蘇珊娜·剋拉剋 生於1959年．是英國諾丁漢郡一位教士的女兒．童年時代在英格蘭北部和蘇格蘭的許多小鎮都生活過。畢業於牛津大學聖希爾達學院，先後從事過教師和圖書編輯工作，現居英國劍橋。2005年，《大魔法師》榮獲素有“書界奧斯卡”之稱的英國圖書奬的兩個專項奬。蘇珊娜·剋拉剋亦藉此書捧得“最佳新人”奬。

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Black version of the 1st hardcover edition.

Author Susanna Clarke

Country United States

Language English

Genre(s) Alternate history, Fantasy

Publisher Bloomsbury USA

Publication date September 8, 2004

Media type Print (Hardcover & Paperback)

Pages 800 pp

ISBN ISBN 1-58234-416-7

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is the award-winning debut novel by British writer Susanna Clarke. It was first published in America on 8 September 2004 and then in Britain on 20 September 2004 by Bloomsbury.

The book is set in an alternate 19th-century Britain, during the Napoleonic Wars. The story is based on the premise of magic returning to England after hundreds of years of desuetude, and the tumultuous relationship between two fictional magicians of the time. The story incorporates historical events and people into its fictional alternate reality. Historical figures encountered in the novel include the Duke of Wellington, Lord Byron and King George III. The novel, written in a pastiche of Jane Austen's literary style, uses quasi-archaic spelling for several words (such as shew, chuse, sopha, scissars, headach, and surprize).

The book is interspersed with hundreds of fictional footnotes which reference a number of fictional books including magical scholarship and biographies, and which provide a detailed backstory. Many pages of the book contain more footnote text than main body text. The book features several illustrations by Portia Rosenberg.