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a745692
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Lascelles threw himself into the carriage, snorting with laughter and saying that he had never in his life heard of anything so ridiculous and comparing their snug drive through the London streets in Mr. Norrell's carriage to ancient French and Italian fables where fools set sail in milk-pails to fetch the moon's reflection from the bottom of a duckpond...
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Susanna Clarke |
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f000b27
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Then Mr. Norrell roused himself and took down five or six books in a great hurry and opened them up - presumably searching out those passages which were full of advice for magicians who wished to awaken dead young ladies.
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Susanna Clarke |
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fef9e74
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Mr. Lascelles whispered to Mr. Drawlight that he had not realized before that doing kind actions would lead to his being addressed in familiar terms by so many low people - it was most unpleasant - he would take care to do no more.
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Susanna Clarke |
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aa2ab0c
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Strange began to laugh. 'Well, Henry, you can cease frowning at me. If I am a magician, I am a very indifferent one. Other adepts summon up fairy-spirits and long-dead kings. I appear to have conjured the spirit of a banker.
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Susanna Clarke |
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cb50631
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Soldiers, I am sorry to say, steal everything." He thought for a moment and then added, "Or at least ours do." How" --
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Susanna Clarke |
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56edb89
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This is the genius of my enemy! Lock a door against him and all that happens is that he learns first how to pick a lock and second how to build a better one against you!
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Susanna Clarke |
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10e4361
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All of Man's works, all his cities, all his empires, all his monuments will one day crumble to dust. Even the houses of my own dear readers must - though it be for just one day, one hour - be ruined and become houses where the stones are mortared with moonlight, windowed with starlight and furnished with the dusty wind. It is said that in that day, in that hour, our houses become the possessions of the Raven King. Though we bewail the end o..
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Susanna Clarke |
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5acc296
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Did you ever look into an English novel? Well, do not trouble yourself. It is nothing but a lot of nonsense about girls with fanciful names getting married.
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Susanna Clarke |
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d8d1bf8
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That will teach me to meddle with magic meant for kings! Norrell is right. Some magic is not meant for ordinary magicians. Presumably John Uskglass knew what to do with this horrible knowledge. I do not.
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Susanna Clarke |
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9ba633a
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In the fish-market by the Grand Canal a fisherman sold Frank three mullet, but then almost neglected to take the money because his attention was given to the argument he was conducting with his neighbour as to whether the English magician had gone mad because he was a magician, or because he was English.
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Susanna Clarke |
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723cea2
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And being a man - and a clever one - and forty-two years old, he naturally had a great deal of information and a great many opinions upon almost every subject you care to mention, which he was eager to communicate to a lovely woman of nineteen - all of which, he thought, she could not fail but to find quite enthralling.
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Susanna Clarke |
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af2833e
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To sit and pass hour after hour in idle chatter with a roomful of strangers is to me the worst sort of torment
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Susanna Clarke |
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d9ed510
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Strange bent over these things, with a concentration to rival Minervois's own, questioning, criticizing and proposing. Strange and the two engravers spoke French to each other. To Strange's surprize Childermass understood perfectly and even addressed one or two questions to Minervois in his own language. Unfortunately, Childermass's French was so strongly accented by his native Yorkshire that Minervois did not understand and asked Strange i..
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humour
languages
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Susanna Clarke |
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0aed1ab
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Thaumatomane: a person possessed of a passion for magic and wonders, Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson.
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Susanna Clarke |
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baaaf38
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the more apparatus a magician carries about with him -- coloured powders, stuffed cats, magical hats and so forth -- the greater the fraud you will eventually discover him to be!
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Susanna Clarke |
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f7cdc56
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Oh," said the Duke of Wellington, not much interested, "they are still complaining about that, are they?"
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Susanna Clarke |
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de28a54
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My dear Lascelles," cried Drawlight, "what nonsense you talk! Upon my word, there is nothing in the world so easy to explain as failure - it is, after all, what every body does all the time."
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Susanna Clarke |
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18e160f
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They were gentleman-magicians, which is to say they had never harmed any one by magic - nor ever done any one the slightest good. In fact, to own the truth, not one of these magicians had ever cast the smallest spell, nor by magic caused one leaf to tremble upon a tree, made one mote of dust to alter its course or changed a single hair upon any one's head. But, with this one minor reservation, they enjoyed a reputation as some of the wisest..
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Susanna Clarke |
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7fd411a
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The President of the York society (whose name was Dr Foxcastle) turned to John Segundus and explained that the question was a wrong one. "It presupposes that magicians have some sort of duty to do magic - which is clearly nonsense. You would not, I imagine, suggest that it is the task of botanists to devise more flowers? Or that astronomers should labour to rearrange the stars? Magicians, Mr Segundus, study magic which was done long ago. Wh..
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Susanna Clarke |
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99705a9
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Whoever heard of cats doing anything useful!" "Except for staring at one in a supercilious manner," said Strange. "That has a sort of moral usefulness, I suppose, in making one feel uncomfortable and encouraging sober reflection upon one's imperfections."
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Susanna Clarke |
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91e5f12
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Then Childermass related to Mr Norrell what he had discovered about Drawlight: how he belonged to a certain breed of gentlemen, only to be met with in London, whose main occupation is the wearing of expensive and fashionable clothes; how they pass their lives in ostentatious idleness, gambling and drinking to excess and spending months at a time in Brighton and other fashionable watering places; how in recent years this breed seemed to have..
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drawlight
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Susanna Clarke |
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00f002a
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No, indeed!" she cried, all indignation. "I have no notion of asking people to perform services for me which I can do perfectly well for myself. I do not intend to go, in the space of one hour, from the helplessness of enchantment to another sort of helplessness!" pg. 761"
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Susanna Clarke |
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6ffa402
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Oh, Mr Norrell! Such a noodle I am upon occasion!
