her characters aren't sharply drawn enough, she doesn't have the talent for backgrond quirks and quick sketches that Dickens did. This is no "Pickwick Papers." No character has so far caught my fancy. But a certain whimsicality of the writing is keeping me amused so I'll continue. Not to mention the description of society with magic treated like surgery or law, another sort of middle class profession.
