Sorcerer to the Crown
Zen Cho
Set in Regency England's stuffy magical establishment, it shares Clarke's comedy of manners and thaumaturgical politics, while questioning who is allowed to practise magic at all.
11 books to read next
Books Like Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
If you loved Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Readers love Susanna Clarke's novel for its patient, immersive world: an alternate Regency England where magic has faded into scholarship until two very different magicians revive it. The voice is dry, witty and Austen-like, full of footnotes, invented histories and social comedy, while beneath runs an eerie strain of English folklore and the menace of Faerie. It is long and slow-building, rewarding readers who enjoy period detail, rivalry between brilliant men, and magic that feels ancient, bookish and dangerous.
Magic in period England
The Prestige
Christopher Priest
A bitter rivalry between two Victorian stage magicians, told through journals and documents, echoes the obsessive Strange and Norrell partnership with a darker, unsettling edge.
Shades of Milk and Honey
Mary Robinette Kowal
An openly Austen-inspired novel where drawing-room accomplishments include glamour magic, ideal if you loved the Regency manners side of Clarke's book in a shorter form.
The eerie lure of Faerie
Lud-in-the-mist
Hope Mirrlees
A classic Clarke herself admires: a prim town that has outlawed fairy fruit, written with the same wry humour and creeping strangeness as the gentleman with the thistle-down hair.
Stardust
Neil Gaiman
A young man crosses the wall from an English village into Faerie, a fairy tale with the same old-fashioned storytelling charm and casual cruelty of the fey.
Little, Big
John Crowley, John Crowley
A sprawling family saga entwined with a hidden fairy world, as dreamy, digressive and literary as Clarke's novel, and just as rewarding for patient readers.
More from Clarke's world
Piranesi
Susanna Clarke
A much shorter, hauntingly strange novel about a man living in an endless house of statues, showing Clarke's gift for wonder and quiet mystery in a new form.
The Once and Future King
T. H. White
A witty, melancholy retelling of Arthurian legend that blends English myth with humour and learning, much as Clarke weaves the Raven King into history.
Big, learned historical fantasy
The Night Circus
Erin Morgenstern
Two magicians bound into a long contest, rich atmosphere and a slow, enchanting pace will appeal to readers who loved the rivalry and spectacle of Clarke's magic.
Babel
R. F. Kuang, Michel Pagel
An alternate nineteenth-century Oxford where magic comes from scholarship and translation, offering footnotes, academic detail and sharp questions about power and empire.
Golem and the Jinni
Helene Wecker
A leisurely, richly detailed historical fantasy set in 1899 New York, with folklore creatures navigating human society in a way that recalls Clarke's grounded magic.
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