Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

In the midst of the Napoleonic Wars in 1806, most people believed that magic had long since disappeared from England—until the reclusive Mr. Norrell revealed his powers and became famous overnight. Then another practicing magician appeared: the daring young Jonathan Strange. He became Norrell's apprentice, and the two joined forces in the war against France. But Strange was increasingly drawn to more brutal and dangerous forms of magic, and soon he risked sacrificing his partnership with Norrell and everything he held dear. Susanna Clarke's brilliant debut novel is a gripping, epic tale of 19th-century England and the two magicians who emerged, first as teacher and pupil and then as rivals, to change its history.