Fix-Fic: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell · 5:01am Dec 24th, 2015
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell was a 2004 fantasy novel by Susanna Clarke, occupying a proud position between Tolkien and Baum in my bookshelves. In terms of plot, it is an alternate history novel set in England in the early Nineteenth Century, where magic suddenly reappears in the mundane world in the form of the two rival magicians named in the title. Mr. Norrell was a thoroughly Eighteenth Century type of stuffy antiquarian, while Jonathan Strange was a typically tortured hero out of the pages of Lord Byron. The joy in reading the book came from how the text would morph from one style to another to match the characters and actions—Norrell’s text was studded with footnotes frequently more fascinating than the text it was annotating, while Strange’s sections veered from Jane Austin pastiche to even resembling Sharpe or similar stories when the setting moves to the Napoleonic Wars. The truly subversive value of the story only dawns on the reader with time, as it becomes obvious that true center of the story is not with these two magicians, or the white male society they operate in, but rather the actions of two women and one ex-slave to overthrow the authority of an invisible threat that can only be seen—outside of those who he wants to see him—by the clinically insane. If I have any fault with the book, it is with the casual racism that assumes that of all the peoples of the earth, only the English have legends of magic and magical creatures that are actually true. But the story is very tightly centered on England and English men and women, so this really doesn’t come up too much. Oh, and Flora is a completely useless author-insert. But everybody knows that.
I always knew that this story would be converted into a BBC miniseries someday. A miniseries, because at 782 pages of very tiny print, there was no other way to adapt it, and a BBC miniseries because the BBC can do Austin/Sharpe pastiches in their sleep. That miniseries came out this past summer, although it took me until a month ago to discover it and buy the DVD set sight unseen. A particular attraction of the miniseries is that it was written by Peter Harness, one of the front-runners to replace Steven Moffat whenever he steps down as showrunner of Doctor Who.
I notice they managed to get the crow in there.
I found Harness’ adaptation to by and large do an excellent job of condensing an immense work into something suitable for television watching. The number of characters was reduced, and the ones that were left were made memorable enough so that even when one was off-screen for several episodes, they were instantly recognizable when they made their re-appearance. Ultimately, I had only two complaints about the miniseries: the treatment of Mr. Norrell, and the ending.
Mr. Norrell ending up as an unambiguous villain was pretty much inevitable in any visual adaption of this story. He’s an academic who holds most of humanity in contempt in the abstract because of his intellectual superiority, but this was actually supposed to be a mask for somebody who had no idea how to interact with living, breathing people. The novel, with all of its intricately-written letters and footnotes, let Norrell speak for himself, and therefore gain some small measure of sympathy despite his cowardly and rather despicable actions against Jonathan Strange. In a lesser manner, the book was careful to show the dangers of someone as spontaneous as Jonathan Strange, somebody liable to leave a trail of disasters and heart-felt but ultimately useless apologies behind him wherever he went. On the screen, of course, he managed to charm everyone, including the audience.
The ending is where I have a more significant complaint. The story ends with the two magicians’ feud giving the evil Gentleman with the Thistledown Hair the opportunity to get rid of both of them once and for all, but in the final confrontation the Gentleman too is defeated, the subplots of Arabella, Emma and Steven Black are gloriously resolved, and while Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell disappear into a mysterious realm of magic, never to be seen again, the power of magic is liberated to become the common property of all England. The miniseries does most of this, but at the last moment it chickens out—Emma becomes an independent woman, but the newly-rescued Arabella is left to pine for her lost husband, and the second-tier characters of Childermass and Vinculus deliver the world’s only magic book...to the very pompous Northern gentlemen with which this story began. This is despite the fact that the miniseries managed to unearth a link to the Luddite movement that I hadn’t noticed in the original novel—the workers of Northern England who in our reality were smashing machines to protest the Industrial Revolution became a spontaneous army marching for the mythical Raven King that brought to mind similar marches for Henry Bolingbroke and Edward York that ended up making both men into kings of England (and, by contrast, the failed march of Charles Edward Stuart in 1745).
