History Literature / JonathanStrangeAndMrNorrell

* IllGirl: Emma Wintertowne starts out as this, and things go FromBadToWorse from there.

* ThoseTwoBadGuys: The fops Drawlight and Lascelles.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Played straight when Norrell deals with the gentleman with thistle-down hair, but when he tries to invoke this against Strange it goes horribly wrong.
* BeCarefulWhatYouSay: So, so much. Mr Norrell resurrects Ms Wintertowne by [[spoiler: summoning a fairy, namely, the gentleman with the thistledown hair,]] and offering him [[spoiler: half her life. Mr Norrell thinks this means she'll die in her 40s, but instead the gentleman takes her to a fairy ball every night, forcing her to dance all night instead of sleeping.]] Later, 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.]] In the latter case, this is [[GambitRoulette almost certainly by the Raven King's design]].

** A vital tool for precisely aiming magic at a target. Summoning and curses are two notable examples where knowing a name aids this. [[spoiler: The gentleman's curse on Strange has the side-effect of targeting other English magicians since the faerie did not bother to name Strange in it]]. Norrell also notes that the Raven King may well have deliberately avoided taking a true name in England to avoid this.

* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: Until Norrell and Strange stepped forward, the typical English wizard didn't actually do any magic, they just spent their days studying old books about magic from before it went away, recompiling the contents into new papers, and critiquing each other's papers, thus making the typical Magical Society more of a genteel book club with a constrained topic list and a group of mages. Despite that, Norrell holds them in contempt and seeks their abolition.

* TheFriendThatNobodyLikes: Pretty much everyone merely tolerates Norrell's company at best, barring Childermass and Strange. Likewise, in Childermass' case, it's implied that while he respects and is loyal to Norrell, he mainly sees him as a means to an end, while Strange finds Norrell personally annoying, but is also his only academic peer. It gets to the point where despite both his great services to the country, Strange is denied a peerage on the grounds that Norrell would be entitled to expect one as well, and, "the idea of referring to Norrell as 'my lord' or 'Sir Gilbert' was somehow depressing."

* FairyGodmother: The gentleman's interactions with Stephen Black can be considered a very dark deconstruction. Having an incredibly powerful being with a set of customs and morality far removed from humanity's intent on being your friend and champion is described as a hellish life.

* DancesAndBalls: PlayedForHorror Steven and LAdy Poole end up spending '''years''' dancing the night away at Lost Hope as the "guests", read hostages, of the its master the gentleman with the thistle-down hair which leaves them utterly exhausted.

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

* {{Asexuality}}:
** Norrell's only love is for books, and he fails to understand the appeal of marriage, calling it a regrettable habit for magicians. The notions of romance and affection are completely alien to him.
** Possibly the gentleman. As much as he admires beauty and charm in Lady Pole, Arabella and Stephen, it lacks a sexual element. He seems to wish to collect them in the manner one would collect dolls or ornaments rather than partners. His world of shallow hedonism seems to consist entirely of genteel balls on one hand, and murder and cannibalism on the other, with none of the orgiastic elements one might expect.
** Possibly Childermass. Right before Lady Pole [[spoiler: makes her assassination attempt]], his reaction at seeing her is: „It occurred to Childermass that she would probably have been considered handsome by the people who cared about such things.” It’s entirely ambiguous if it’s due to asexuality, demisexuality, or possibly homosexuality, or just an indifference to women’s physical beauty. His other dealings with women are unknown and may be entirely platonic; Vinculus’ fifth wife falls in love with him but he doesn’t reciprocate; the only other mention is his joking response to Davey, that perhaps he wouldn’t mind becoming Hannah’s husband.

* TongueTied: Arabella Strange and Stephen Black are cursed by the Gentleman with the Thistle-down Hair to be unable to speak of their enslavement. If they try to tell anyone, they end up telling nonsensical fairy tales instead.

** Possibly Childermass. Right before Lady Pole [[spoiler: makes her assassination attempt]], his reaction at seeing her is: „It occurred to Childermass that she would probably have been considered handsome by the people who cared about such things.” It’s entirely ambiguous if it’s due to asexuality, demisexuality, or possibly homosexuality, or just an indifference to women’s physical beauty. His other dealings with women may be entirely platonic; Vinculus’ fifth wife falls in love with him but he doesn’t reciprocate; the only other mention is his joking response to Davey, that perhaps he wouldn’t mind becoming Hannah’s husband.

