Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Piranesi - although that is not his name - dwells in the House, a vast labyrinth of halls, vestibules and statues. The upper level of the House is filled with clouds and the lower with an ocean, with tides that occasionally flood the middle floors where Piranesi lives. The only other dweller of the House is the Other, a friendly but curt man who sometimes brings Piranesi supplies from unknown reaches of the structure. The Other warns Piranesi that a newcomer has entered the House, threatening destruction and chaos. Piranesi tries to avoid this newcomer, but his orderly trackings of the House's tides reveal that a great flood is coming, and he struggles on whether to warn the interloper or let them be swept away.

Piranesi is the long, long-awaited second novel by Susanna Clarke. In 2004 she released her first book, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, which was one of those once-in-a generation books which was released to uproarious critical acclaim and immense commercial success (I had mixed feelings on it, with a brilliant opening half let down by a rambling second). A television adaptation was screened in 2015. However, Clarke's only other publication since then is a short story collection, The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories. Despite occasional hints at a Jonathan Strange sequel, nothing further materialised until Piranesi arrived in 2020. Clarke confirmed that ill health had made completing the Jonathan Strange sequel impossible, so she had chosen Piranesi as a smaller, more manageable project to complete instead.

Piranesi is something of a fable, with the protagonist an unreliable narrator not because of deception, but because his memory is faulty. His origins are unclear, and he knows what certain items are despite apparently never having set foot outside of the House (if that is even possible; the House seems to consist of the entirety of its world). Piranesi maintains a strict regime of updating his diary (and its gargantuan index), fishing so he won't starve and building up supplies of combustible for the winter. He also liaises with the Other on his various projects, and is a master of the House's geography and wildlife (birds nest on the top floor and various sea life can be found in the lower). The oddness of the situation is not apparent to Piranesi, who has no memory of things being any different. He is trusting beyond a fault and guileless.

Clarke lets the novel unfold like a mixture between a dream and a puzzle, slowly giving the reader more clues as to the nature of what is going on. Some may lament the lack of ambiguity in the conclusion of the novel - you get a pretty full picture of what's happened - but it fits Clarke's style from Jonathan Strange where exposition is made part of the literary effect, not shied away from.

Despite some similarities in how it imparts information, Piranesi is in some respects the antithesis of Jonathan Strange. It is short and pacy whilst the earlier novel was expansive and floundered. Piranesi has a very small cast of characters and a very narrow setting, whilst the earlier book had a huge cast, spanned most of Europe and explored numerous subplots. Clarke's style here is much tighter than in the earlier book, with not a word or phrase wasted. The similarities of Piranesi's isolation to the COVID lockdowns, although accidental (the novel was finished before the pandemic), also feels oddly timely.

Piranesi (*****) is a joyfully-written puzzle box of a novel, stronger than Clarke's earlier work and featuring a memorable world and fascinating characters. It is available now in the UK and USA.

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New Susanna Clarke novel to be published in 2022

Susanna Clarke, the much-feted author of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (2004), recently released her first novel in sixteen years, the well-received Piranesi. This was the first book in a two-book acquisition by Bloomsbury, leading to some speculation that that second book might be the much-rumoured Jonathan Strange sequel. However, that speculation was quashed by an interview where she indicated that a long period of illness had left her unable to work on such a large project.

The second book is instead called The Cistern and is tentatively scheduled for 13 October 2022. So far there is no plot summary or synopsis yet available.

Susanna Clarke's second novel to be published in 2020

The second novel by Susanna Clarke, the author of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, will arrive in 2020, to be followed by a third book.

Clarke started her career with short fiction, garnering a small but dedicated fanbase that included Neil Gaiman. She started work on Jonathan Strange in 1993, at the same time she began work as an editor for cookbooks. The novel was finally released in 2004 and was an immediate bestseller, going on to sell in the region of five million copies which puts it neck-and-neck with Patrick Rothfuss's The Name of the Wind as a claimant to the title of the biggest-selling fantasy debut of the 21st Century (to date).

Clarke followed up the novel with a story collection, The Ladies of Grace Adieu (2006), and reported that she was working on a sequel to Jonathan Strange focusing on the character of John Childermass. Progress was slowed, however, by illness: Clarke is a long-term sufferer of CFS (sometimes called ME), which is one of the reasons the first novel took over a decade to be published.

Jonathan Strange was adapted as a well-received BBC mini-series in 2015.