The key scene in fixing the ending of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell was a conversation in Harness’ script between Norrell’s scheming servant Childermass and Strange. Childermass acknowledged that his master was in the wrong, but also emphasized that a future of magic where it was a tool for good and not evil depended on a constant disagreement as to its use: like the English parliamentary system, there must always be at least two magicians in England. With this in mind, Childermass swore that if Norrell ended up defeating Strange, then he would take up Strange’s cause against his master. And, if Strange managed to defeat Norrell, then he could depend on facing Childermass immediately afterwards.
Anyway, here’s my re-written ending for the final episode of the miniseries, written in screenplay format (which is really hard to do in BBCode, let me tell you). Text in gray was added by me, and text in strikethrough was in the original source, but is being removed to make way for my additions:
________________________Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Episode 7
X. The End of Two Magicians____________
____________FADE IN:
____________INT. HURTFEW LIBRARY - NIGHT
____________JONATHAN and NORELL congratulate each other as pages swirl around them.
____________________________________JONATHAN
________________________You are a great magician, Mr.
________________________Norrell.
____________________________________NORRELL
________________________And you are my friend.
____________________________________JONATHAN
________________________Goodbye, sir.
____________________________________NORRELL
________________________Goodbye.
____________JONATHAN attempts to use his magic to leave, but instead both magicians
____________are ATTACKED by magic, causing them to SCREAM.
____________________________________JONATHAN
________________________We are trapped!
____________________________________NORRELL
________________________We are still in the Darkness!
____________________________________JONATHAN
________________________He is dead. His spell cannot outlive
________________________him!
____________________________________NORRELL
________________________I do not know.
____________________________________JONATHAN
________________________Can it?
____________________________________NORRELL
________________________We know so little about this magic.
________________________We are . . .
____________________________________JONATHAN
________________________I cannot die here.
____________________________________NORRELL
________________________We are but men.
____________The DARKNESS closes in around them, causing them to both CRY out in
____________pain.
____________________________________NORRELL
________________________Mr. Strange.
____________________________________JONATHAN
______________________________(weakly)
________________________I've been under this spell for too
________________________long.
____________________________________NORRELL
________________________Mr. Strange.
______________________________(beat)
________________________Jonathan.
______________________________(beat)
________________________Jonathan . . . my friend. I will not
________________________leave you, Jonathan. Do not be
________________________afraid. Look at me.
____________JONATHAN LOOKS.
____________________________________NORRELL
________________________See . . . I am not afraid.
____________________________________JONATHAN
______________________________(beat)
________________________I am not afraid.
____________Around them, glass shatters and masonry crumbles.
________________________________________________________________________CUT TO:
X1. Forecasts____________
____________EXT. YORKSHIRE COUNTRYSIDE - DAY
____________CHILDERMASS and VINCULUS ride up to the BLACK TOWER on horseback just as
____________it DISSOLVES into nothingness.
____________________________________CHILDERMASS
________________________We are too late. They've gone.
____________________________________VINCULUS
________________________Do you still not understand, Jon
________________________Childermass? They are the spell.
________________________They are the spell the Raven King
________________________has spun and that is all they have
________________________ever been. He is spinning it now.
____________________________________CHILDERMASS
________________________A spell spun out of what fabric? Did
________________________you not tell me that Steven Black
________________________has the whole of English magic, and
________________________that he is now in the Fairy Realms?
____________________________________VINCULUS
______________________________(shrugs)
________________________That was not in my book. I suppose
________________________it is up to the slave, then. He
________________________could keep the magic, making England
________________________just like every other magickless
________________________country. Or he could try to make
________________________things as they were. But I think he
________________________will lean towards the plans of his
________________________fellow Nameless King.
____________________________________CHILDERMASS
________________________And that would be . . . ?
____________VINCULUS puts a finger to his lips and smiles.
____________RUINS OF LOST HOPE
____________A dull glow begins to grow from within the rubble.
________________________________________________________________________FADE OUT
X2. A Severing of the Social Contract____________
