Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell/Susanna Clarke/782 pp.

Mr. Norrell is the only practicing true magician in pre-Victorian England. We're not talking about side-show hucksters and scam artists, but true magicians. Sure, there are quite a few theoretical magicians, scholarly types who have studied the history of magic in England but, as gentlemen, would never dream of actually performing magic. And that's just how Mr. Norrell likes things. When young Jonathan Strange has the audacity to begin performing magic, Mr. Norrell has two choices - remove Strange as a threat, or take him on as an apprentice. He chooses the latter, and that decision ushers in a new age of English magic. The Duke of Wellington uses Strange to defeat Napoleon at Waterloo, which causes a rift between Norrell and Strange, but they eventually join forces to defeat a powerful faerie magician who wants to destroy George III and replace him with a cabinet minister's butler.