The new novel is called Piranesi and seems to be an original novel, not related to the Jonathan Strange universe. The book focuses on the inhabitants of a vast, strange house and what happens when they uncover evidence of the world outside. The title seems to be a nod at the artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-78), whose strange, pre-Escher-esque images of haunted landscapes and buildings seems to be an inspiration for the novel.

Bloomberg have confirmed that Piranesi will be published in September 2020. A third novel, which may or may not be the Jonathan Strange sequel, will follow.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

England, the early 19th Century. The Napoleonic Wars are raging and the country is in danger from its great enemy across the Channel. But another man, Mr. Gilbert Norrell, has another goal in mind: he desires the return of English magic and the creation of a new form of "respectable" magic, rooted in experimentation and study. Magic has been dead for over three centuries, and Norrell wishes to bring it back...in the form he chooses.

Another would-be magician is Jonathan Strange, a former layabout and sop who takes up magic when his father and fiancee both demands that he finds something to do. Strange and Norrell's paths cross and they agree to join forces for the good of England. But it isn't long before their opposing philosophies and viewpoints come into conflict.

Published in 2004, Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell was an unusual debut. Almost a thousand pages of faux-Victorian prose, the book was littered with footnotes and festooned with footnotes explaining about the world and characters. Championed by fans like Neil Gaiman, the book became a massive, international publishing sensation and Hollywood soon came calling. However, adapting the book for the screen and retaining its storyline whilst also honouring its length and commercial sensibilities (the book is not well-suited to be turned into an action blockbuster trilogy) proved too challenging and the film rights were allowed to lapse.

Enter the BBC. Unburdened by commercial considerations and with growing confidence following a string of recent hit series, the BBC took on the challenge of adapting this weird, strange and brilliant book and did so by turning it into a weird, strange and brilliant series. They have form here, having taken Mervyn Peake's supposedly unfilmably weird novels Titus Alone and Gormenghast and turning them into a compelling (if perhaps a bit too ahead-of-its-time) mini-series in 1999.

The TV series, of course, can't match the complexity and depth of the novel, even with seven hours to play with. Instead, it takes avoiding action by streamlining some of the action, removing much of the interminable second half of the novel (there's a lot less faffing around in Italy and Venice in the TV version), and refocusing the narrative on Strange and Norrell's relationship, on the situation with Lady Pole and the menacing activities of the Gentleman with the Thistledown Hair. Some of the losses from the novel are grievous - the loss in the particular of the witty footnotes is a shame - but in the event are survivable.

The TV show succeeds through the strength of its casting, particularly the genius casting of Eddie Marsan as Norell and Bertie Carvel as Strange. The two actors spark off each other brilliantly and Carvel embodies Strange perfectly as he moves from fop to gentleman to soldier to tragic hero. The rest of the cast is superb: newcomer Alice Englert is superb as Lady Pole and feels like a future Doctor Who companion in waiting. Charlotte Riley is likewise compelling as Arabella Strange, aided by a script that gives the female characters a bit more to do than they do in the novel. Another absolute stand-out is Enzo Cilenti as Childermass, whose world-weary cynicism conceals a genuine sense of humanity that gradually comes to the fore (culminating in him giving excellent last line of the series). Marc Warren also imbues the Gentleman with requisite menace, although arguably he is less whimsical and changeable than the character in the book.

The series also has mind-boggling production values. It is, simply put, the best-looking drama series ever put out by the BBC. It has a confidence and swagger to its use of effects that outclasses the likes of Doctor Who, not to mention wit and imagination. A sequence involving a ghostly fleet, the famous scene where the statues in York Cathedral come to life and another scene where horses are summoned out of sand are all fantastically realised. The Battle of Waterloo is convincingly brutal and ugly, even on what was reportedly a fairly small budget. Another scene where Strange has to summon Italian soldiers back to life, only to find them speaking the language of Hell and having to find a way to get them back to speaking Italian, is both a stunning technical achievement and also a profoundly weird one. The book has a feeling of offbeat strangeness which I assumed the TV show would drop, but if anything it doubles down on it.

There are minor weaknesses: the key subplot revolving around the Gentleman's relationship with the manservant Stephen Black is not given a huge amount of development, and in particular lacks Black's interior characterisation. On TV, Stephen comes across as being far too acquiescent in the Gentleman's schemes rather than fighting against them more, and this makes some of his later character development feel a bit unconvincing. Norrell also gets a little lost in the mix as the emphasis moves to Strange for much of the middle and latter part of the series, although this is also the case in the book.