** Possibly Childermass. Right before Lady Pole [[spoiler: makes her assassination attempt]], his reaction at seeing her is: „It occurred to Childermass that she would probably have been considered handsome by the people who cared about such things.” It’s entirely ambiguous if it’s due to asexuality, or possibly homosexuality, or just an indifference to women’s physical beauty. His other dealings with women may be entirely platonic; Vinculus’ fifth wife falls in love with him but he doesn’t reciprocate; the only other mention is his joking response to Davey, that perhaps he wouldn’t mind becoming Hannah’s husband.

** Possibly Childermass. Right before Lady Pole [[spoiler: makes her assasination attempt]], his reaction at seeing her is: „It occurred to Childermass that she would probably have been considered handsome by the people who cared about such things.” It’s entirely ambiguous if it’s due to asexuality, or possibly homosexuality, or just an indifference to women’s physical beauty. His other dealings with women may be entirely platonic; Vinculus’ fifth wife falls in love with him but he dooesn’t reciprocate; the only other mention is his joking response to Davey, that perhaps he wouldn’t mind being Hannah’s husband.

** The Raven King [[spoiler: heals Childermass' cut cheek as an afterthought, having already resurrected Vinuculus into his custody to aid in the resurrection of English magic. The action is described as almost paternal, and was probably a reward for declaring himself a loyal subject to the Raven King.]]

* OneSteveLimit: Averted with Jonathan Strange, John Segundus, John Childermass, and John Uskglass. There are a couple lesser Johns in the book as well.

* UnderestimatingBadassery: Lascelles is incapable of perceiving just how dangerous Childermass is, partly because he refuses to think of the lower classes in a favourable light, and because of his own inflated ego. Lascelles does pin Childermass to a wall and cut his face [[spoiler: but only because the latter let him in order to pick his pocket.]]

* WhamLine: In the mini-series: '' "Someone is doing magic here." '' With that line, and with what follows, Childermass reveals that not only can he [[spoiler: sense magic, but perform it as well]], much to Drawlight and Lascelles' bewilderment.

* WhamLine: In the mini-series: '' "Someone is doing magic here." '' With that line, and with what follows, Childermass reveals that not only can he sense magic, but perform it as well, much to Drawlight and Lascelles' bewilderment.

* AgeGapRomance: A relatively mild example between Strange and Arabella, with about 10 years between them. [[spoiler: Flora Greysteel is also noted as having had a serious crush on him, to the point of being interested in marrying him after Arabella's apparent death, despite the fact that she's 18 and by that point he was about 40. However, while he liked her and saw her as a MoralityPet, he wasn't interested - largely because he'd correctly deduced that Arabella was still alive - and they remain JustFriends.]]

* WeakButSkilled: Segundus and Childermass are considerably weaker magicians than the two main characters, but their magical senses are far more acute, particularly Segundus'. This is shown by them both almost fainting when encountering the gentleman's magic.

* 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, as well as his own execution by hanging for "book murder."]]

* AntiHero: Norrell is an old-fashioned example; Strange is a Byronic one (who is actually on good terms with Lord Byron.)

* BeCarefulWhatYouSay: So, so much. Mr Norrell resurrects Ms Wintertowne by [[spoiler: summoning a fairy, namely, the gentleman with the thistledown hair,]] and offering him [[spoiler: half her life. Mr Norrell thinks this means she'll die in her 40s, but instead the gentleman takes her to a fairy ball every night, forcing her to dance all night instead of sleeping.]] Later, 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.]]

* BlackMagic: Strange practices some during the Napoleonic Wars, using it to raise slain Neapolitans from the dead as horrible, sapient zombies in order to get information from them. They are finally burned "alive" after the living soldiers are too creeped out to be around them - although, to his credit, Strange does try several times to reverse the spell on them. As a rather dark HistoricalInJoke, this act is suggested to have inspired the artist Goya's production of hellish paintings of war and witchcraft.

* BrokenPedestal: Norrell means well, but it doesn't change that fact that he's a secretive, mousy, banal and ''incredibly'' selfish man who is pretty much lacking in sympathetic traits, is [[DeadpanSnarker constantly sarcastic, of a condescendingly, backhanded sort]] and spends his time making sure he is the ''only'' magician in Britain. Namely by using his connections to the people in power to have other magicians (even theoretical scholars) outlawed, as well as using his magic to destroy all copies of the book about the Raven King that Strange has published after his estrangement with his former mentor.

