History Literature / JonathanStrangeAndMrNorrell

* AllMythsAreTrue: An interesting variation - only some myths are true, Merlin was explicitly stated to be true while magic mirrors are false (any mirror will do). The characters themselves aren't sure which myths are true. Beings from Christian theology and ancient religions also show up in this universe; the Raven King is said to have been on good terms with most angels and demons, but quarrelled with Zadkiel and Alrinach. Also in a footnote, Merlin is described as being half-demon. Hermes (Trismegistus, specifically) also has a passing mention near the end as the "God of all magicians" implying that while Christian theology is focused on, there may be other realms that Christians are unaware of, ignore or simply lump in with Faerie.

* DeadlyDecadentCourt: Lost-hope, and most of Faerie by extension.

* GhostlyWail: The undead soldiers that Mr. Strange [[{{Necromancer}} conjures up]] can only speak in a ghastly unintelligble shriek, which he eventually identifies as the BlackSpeech of {{Hell}}.

* EssentialMadness: The eponymous Strange must drink a bottle of distilled madness (causing him to lose his mind) in order to be able to see and interact with TheFairFolk on their own terms.

* BlueAndOrangeMorality:
** The gentleman with the thistle-down hair seems entirely unable to comprehend regular human morality, love or ethics, and seems to lack any kind of empathy. At his worst he kills a dozen people in pursuit of Stephen's true name, simply because they were connected to those present at Stephen's mother's death, but cannot understand Stephen's horror. He's casually sadistic, yet also cannot comprehend racism. He shows a genuine liking for King George, yet is more than happy to murder him.
** The gentleman finds it even more difficult to understand human society than humans do to discern fairy culture. He cannot comprehend why if he kills George III that Stephen Black would not be immediately crowned due to his attractiveness and charm.
** TheFairFolk also consider Christianity to be this -- a footnote mentions that centuries ago, someone left a pair of boots in a fairy's castle, and they were regarded as objects of dread for fear that in some inscrutable way, Christian morality might hold the fairies responsible for their theft.

* DarkIsNotEvil: the Raven King is mysterious and a bit alien, but seems ultimately benevolent. (Certainly compared to other natives of Faerie.) Similarly Childermass is enigmatic in his loyalties and purposes, but also one of the morally better people in the story.

* GentlemanWizard: See the page quote. The titular characters, as well as the magic societies, if you consider them wizards despite their not actually ''doing'' any magic. Magic is considered the realm of the idle gentry, and Mr Norrell is not pleased to learn that Strange intends to teach a Jew.

* NiceGuy: Childermass often tries to encourage Norrell's better nature, and acts only in the interests of English magic with zero self-interest.

%%* NobilityMarriesMoney: Sir Walter Pole's marriage to Emma Wintertowne.

* InSpiteOfANail: In spite of the fact that Northern England was formerly a separate country, ruled by a magician-king for 300 years, England and Europe at the time of the novel are almost exactly as they were in history. Sir Creator/WalterScott, Creator/LewisCarroll, Francisco Goya, and Creator/LordByron all show up, and are shown or implied to be just as they were in RealLife.
* TheIngenue: Both Emma and Arabella already have shades of this, but Flora Greysteel ''breathes'' the trope.

* CrazyCatLady: Mrs Delgado. [[spoiler: Strange gives her what she wants most in exchange for the key to madness - he transforms her into a cat]].

* PsychoSerum: Strange deliberately drinks essentially [[spoiler: "distilled madness"]] out of the logic that since lunatics can see fairies without relying on the fairies revealing themselves, he needs to [[spoiler: become insane to be able to see the gentleman with thistle-down hair.]] (Strange's summoning spells worked, as the gentleman himself admits to Stephen, but since the gentleman did not wish to speak to Strange he remained invisible to him. [[spoiler: The madness allows Strange to see past the glamour, to the gentleman's great shock.]])

Osprey Games publish a TabletopGame called ''Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell: A Board Game of English Magic''.