____________FADE IN:
____________INT. POLE DINING ROOM - DAY
____________POLE and EMMA sit opposite each other at the end of a long breakfast
____________table. He is eating; she is not.
____________________________________POLE
________________________Wellington's the man, they say.
____________He looks up from his breakfast, but fails to get a reaction from EMMA.
____________________________________POLE
________________________To be Prime Minister. He has the
________________________taint of magic on him, to be sure,
________________________but . . .
______________________________(beat)
________________________Tell me, do you still enjoy dancing?
________________________We could go back into society.
________________________Perhaps I could become a
________________________philanthropist . . . ?
____________________________________EMMA
______________________________(stands)
________________________I am going to the Continent, Sir
________________________Walter, to help my friend from
________________________making a horrible mistake. I do not
________________________intend to live here again.
____________She stares at him, daring him to respond. He wilts in response.
____________________________________EMMA
________________________I will not go from one kind of
________________________helplessness to another.
____________She looks directly into the camera.
____________________________________EMMA
________________________None of us will. Not anymore.
____________EXT - POLE HOUSE
____________EMMA walks into a carriage, which sets out into the busy street traffic.
____________The camera, for the first time, seems to pay attention to everyone
____________except the English men in this scene: the women in their all-concealing
____________clothing, the Caribbeans and Africans driving the carriages and carting
____________heavy boxes, and the Europeans engaging in trade and cleaning up after
____________the filth left by the horses.
____________________________________EMMA (V.O.)
________________________The age of being a footnote to
________________________history, to society, to husbands and
________________________fathers and employers, all of that
________________________is at an end. Today I seize my
________________________rights as a human being, and God
________________________help anyone who dares to even think
________________________of taking them back!
________________________________________________________________________FADE OUT
X3. A Husband's Last Words____________
____________FADE IN:
____________EXT. VENICE STREET - DAY
____________FLORA and ARABELLA WALK down the street.
____________________________________FLORA
________________________There is no more news from England?
____________________________________ARABELLA
________________________No. I'm afraid he has not returned.
____________________________________FLORA
________________________He was so desperately in love with
________________________you, Mrs. Strange.
____________They stop outside the entrance of Jonathan Strange's villa.
____________________________________FLORA
________________________It is here. They believe it is still
________________________cursed.
____________ENTRANCE TO STRANGE VILLA
____________Pedestrians visibly keep their distance as they walk past.
____________INT. STRANGE VILLA ATRIUM
____________ARABELLA ENTERS and LOOKS around, observing all of the shattered
____________mirrors. With a thought, she APPROACHES the WELL.
____________WELL.
____________ARABELLA peers at her reflection.
____________________________________ARABELLA
________________________Jonathan?
____________After waiting a few moments for a reply, she TURNS to go.
____________________________________JONATHAN (V.O.)
________________________Arabella? Bella.
____________ARABELLA RUSHES into view, and sees JONATHAN in the well's reflection
____________behind her.
____________ATRIUM
____________ARABELLA quickly GLANCES behind her, to confirm that JONATHAN is not in
____________the room.
____________WELL
____________________________________ARABELLA
________________________Here . . . my love.
____________________________________JONATHAN
________________________Bella.
____________________________________ARABELLA
________________________Jonathan!
____________________________________JONATHAN
________________________I'm very pleased to see you,
________________________Arabella.
____________________________________ARABELLA
________________________I though you were dead. This is
________________________what all the English papers say. Oh
________________________my love. What happened to you?
____________________________________JONATHAN
________________________I am just a reflection.
____________________________________ARABELLA
________________________What?
______________________________(nods)
________________________A reflection in this world, but
________________________where are you?
