Reading the Chunksters discussion

This section covers chapters 27 to 29. Mrs Strange meets Lady Pole, a magical library comes up for sale and Strange travels to the war in Portugal.

Chapter summaries (beware spoilers):
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27. The magician’s wife

How Strange becomes more popular than Norrell through his willingness to talk and demonstrate his skills. He is distracted from his domestic duties by Sir Walter Pole who asks him to help with a naval problem. The Stranges go with Pole to his house. Arabella is left alone reading, but gets distracted and starts looking at paintings. In a room full of pictures of Venice she meets Lady Pole for the first time. Arabella mentions Norrell and Lady Pole says she would rather be dead than where she is now. She says that all of her attempts to explain have failed. Her words start to come out as old stories of fairy lore. Sir Walter leads her away, and asks her not to talk about Lady Pole’s words and Arabella is left alone again. She hears bells and sees bleak visions. She realises that her promises to Lady Pole and Walter are contradictory. After they leave Strange tells her that he saw the servant and then had a vision of a black king in a diadem with sceptre and orb. At a concert, Drawlight hears Arabella’s story and suggests that Lady Pole may be taking laudanum.

28. The Duke of Roxburghe’s library

The war is going badly and Strange and Norrell are becoming England’s only hope. They are invited to Portsmouth to review the Channel fleet. Strange is woken in the early hours and asked to help with a ship that has run aground on the sands. He conjures horses from the sand, and the ship is freed. A proposal is made to send Strange to the war. Norrell disapproves strongly, but is talked round by Drawlight and Lascelles, who remind him that the late Duke of Roxburghe’s valuable library will soon up for auction, and that Strange is likely to bid against him for the magical books. He succeeds in buying them all, outbidding Arabella and paying a huge sum for the most valuable of them.

29. At the house of Jose Estoril

Before leaving for Portugal, Strange arranges a meeting with Lord Liverpool in Norrell’s library and persuades Norrell to allow him to take 40 books with him. On arrival in Lisbon, he is told that Wellington is “in the lines”. A local man agrees to take Strange to the Lines, which are three long lines of forts defending the mountains around Lisbon. He is taken the the headquarters, but Wellington is not there, so he waits and gets in the way, but Wellington eventually arrives. Wellington tells him he has no need of magicians, but needs more men. Having failed with two more of Wellington’s suggestions, Strange returns to Lisbon. He starts writing to Wellington daily with new suggestions, all of which are declined. The army chaplain is sent to see him and suggests that he should go to the Lines with brandy and champagne for the men. Eventually the French abandon the lines and retreat, and Wellington’s men pursue them. Strange goes with them, and is told what they need most is boots, which do not last on the rough ground they are crossing. Strange goes to see Wellington and proposes building roads and bridges for them. He is sent away but later summoned back. Wellington asks if a magician could kill a man with magic, to which he replies that “a magician might but a gentleman never could”. Wellington asks him to build a Roman-style straight road. Strange does this, and they then agree that the roads should appear an hour before they are needed and disappear an hour afterwards, so as not to help the French.

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I'm still reading the book but I have to say it has disappointed me. There's so much detail about the magic that, for me, it overwhelms and distracts from the plot and the characters. It just feels like one long intellectual exercise by the author's imagination - and I still have no idea what, if anything, she is trying to say.

I don't find myself caring that much about what happens to either magician. I am interested enough to want to finish the book to find out what happens with the magic. Maybe the author wanted to make magic the prime focus but it feels very dry.

I would agree with Ellen that this is primarily a demonstration of the author’s imagination, but I am finding it a rather impressive one. I don’t read many fantasy novels, but I have found that the creation of the world itself is often important in its own right, without necessarily having any particular message or deeper intention. I’m happy to go along with that, though I can appreciate why the lack of plot and rather sketchy characters might put people off.

I like the sly humour and the strangeness of the situations that come up, and am beginning to find the magic more chilling than it initially appeared. The fates of Steven and Lady Pole are disturbing and the gentleman with the thistle down hair becomes more sinister.

I also like the historical setting and enjoyed the appearance of the Duke of Wellington in this section.

Interesting to read these two comments. I do agree that it is written in a style that mimics what we may call dry historical fiction, but I agree with Pamela that there are some really funny moments that have me laughing out loud. I'm enjoying immersing myself in the world - for me the most intriguing strand is the gentleman with the thistle down hair. We got tantalisingly close to Jonathon Strange finding out about him in this section. I also wonder what Mr Norrell is hiding in his books - is it just his association with fairy folk or is there something more we don't know about yet?

Holly wrote: "Interesting to read these two comments. I do agree that it is written in a style that mimics what we may call dry historical fiction, but I agree with Pamela that there are some really funny moment..."

Exactly! What are the books Norrell has withheld from Strange, and why? And he clearly did not want Strange to get any of the Duke of Roxburghe's! I think Norrell loves his library as much as I love my little library at home :)

I thought it was interesting (and surprising) that Strange went to war rather than give up after being rebuffed by Wellington so many times. Quite a different chap from the one who was so aimless and easily defeated prior to becoming a magician! He also had (after many tries) an actually useful and innovative idea for the army - disappearing roads! Roads the lore of which was as powerful as the actual paths themselves, given that the French were afraid they would lead to hell, or England!

I find myself wondering about Norrell and his books as well. He must be hiding something, given his obsession with keeping certain books away from everyone else. Did he do something horrible in the past and is trying to delete it from history?