Literary Lilacs

Love in The Time of Ravens

"One day," he said, "I shall find the right spell and banish the Darkness. 

And on that day I will come to you."

                                                                                   ~ Jonathan Strange  to his wife Arabella

  In Susanna Clark's engaging book Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, we feel loss, longing, and bittersweet sadness when Jonathan Strange is parted from his wife Arabella—she in nineteenth-century Venice and he in some sort of magical parallel world "beyond the sky, on the other side of the rain." 1

   This scene was rendered even more heart-achingly beautiful by Bertie Carvel and Charlotte Riley, the actors who brought Jonathan and Arabella to life in the lyrical seven-part BBC television production. Throughout the story about two magicians who bring magic back to England after it hadn't been practiced for more than 300 years, we learn that Strange's love for Arabella drives all his actions and decisions—from becoming a magician, to aiding the British army during the Napoleanic wars, and to journeying into his own inner heart of darkness to rescue her from her fairy captor. Strange—who is an intuitive, creative magician embodying the wild spirit of Romanticism—embraces the magic of the great medieval magician, the Raven King, to transport his wife back to the human world. 

  To perform this ancient magic, he needs to enlist the help of his mentor Gilbert Norrell, with whom he had a falling out over the practice of magic. Norrell—who takes a more measured and rational approach to magic in keeping with the principles of scientific inquiry during the Age of Englightenment—has extensive knowledge of magic and magical history that could assist Strange in his endeavor. Norrell, who is played by Eddie Marsan, eventually realizes that he must help Strange. Besides aiding in the recovery of his former pupil's wife, Norrell has to join forces with Strange in order to save England from becoming engulfed in the darkness of the fairy lands which he originally was responsible for unleashing onto the mortal world. Both he and Strange work together to save Arabella and England but at a great price: they are trapped in the magical darkness. Will they ever make it home? Norrell back to his library (with his beloved books restored) and Strange back to the love of his life? We don't know, and that is what makes the ending of the story so bittersweet.