Jonathan Strange &. Mr Norrell is the first novel by British writer Susanna Clarke. An alternate history set in lQ^-century England during the Napoleonic Wars, it is based on the premise that magic once existed in England and has returned with two men: Gilbert Norrell and Jonathan Strange. Centering on the relationship between these two men, the novel investigates the nature of “English-ness” and the boundary between reason and madness. It has been described as a fantasy novel, an alternate history, and an historical novel.
《大魔法师》是英国女作家苏珊娜?克拉克的处女作。这是一部架空历史小说,背景设在19世 纪初拿破仑战争时代的英格兰。在书中的世界里，曾经一度盛行魔法的英格兰却找不到真正会魔 法的人,是两名男子使縻法回归了。这两人就是吉尔伯特_诺雷尔和乔纳森?斯特兰奇。故事围绕这两位主人公的关系，深入挖掘了“英伦文化”的本质以及理性与疯狂 之间的边界。这部小说既可以归为奇幻文学，也可归为架空历史小说 或历史小说。
The narrative draws on various Romantic literary traditions, such as the satire, the Gothic tale, and the Byronic hero. The novel’s language is a pastiche of 19th-century writing styles, such as those of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens. Clarke describes the supernatural with mundane details and combines arch wit with antiquarian quaintness. She supplements the text with almost 200 footnotes, outlining the back story and an entire fictional corpus of magical scholarship.
小说运用了多种浪漫主义写作传统,如讽剌幽默、哥特风格和拜 伦式英雄。语言则是对19世纪文风的模仿，读起来类似简奥斯丁和 査尔斯?狄更斯的作品。克拉克详细地描述了超自然的魔法，将顶级 的幽默智慧融人古老的奇闻轶事当中。为了让背景故事和完全虚构 的魔法学科真实可信,她在正文下面加人近200条脚注。
Clarke began writing Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell in 1993; ten years later she submitted the manuscript for publication. It was accepted by Bloomsbury and published in September 2004, with illustrations by Portia Rosenberg. Bloomsbury was so sure of its success that they printed 250,000 hardcover copies. The novel was well-received by critics and reached number three on the New York Times bestseller list. It won the 2005 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
克拉克开始创作《大魔法师》是在1993年，10年后才交稿出版。 2004年9月，小说由布鲁姆斯巴瑞出版社出版。波提亚?罗森伯格 绘制插图。《大魔法师》出版后大受批评家的赞赏，位列《纽约时报》 畅销书榜第三名，继而又获雨果2005年度最佳小说奖。
Clarke first developed the idea for Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell during a year spent teaching English in Bilbao, Spain: “I had a kind of waking dream... about a man in 18th century clothes in a place rather like Venice, talking to some English tourists. And I felt strongly that he had some sort of magical background—he，d been dabbling in magic, and something had gone badly wrong.” She had also recently reread J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and afterwards was inspired to “trying writing a novel of magic and fantasy”.
创作《大魔法师》的想法最早出现在克拉克在西班牙毕尔巴鄂 教英语的那一年我走了神，脑中浮现出一个穿着18世纪服饰的 男子在一个很像威尼斯的地方,和一群英国游客交谈。而且我强烈 地感觉这个人应该有点魔法背景——他涉足许多种魔法，其中一些 他失败了。”有了这个想法，她重读了J ? R ? R ?托尔金的《魔戒》，然后受到启发，自己也“试着写一部关于魔法和奇幻故事的小说”。
After she returned from Spain in 1993, Clarke began to think seriously about writing her novel. She signed up for a five-day fantasy and science-fiction writing workshop, co-taught by writers Colin Greenland and Geoff Ryman. The students were expected to prepare a short story before attending, but Clarke only had “bundles” of material for her novel. From this she extracted “The Ladies of Grace Adieu，' a story about three women secretly practicing magic who are discovered by the famous Jonathan Strange. Greenland was so impressed with the story that, without Clarke’s knowledge, he sent an excerpt to his friend, the fantasy writer Neil Gaiman who later said, “It was terrifying from my point of view to read this first short story that had so much assurance...It was like watching someone sit down to play the piano for the first time and she plays a sonata.” Gaiman showed the story to his friend, science-fiction writer Patrick Nielsen Hayden. Clarke learned of these events when Hayden called and offered to publish
her story in his anthology Starlight 1，which featured pieces by well-regarded science-fiction and fantasy writers. She accepted, and the book won the World Fantasy Award for best anthology in 1997.
她于1993年从西班牙回到英国，开始认真地考虑写这部小说。 她加人了一个5天的培训课程学习写作奇幻和科幻小说,老师是作 家科林?格陵兰和杰奥夫■雷曼。上课前,学生都要先写好一篇小故事，可是那时克拉克脑中只有《大魔法师》中一些细节资料。她从这些细节中精选组合创作成了 《格蕾丝?阿迪奥的淑女们》。这篇小故事讲的是三位秘密使用魔法的女子被著名的斯特兰奇发现 的故事。格陵兰被这个故事深深吸引，在没通知克拉克的情况下把这篇小故事送给奇幻作家一 他的好友内尔?盖曼阅读。盖曼后来说道：“从我的角度来讲,看到一个第一次写短篇小说就写得 如此之好的人实在是可怕。就像看到一个第一次弹钢琴的人弹出奏鸣曲一样。”盖曼又把小说给他 的好友一科幻小说作家帕特里克?内尔森?海登看。当海登打电话给克拉克说有意把这篇短篇 出版在小说选集《星光一》时,克拉克才知道自己的故事已经传了那么远。《星光一》集合了一流的 科幻、奇幻小说作家的作品。最后克拉克同意出版这篇小故事。小说集获得了世界奇幻文学1997年 度最佳小说集奖。
Clarke spent the next ten years working on the novel in her spare time, while editing cookbooks full-time for Simon & Schuster in Cambridge. Clarke tried to write for three hours each day, beginning at 5:30 am, but struggled to keep this schedule. Rather than writing the novel from beginning to end, she wrote in fragments and attempted to stitch them together. Early 2003 she handed her story to Bloomsbury. It was so sure the novel would be a success that they offered Clarke a ￡ 1,000,000 in advance.
接下来的10年中，克拉克在剑桥的西蒙与舒斯特尔出版社做全职美食类书籍的编辑工作,只 有挤休息时间创作《大魔法师》。她计划每天写3个小时，从早上5点半开始,但是这个计划坚持起来 十分不易。她并不是依次从头写到尾，而是写成一个个片段,最后连在一起。2003年初她将稿子交 给了布鲁姆斯巴瑞出版社。出版社十分确定这部书会大卖特卖，因此预先支付了克拉克100万英镑 作为稿费。
An alternate history, fantasy, Gothic story in 19th-century-English-writer5s style with Byronic heroes and a lot of magic... That is exactly what the readers are searching for. No wonder the book tops the best-seller lists for so long.
这是一个将历史架空的奇幻故事，带有哥特风格，有拜伦式的英雄,透露出19世纪经典作家的 文风……这些都是读者们感兴趣的东西，这样的小说不热卖才怪。