Reading the Chunksters discussion
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
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Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Week 5
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These chapters were very enjoyable. Once again Clarke pulls off humour and creepy, this time the Raven King cards sent a shiver down my spine. I like the distinction about Vinculus having all the skill but none of the knowledge and how opposite he is to the original York magicians we saw at the beginning of the story. Does anyone know enough about tarot cards to hazard a guess at what Childermass' life laid out on the table said?
This book is quite a tour de force of imagination and I find that part amazing. But I am stumped about what the author is trying to say or the meaning she is trying to convey.I'd love to know what others' thoughts are.
Mod
I'd love to know wha..."
I can't help you with any deeper meaning as I never found one myself. I agree that on its own terms it is very impressive.
Just realised I should have opened the next part so I'll do that now.
I agree with Hugh’s comment here. On its merits this book seems a feat of imagination and skill. But it hasn’t grabbed me yet. I’m listening to the audio and wonder if that is a factor, not likely though it’s a fantastic production.Im a bit further along than this, just scrolling back to catch up in the threads.
Jen wrote: "I agree with Hugh’s comment here. On its merits this book seems a feat of imagination and skill. But it hasn’t grabbed me yet. I’m listening to the audio and wonder if that is a factor, not likely ..."I felt like that in the beginning Jen, but I am much more interested in the book the further I go along. Personally I am glad that the voluminous footnotes have tapered off some, and appreciate the wry humor, play on words and utterly bizarre nature of the characters. The ridiculous pursuit of Strange for his wife was too much! At this point I am unclear if we are dealing with clever tricksters or actual magicians. Strange seems the most unlikely magician ever!
I am also enjoying the book , but I think imagination on the part of author is not enough, readers should also be able to imagine and that depends on various factors, some of them are out of our control. For me it’s working because for the first time I am reading Narnia and can imagine that other world may exist beyond a closed door. Before Narnia, I couldn’t finish The Night Circus.
Chapter summaries (beware many spoilers):
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20. The unlikely milliner
The war continues, and Norrell can’t do everything he is asked to, complaining that English magic is much reduced, and talented young men are much more likely to join the armed forces than study magic. Lord Hawkesbury proposes a school, but Norrell is more interested in ridding London and England of street sorcerers. Sir Walter persuades the Lord Mayor to grant Norrell the sole licence to perform magic in the city. All of the street magicians go except Vinculus, who refuses, and has too much popular support to be forced out. A man comes to see Vinculus, claiming to be a milliner. He asks Vinculus to cast a spell to persuade a princess to marry him. Vinculus proposes a fee of 40 guineas, and asks the name of the princess. The man accuses Vinculus of being a cheat and a pickpocket. Vinculus explains why he has picked the man’s pockets, and has found spells to ruin him written by Norrell among them. The man is Childermass, who proposes they continue their discussion elsewhere.
21. The cards of Marseille
At a pub called the Pineapple, once the hiding place of a notorious thief and murderer, and still a place popular with criminals, Childermass and Vinculus go there. Childermass asks Vinculus about the prophecy he recited to Norrell, which Norrell did not recognise. Vinculus admits to having a valuable book that he claims to have inherited. Childermass shows Vinculus his “cards of Marseille”, i.e. tarot cards. He tells the story of how he made them, and uses them to tell Vinculus’s fortune. Vinculus lays out Childermass’s cards but doesn’t know how to interpret them. He insists on doing Norrell’s too, but all of the cards he deals are the Emperor, of which there was only one in the original pack. On his return Childermass tells Norrell the story, and Norrell asks him to find out more about Vinculus and his book. He discovers that Vinculus has five wives, all over London, and eventually manages to get all of them to talk, but none of them knows anything about the book. He deals the cards again and once again they are altered magically.
22. The Knight of Wands
Jonathan Strange, the son of Lawrence, is not a miser like his father, and is widely seen as charming. He wants to marry a local clergyman’s daughter, whose means are limited. He struggles to decide what to do with his time. He decides to keep the new manservant Jeremy Johns, and sets out with him to visit the friends with whom his fiancée is staying. They enter a village where no adults are visible, and eventually they find them looking at a hedge, where a man lies half hidden by tree roots. They ride on but Jonathan is uneasy and they return. A villager asks them to move their horses because the man in the hedge is asleep and he is a magician, and it is said to be unlucky to wake a magician. The man eventually wakes and introduces himself as Vinculus. He says he has been walking west for several days in search of a man destined to be a magician, and tells Jonathan that he is the man he is searching for. Vinculus finds some dirty papers in his pockets which he claims are valuable spells, and persuades Jonathan to buy them. He wonders why he bought them, and continues his journey. When they arrive, his fiancée Arabella Woodhope is alone with her friend Mrs Redmond. He tells Mrs Redmond he has tried farming and is unsuited to it, and proposes to study magic instead. Mr Woodhope and Arabella’s brother Henry return, and Jonathan tries to explain his decision. He finds the spells but realises they are not ancient [the narrator explains they are the ones Childermass showed to Vinculus]. They decide to attempt the third spell “how to discover what my enemy is doing currently”. They see a man in the mirror, in his room studying books. They decide that he looks like a banker.
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