* SubmissiveBadass: Childermass can out-think pretty much all of the characters in the novel, and out-magic the majority of them. He is determined to serve Mr Norrell until it is disadvantageous for magic in England to do so. Indeed his submissiveness is one reason he is badass: in over 23 years of service to Norrell, he has learnt various spells, making him the secret third magician in Britain.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Arabella, Lady Pole and Stephen are released from their enchantment, Stephen kills the Gentleman with the thistle down hair, and magic is fully restored to England. But Stephen is utterly disillusioned with his life in England and leaves to become the new king of Losthope, and Strange and Norrell are trapped in eternal darkness for the foreseeable future. While this doesn't bother Norrell so much, Jonathan and Arabella are separated and uncertain of when they will meet again. But until then Norrell and Strange can happily practice magic and explore realms.]]

** Mr. Norrell himself, who is unmarried, and seemingly obsessed with Strange at their first meeting, jealous of his wife, and deeply frustrated at the thought of him leaving to help with the war effort. An aside in a footnote about an old magician's love letters to his unisex-named lover mentions that Mr Norrell is much more comfortable with the idea of a gay magician than a woman.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: One of Norrel's objections to Vinculus's prophecy is that fortune-telling tends to be unreliable. Of course, some of his other objections are that it invokes the Raven King, that prophecies in general don't align with his idea of respectable English magic, and that Vinculus broke into his house to recite it to him, so that claim might come off as dubious. However, in this case he's entirely right: [[spoiler: it's not a prophecy at all. It's the Raven King's to-do list.]]

* IHaveManyNames: The Raven King, aka John Uskglass, aka the Black King of the North, aka the nameless slave (from his changeling childhood, though rarely used and [[spoiler: key to the climax of the novel]]), etc. This actually figures into the plot when [[spoiler: Strange and Norrell try to magically locate the Raven King but can't figure out which name to use in the spell. Norrell speculates that The Raven King did this on purpose, because names are such an important part of magic. Without his true name, it gets difficult to do anything related to the person you're trying to target.]]

* BeCarefulWhatYouSay: The trope is invoked twice near the ending. Firstly, the gentleman with the thistle-down hair [[spoiler: places a curse of Darkness]] on Strange, naming him as "the English magician". Since he failed to be more specific, [[spoiler: the Darkness also begins to affects Norrell once Strange reaches him, and the two are bound together until the curse can be broken.]] The second instance is of major importance to the fate of England and its English Magic: [[spoiler: Norrell and Strange address "the nameless slave" in their spell, hoping to reach the Raven King. The spell finds Stephen Black instead.]]

* AlcoholInducedStupidity: Vinculus's late father tended to suffer from this, the most notable incident being when he accepted a drunken wager to [[spoiler:eat a priceless book of magic allegedly written by the Raven King himself, which resulted in the contents of the book being indelibly marked on the skin of the child he fathered a few days later.]]

* NameAmnesia: The character called "Stephen Black" is apparently not actually named Stephen Black, or so it would seem according to the rules of magic, because 'Stephen' was a slave name and not his true name given to him by his mother at his birth, which has been lost. As such, Magic considers him to be "The Nameless King", which is problematic because there is also a historical figure prevalent in the story, the Raven King, who was also given a slave name that was not his real name, John Uskglass, and is also referred to as "The Nameless King". Spells meant to address the latter Nameless King accidentally affect the former Nameless King.

* StealthPun: The general who dubs his right-hand magician "Merlin"? That [[ShroudedInMyth semi-mythical]] English leader, ''[[ArthurianLegend Arthur]]'' Wellesley.

* AntiHero: Norrell is an old-fashioned example; Strange is a Byronic one.

* ThrowAwayCountry: A footnote implies that the country of Wales has been magically [[RetGone erased from existence]], [[LostCommonKnowledge its language remaining only in the minds of the insane.]]

* AlcoholInducedStupidity: Vinculus' late father tended to suffer from this, the most notable incident being when he accepted a drunken wager to [[spoiler:eat a priceless book of magic allegedly written by the Raven King himself, which resulted in the contents of the book being indelibly marked on the skin of the child he fathered a few days later.]]

* XMeetsY: The book has been described as "J.R.R. Tolkien meets Creator/JaneAusten", "Literature/HarryPotter for Adults", or "Harry Potter for History Buffs".