The BBC's version of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (****½) is superbly-cast, well-written and faithful to the book even as it has to streamline elements from it and improve other elements. It is an elegant, bizarre and compelling adaptation of the novel, and is well worth watching. It is available now in the UK (DVD, Blu-Ray) and USA (DVD, Blu-Ray).

TV round-up: ORPHAN BLACK, JONATHAN STRANGE & MR. NORRELL and SENSE8

A bit of news from the world of SFF television:

Orphan Black has been renewed for a fourth (and penultimate) season, following high ratings for the opening episodes of Season 3 on BBC America in the USA and SPACE in Canada. BBC3 recently confirmed they will be showing the series "later this year", although with BBC3 set to close at the end of the year they need to hurry up.

The BBC mini-series version of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell has finally gotten an airdate, with the seven-part series set to start airing on Sunday 17 May in the UK on BBC1 and on 13 June on BBC America.

Netflix has released the trailer for its new TV series, Sense8. Created by The Wachowskis (of The Matrix fame) and J. Michael Straczynski (the creator-writer of Babylon 5), it's a huge-budget, epic story following the lives of eight people living around the world whose lives inexplicably blend together in one moment, giving each access to the skills and knowledge of the others. Netflix will release all twelve episodes simultaneously on 5 June.

New JONATHAN STRANGE AND MR NORRELL trailer

The BBC has released a new trailer for its upcoming seven-episode adaptation of Susanna Clarke's novel, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.

The series is set to begin on BBC1 (in the UK) and BBC America in May, with a DVD and Blu-Ray release planned for August.The series stars Eddie Marsan as Mr. Norrell, the last practising magician in England. With the Napoleonic Wars in full swing, the British government calls upon Mr. Norrell's magical aid. Norrell is soon contacted by Jonathan Strange (Bertie Carvel), a young, up-and-coming magician who wants to learn from Norrell. However, their relationship soon sours. In the meantime, the mysterious Gentleman with Thistledown Hair (Marc Warren) is inadvertently summoned to England and takes an unhealthy interest in events.

The novel was originally published in 2004 and was a massive best-seller on both sides of the Atlantic. Clarke published a related short story collection, The Ladies of Grace Adieu, in 2006 and has occasionally hinted that she is working on another novel in the same universe.

Teaser preview for the JONATHAN STRANGE AND MR. NORRELL TV series

The BBC have released a brief teaser for their forthcoming Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell TV series.

Set at the beginning of the 19^th-century, England no longer believes in practical magic. The reclusive Mr Norrell (Marsan) of Hurtfew Abbey stuns the city of York when he causes the statues of York Cathedral to speak and move. With a little persuasion and help from his man of business Childermass (Enzo Cilenti), he goes to London to help the government in the war against Napoleon. It is there Norrell summons a fairy (Warren) to bring Lady Pole (Englert) back from the dead, opening a whole can of worms…

 
The seven-part series is expected to air on the BBC (in the UK) and BBC America (in the States) in early 2015, possibly starting before the end of January.

BBC releases first image for JONATHAN STRANGE AND MR. NORRELL

The BBC has released its first promotional image and blurb for its upcoming mini-series adaptation of Susanna Clarke's 2004 novel Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.

BBC AMERICA's new original drama series, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, is based on The New York Times bestselling novel by Susanna Clarke and adapted by Peter Harness (Wallander, Is Anybody There?). 

The seven-part series stars Eddie Marsan (Best of Men, Ray Donovan, Filth) and Olivier award-winning Bertie Carvel (Restless, Hidden, Matilda) who take on the magical roles of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Further casting includes Alice Englert (Ginger & Rosa, Beautiful Creatures), Marc Warren (Hustle, Mad Dogs, The Musketeers), Samuel West (Mr Selfridge, Fleming), and Charlotte Riley (Wuthering Heights, Easy Virtue).

Set at the beginning of the 19th Century, England no longer believes in practical magic. The reclusive Mr Norrell (Marsan) of Hurtfew Abbey stuns the city of York when he causes the statues of York Cathedral to speak and move. With a little persuasion and help from his man of business Childermass (Enzo Cilenti), he goes to London to help the government in the war against Napoleon. It is there Norrell summons a fairy (Warren) to bring Lady Pole (Englert) back from the dead, opening a whole can of worms…

The series is produced by Cuba Pictures for BBC One and co-produced with BBC AMERICA, in association with Feel Films, Far Moor, Screen Yorkshire and Bell Media's SPACE. It is distributed by Endemol Worldwide Distribution.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell will premiere on BBC AMERICA in 2015.