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Susanna Clarke |
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1d8d461
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She spoke the language of the Scottish Highlands (which is like singing).
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Susanna Clarke |
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ea70c7c
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In 1819 the proudest man in all of England was , without a doubt , the Duke of Wellington . This was not particularly surprising ; when a man has twice defeated the armies of the wicked French Emperor , Napoleon Bonaparte , it is only natural that he should have a rather high opinion of himself .
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napoleon-bonaparte
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Susanna Clarke |
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95b45d2
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Ha!" he thought. "That will teach me to meddle with magic meant for kings! Norrell is right. Some magic is not meant for ordinary magicians. Presumably John Uskglass knew what to do with this horrible knowledge. I do not. Should I tell someone? The Duke? He will not thank me for it."
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Susanna Clarke |
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bd672c3
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He thought he stood upon an English hillside. Rain was falling; it twisted in the air like grey ghosts. Rain fell upon him and he grew thin as rain. Rain washed away thought, washed away memory, all the good and the bad. He no longer knew his name. Everything was washed away like mud from a stone. Rain filled him up with thoughts and memories of its own. Silver lines of water covered the hillside, like intricate lace, like the veins of an a..
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Susanna Clarke |
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05404c1
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She took a step forward, and so did the unknown woman. Suddenly realization and relief came upon her in equal measures; "It is a mirror! Oh! How foolish! How foolish! To be afraid of my own reflection!" She was so relieved she almost laughed out loud, but then she paused; it had not been foolish to be frightened, not foolish at all; "
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Susanna Clarke |
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8f19da2
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After all," he thought, "what can a magician do against a lead ball? Between the pistol firing and his heart exploding, there is no time for magic."
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Susanna Clarke |
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8703b2f
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Mr Norrell, it is not the duty of the court - any court - to exalt one person's opinions above others! Not in magic nor in any other sphere of life. If other magicians think differently from you, then you must battle it out with them. You must prove the superiority of your opinions, as I do in politics. You must argue and publish and practise your magic and you must learn to live as I do - in the face of constant criticism, opposition and c..
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Susanna Clarke |
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c8ae34b
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Who was it that said a magician needs the subtlety of a Jesuit, the daring of a soldier and the wits of a thief? I believe it was meant for a insult, but it has some truth in it.
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Susanna Clarke |
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c2ab062
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But the veterans of the Peninsular War remarked approvingly that rain was always an Englishman's friend in times of war. They told their comrades: "There is nothing so comforting or familiar to us, you see - whereas other nations it baffles."
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Susanna Clarke |
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cb911a4
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Mr Robinson was a polished sort of person. He was so clean and healthy and pleased about everything that he positively shone - which is only to be expected in a fairy or an angel, but is somewhat disconcerting in an attorney.
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Susanna Clarke |
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b3154b5
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Bright yellow leaves flowed swiftly upon the dark, almost-black water, making patterns as they went. To Mr. Segundus the patterns looked a little like magical writing. 'But then,' he thought, 'So many things do.
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Susanna Clarke |
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9fd8f51
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The backs of their heads were hollowed out; their faces were nothing but thin masks at the front. Within each hollow a candle was burning. This was so plain to him now, that he wondered he had never noticed it before. He imagined what would happen if he went down into the street and blew some of the candles out. It made him laugh to think of it. He laughed so much that he could no longer stand. His laughter echoed round and round the house...
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Susanna Clarke |
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932290d
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I hope you will write occasionally? Some token of your impressions?" "Oh! I shall not spare you. It is the right of a traveller to vent their frustration at every minor inconvenience by writing of it to their friends. Expect long descriptions of everything."
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Susanna Clarke |
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4f211b8
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Other countries have stories of kings who will return at times of great need. Only in England is it part of the constitution.
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Susanna Clarke |
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bdb72b7
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the more apparatus a magician carries about with him - coloured powders, stuffed cats, magical hats and so forth - the greater the fraud you will eventually discover him to be!" And what, inquired Mr Horrocks politely, were the few tools that a magician did require? "Why! Nothing really," said Mr Norrell. "Nothing but a silver basin for seeing visions in."
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Susanna Clarke |
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42479e1
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I hope there may be bogs and that John McKenzie may drown in them.
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Susanna Clarke |
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018f62d
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Believe me when I tell you that ten, twenty, even fifty years of silence is worth the satisfaction of knowing at the end that you have said what you ought - no more, no less.
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Susanna Clarke |
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92b0885
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More than one soldier wondered if, at last, the French had found a magician of their own; the French infantrymen appeared much taller than ordinary men and the light in their eyes as they drew closer burnt with an almost supernatural fury. But this was only the magic of Napoleon Buonaparte, who knew better than any one how to dress his soldiers so they would terrify the enemy, and how to deploy them so that any onlooker would think them ind..
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Susanna Clarke |
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91875ad
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Fairies do not make a strong distinction between the animate and the inanimate. They believe that stones, doors, trees, fire, clouds and so forth all have souls and desires, and are either masculine or feminine. Perhaps this explains the extraordinary sympathy for madness which fairies exhibit. For example, it used to be well known that when fairies hid themselves from general sight, lunatics were often able to perceive them. The
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Susanna Clarke |
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2468dfe
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Some years ago there was in the city of York a society of magicians.
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Susanna Clarke |
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603c635
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Let us see," said Saint Oswald. "A man in black clothes, with powerful magic and ravens at his command, and the hunting rights of a king. This suggests nothing to you? No apparently it does not. Well, it so happens that I think I know the person you mean. He is indeed very arrogant and perhaps the time has come to humble him a little. If I understand you aright, you are angry because he does not speak to you?" "Yes." "Well then, I believe I..
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Susanna Clarke |