Monday 6 July 2015

Film adaptation - Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

It's been years since I read Susanna Clarke's novel, but I remember being inseparable from it when I did. This 7-part BBC adaptation is a fantastic transition from book to screen, and I thoroughly recommend it to fans of the novel.

At a total of 7 hour-long episodes, it's long enough that nothing felt omitted, and every major character is (in my opinion) very well cast. Bertie Carvel makes a delightfully eccentric gentleman-magician, Eddie Marsan a convincing pedantic academic, and Marc Warren a wonderfully sinister Faerie King, to name only a few.

This adaptation perfectly captures the atmosphere of the original novel, with the sharp contrast between the stiff, mannered Georgian England and the fascinatingly grotesque faerie world of Lost Hope. Every scene looks beautiful, and the series as a whole feels like an intriguing cross between Jane Eyre's country houses and moorland and a particularly noir Alice in Wonderland.

A faithful and gripping adaptation of one of my (many) favourite novels. Watch it if you get the chance!

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