An airdate for the series in the UK has not yet been given, but apparently it should also be early 2015, possibly as early as January.

Update on JONATHAN STRANGE AND MR. NORRELL TV series

The Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell TV mini-series enters production in a month or so, and has now announced the casting of its two main stars.

Bertie Carvel is noted actor on stage and in musicals. He has won the Olivier Award and been nominated for a Tony Award. On TV he has appeared in Doctor Who, Sherlock and the John Adams mini-series for HBO. He will be playing Jonathan Strange, Mr. Norrell's student in magic who soon becomes a powerful magician in his own right after a falling-out with his former mentor.

Eddie Marsan is a veteran British actor of stage and screen. He most recently appeared in The World's End alongside Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Prior to that he was the main villain in Will Smith vehicle Hancock and had a supporting role as Inspector Lestrade as Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes movies. He has also appeared in Gangs of New York, Mission: Impossible III and V For Vendetta. He will be playing Mr. Norrell, the only working magician in Britain. He takes Jonathan Strange under his wing and then both are called upon to help Britain's ongoing war with Napoleon.

The BBC's adaptation of Susanna Clarke's novel will be filmed in Leeds, Montreal and Venice, and should air before the end of 2014. It will consist of seven hour-long episodes.

JONATHAN STRANGE AND MR. NORRELL TV series on the way

The BBC has commissioned a six-part TV mini-series based on Susanna Clarke's highly successful 2004 novel, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. The novel is set in an alternate-history England during the Napoleonic Wars and features two magicians who are employed by the government to help defeat France, but soon fall to bickering between them. There is huge number of other characters and subplots, some of which I imagine will be dropped or reduced for the TV show.

Peter Harness (Wallander, City of Vice) is writing, whilst Toby Haynes (Sherlock, Doctor Who, Being Human, Wallander) is directing. The series is expected to go into production in 2013 for transmission in 2014.

There has been no recent word on the progress on the Jonathan Strange sequel. Clarke took a decade to write the first book, and it looks like the sequel will take just as long to appear.

The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke

Susanna Clarke's much-acclaimed 2004 novel Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell explored a world in which real English history and fairy folklore are deeply entwined, where magicians aided in the war against Napoleon and fairy lords intervened in mortal affairs to no good end. Since Clarke took ten years to write the novel, a sequel or follow-up was probably not going to appear soon, so author and publishers chose to release a collection of short stories as a stop-gap in 2006.


The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories collects together eight short stories, all of them previously available (apart from the last one) and most of them set in the same alternate reality as Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (though one, 'The Duke of Wellington Misplaces His Horse', actually takes place in the setting of Neil Gaiman's novel Stardust). For the most part the writing style is similar to that of the more celebrated novel, a mixture of whimsy and more serious themes played out with a writing style reminiscent of Victorian literature at its most elaborate although, thankfully, not its most verbose.

The opening and titular story is about three women in a Gloucestershire village who meet Jonathan Strange. It was Clarke's first published story (appearing eight years before the novel) and is impressive in its confidence. In the novel, female characters were on the sidelines, but here take centre stage, to Strange's amusing befuddlement. There's some subtle characterisation and some interesting inversions of both 19th Century novels and fantasy books in general (particularly their treatment of women) and it's all extremely readable. 'On Lickerish Hill' entertains but is less successful, being a rather straightforward rewrite of a classic children's character for no real gain. 'Mrs. Mabb' returns to the theme of the role of women in Victorian literature, playing around with the stereotypical depiction of abused or suffering women as hysterical wretches, and is one of the more successful stories in the collection.

'The Duke of Wellington Misplaces His Horse' is fairly predictable, and its use of the Wall setting from Stardust feels unnecessary. 'Mr. Simonelli' is probably the highlight of the collection, featuring the titular character falling afoul of a fairy relative and having to save the five Gathercole sisters from the fairy's dubious carnal interests. The way the protagonists spar over high stakes whilst maintaining a polite and pleasant level of discourse recalls Jack Vance at his most creative. 'Tom Brightwind' is also amusing, featuring as it does a fairy/human double-act about whom more adventures could be told. 'Antickes and Frets' features Mary, Queen of Scots attempting to utilise magic to bring down her rival Elizabeth I from inside prison, to mixed results, and is one of the slighter stories in the book. Things conclude with 'John Uskglass', in which the titular, ultra-powerful character is brought low by a peasant (albeit one backed up by the firepower of some annoyed saints), which again amuses but little more.