* CameBackWrong: Lady Pole, although that's more the fault of the gentleman with the thistle-down hair constantly taking her away to Lost-Hope and enchanting her so she can't tell anyone about it - [[spoiler:once Mr Segundus breaks the enchantment on her, she's fully back to her old self again]] - and [[spoiler: the seventeen dead soldiers that Strange drags back from Hell.]]

* CassandraTruth: Vinculus, who alternates between giving true prophesies and being a charlatan. [[spoiler:He also happens to be ''a walking prophecy nobody can read''.]]

* DeadpanSnarker: Lascelles and Childermass. Most of Norrell's dialogue is this, as well.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Casual classism, sexism and racism appear repeatedly, appropriate for Georgian society. Some characters are [[FairForItsDay better than others]], such as Strange in his respect for servants and Jews, and the Poles taking good care of Stephen and giving him privileged employment (it's pointed out that Walter did this in part to show off his liberal credentials).

* DisabilitySuperpower: The mad can see and talk to fairies even without the use of magic, often granting them special favour.. When Strange realises the full implications of this, he [[spoiler: willingly destroys his own sanity, temporarily but with some lingering after-effects]].

* EnigmaticMinion: Norrell's "Man of Business" Childermass is loyal but shows a surprising degree of autonomy, and his motives aren't quite clear. He even learns a few spells secretly; it'd be hard not to, after working for a magician for over twenty years.

* TheFairFolk: They're so self-centered that if it wasn't for their powerful magic they'd quickly end up extinct. It's debatable whether the gentleman with the thistle-down hair even understood the concept that other people might have different opinions. It's stated that Julius Caesar once served as judge of the Fairies, because at the time ''every Faerie alive'' stood accused of some crime or had close ties to an accused, so none were fit to stand in judgment. Despite being a key element of the story, only two members appear.

* {{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 comes true because it's not a prophecy at all. It's the Raven King's [[TheChessmaster to-do list]].]]

* GentlemanWizard: 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.

** They both oppose the gentleman with thistledown hair, but he mostly acted out of friendship and generosity, and is difficult to judge as evil by human standards due to his bizarre ethics.

* ItsAllAboutMe: The gentleman with the thistle-down hair.

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Norrell might be trapped in eternal darkness for the foreseeable future, but he really doesn't see this as a punishment, and he is never brought to justice for the horrible things he does to Lady Pole.]]

* KingInTheMountain: One of the legends that has grown up around the Raven King's disappearance is that he will return at the hour of his people's greatest need to lead them to victory and greatness once again.

* MasterOfIllusion: Strange's go-to and earliest tactic in Wellington's battles is to create images of dragons and angelic hosts to scare the French.

* MobileMaze: Norrell's house has one, particularly when one is attempting to reach the library.

* 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 Slave", 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 Slave accidentally affect the former Nameless King.

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

** The author has stated that her intention was for the Raven King to have NoNameGiven, but in the end this was played with as [[IHaveManyNames he has many names]], though arguably, none are his "true name" but rather universally nicknames or titles.

* NoodleIncident: English magical history has a number of occurrences that no one in the Nineteenth Century really understands, such as the time the Raven King "quarreled with Winter and banished it from his kingdom, so that for four years Northern England enjoyed continual Summer."

* OurFairiesAreDifferent: They have incredible magical powers, due to being able to commune directly with the landscape. They are also nigh-immortal and can shapeshift. General racial characteristics include capriciousness, laziness and vanity.

* PowerLimiter: Several things are mentioned to disrupt a magician's powers, or his concentration needed to do so. Rowan branches, consecrated pieces of the Host and illness all weaken magicians, prompting some historical magicians to invest their powers into artifacts.

** To a much lesser extent, Jonathan Strange. He's pretty socially viable, but is easily distracted by magic and theology, and doesn't even realize the suffering that he causes his wife by neglecting her and embarking on dangerous things until they argue about the mirror paths. (His TV counterpart is better about this.)

* ThereCanBeOnlyOne: Norrell makes it his special project to make sure no one practices magic except him. Even the theoretical magicians who meet in York are apparently too much of a threat.

Centuries ago, magic thrived in England. The Raven King, a human who had been raised in {{Faerie}}, waged war against England and took the northern half for his kingdom. The Raven King was the greatest magician to ever live, and his 300-year reign was the golden age of magic in both halves of England -- the union of fairy power and human organization.