As a collection, The Ladies of Grace Adieu manages the tricky feat of retaining a common prose style (which it also shares with the novel) whilst injecting a variety of tone. Some of the stories are darker and more grim than others, whilst some are comedic or satirical. Clarke proves adept at using these different tones and creating interesting characters (none moreso than the Brightwind/Montefiore duo) and situations. A particular success here is pacing. Whilst Jonathan Strange was a five-star, 600-page masterpiece undone by being 950 pages long and featuring a long, agonisingly drawn-out ending that sapped the book of much of its narrative vigour, this collection is understated and concise, knowing when to end the story and move on. Whilst the stories cannot hope to match the epic scope and depth of the novel, they also reject some of its more obvious flaws, and show that Clarke is a skilled and interesting author (and, hopefully, one who is not too many more years away from unveiling her next full novel).

The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories (****) is a fine companion-piece to Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, though it does not drift too far away from its setting or tone. It is available now in the UK and USA.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

Released in 2004, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell was a huge success for its author, who had spent ten years writing the novel. It sat on the bestseller lists for quite some time, was hugely promoted (for over a year I couldn't go into either of my local Waterstones without seeing the book everywhere) and won both the 2005 Hugo Award and World Fantasy Awardfor Best Novel. Unusually for a self-proclaimed fantasy novel, it was also longlisted for the 2005 Booker Prize (which normally prefers authors who refuse to admit their novels are SF or fantasy, such as Margaret Atwood). Time Magazine also named it the best novel of 2004.

The book opens in the early 19th Century. Britain used to be a centre of magical prowess and for three hundred years a powerful magician ruled a magical kingdom in the north (based around Newcastle) before disappearing, but in recent centuries magic has faded out of view and become purely a theoretical science. A theoretical magician, John Segundus, discovers a 'real' magician named Mr. Gilbert Norrell and reluctantly convinces him to make his magical prowess known to the public at large. At first resistant to the idea, Norrell soon changes his mind and finds himself the toast of London society and is greatly valued by the King and Parliament for the magical aid he gives in the war against Napoleon. However, Norrell's profile is soon upstaged by the emergence of a new magician, the young and handsome Jonathan Strange. Norrell sees Strange as headstrong and dangerous, whilst Strange thinks Norrell is controlling and old-fashioned. As their feud escalates across the years, a lord of faerie, known only as the 'gentleman with thistledown hair', returns to Earth and sets in motion a number of villainous plans that ensnares a beautiful young woman and a black servant of kingly countenance.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is a terrific and major accomplishment in fantasy writing: the recreation of a 19th Century novel as if it was written by Dickens or Austen with magic merely part of the backdrop. It is a rich book dripping in atmosphere and, at times, humour that is reminiscent of Jack Vance but fits in with the time period. The core of the plot - the rivalry between the two magicians - is simple, but the details that embellish it make it far more complex and involving. The book is accompanied by intriguing and amusing footnotes and some excellent Victorian-esque illustrations by Portia Rosenberg.

Indeed, for much of its considerable length the book looks like it's going to walk off with top marks. Unfortunately, it hits a snag about two-thirds of the way into the volume that threatens to unbalance the whole enterprise. Having already channelled Dickens and Austen with the merest dash of Tolstoy in the short battle sequences, Clarke seems to have decided that what the book really needed was some kind of extended European adventure in which our main characters are put through hell and back, suffering illnesses and bouts of insanity, almost as if she wanted to put Strange through a Byron or Keats-esque nightmarish wringer for the sheer hell of it. And it seems to go on forever. If I hadn't been on holiday at the time with this as the only book to hand, I question whether I could have gotten through it. The book does recover somewhat towards the end, with an intriguing reapproachment between Strange and Norrell that unfolds in a totally unexpected way with a somewhat appropriate ending, but the unexpected, extended interlude of misery into a story enlivened by its earlier, lighter moments is a jarring tonal shift that makes it difficult to recommend the book unreservedly.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell (***½) is a book that very nearly achieves greatness through is rich character-building, its lavish descriptions and lively humour, but is let down by an unnecessarily long and drawn out latter third. If you can bear with it, the novel does ultimately end with a fitting conclusion, but it's possible you may lose interest before that point.

The novel is published by Bloomsbury in the United Kingdom and by Tor in the USA. A short story collection expanding on characters from the novel, The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories, was released in 2006. Clarke is currently working on a sequel to the novel.