____________________________________JONATHAN
________________________I'm sorry, I cannot stay long.
____________________________________ARABELLA
________________________Why? I don't understand? What . . .
________________________and where are you?
____________________________________JONATHAN
________________________I'm not entirely sure.
______________________________(beat)
________________________I'm not entirely sure I'm anywhere.
________________________You look well, Arabella.
____________________________________ARABELLA
________________________I'm miserable, Jonathan.
____________________________________JONATHAN
________________________Do not be miserable. I do not
________________________suffer. I am happy that I have seen
________________________you back to yourself again. It hurt
________________________me more than I could bear to think
________________________of you under the earth. I would have
________________________done anything to fetch you safely
________________________out.
____________________________________ARABELLA
________________________And you did it. You did it. And one
________________________day, you will find the right spell
________________________and you will come back to me. Yes,
________________________one day. I will wait. Now invent the
________________________right spell to come back to me.
____________________________________JONATHAN
________________________Belle, it doesn't work that way here.
________________________I was lucky even to open this brief
________________________window. When I am gone . . . do
________________________not wait. Do not be a widow. Be happy.
____________ARABELLA SOBS. JONATHAN PLACES a hand on her shoulder. ARABELLA REACHES
____________up to put her hand over his.
____________ATRIUM
____________ARABELLA'S hand RESTS on her shoulder, with Jonathan's hand nowhere to
____________be seen.
____________WELL
____________________________________JONATHAN
________________________Remember the happiness before this magic.
____________The CREAKING of magic can be heard.
____________________________________ARABELLA
________________________Jonathan, Jonathan. If you do not
________________________return, so help me, Jonathan, I will
________________________come, and I will find you, and I will
________________________bring you back myself! No, Jonathan,
________________________no, without magic I cannot have you.
____________________________________JONATHAN
______________________________(interrupting)
________________________My wife.
____________________________________ARABELLA
________________________My love.
____________________________________JONATHAN
________________________Goodbye.
____________JONATHAN FADES away.
____________________________________ARABELLA
________________________No, Jonathan. Jonathan!
____________ARABELLA SOBS.
____________ATRIUM
____________ARABELLA LOOKS around and PICKS up an overturned BOWL, then PLUCKS some
____________dead FLOWERS from a crack in the pavement. She FILLS the bowl with water
____________from the well and ARRANGES the flowers.
____________________________________ARABELLA
______________________________(muttering)
________________________I can do this. I can do this! If
________________________there's any spell of his that I
________________________know, it's this one! Not that I have
________________________any enemies anymore, thanks to you,
________________________Jonathan.
____________ARABELLA DRAWS a circle with her finger around the circumference of the
____________BOWL, then divides it into quarters. The water begins to GLOW.
____________________________________ARABELLA
________________________Yes! See, Jonathan, you were right--
________________________we can all do magic, and that means
________________________that I can save you! I just have
________________________to . . .
____________ARABELLA LOOKS into the water, to see EMMA in a carriage, urging the
____________driver on.
____________________________________ARABELLA
________________________Why . . . why her? After all that
________________________we've been through, why her?
________________________________________________________________________FADE OUT
X4. The Two Rival Schools
____________FADE IN:
____________EXT - CITY OF YORK - DAY
____________The York Minster bells chime.
____________YORK MEETING ROOM
____________The sign in the second-story window reads "The Learned Society of
____________Yorkshire Magicians". A good deal of shouting emanates from the window.
____________A large group of workmen, women and former slaves has gathered outside
____________the door.
____________________________________NARRATOR (V.O.)
________________________Some years ago, there was, in the
________________________city of York, a society of
________________________magicians. Some of them were
________________________gentleman magicians, but only some
________________________of them. For things were not quite
________________________as they were before magic came back.
____________A cheap coach pulls up outside the building, and CHILDERMASS and
____________VINCULUS exit. After sharing a significant look, the two SHAKE HANDS and
____________part company: Childermass ENTERS the building, while Vinculus ADDRESSES
____________the crowd.
____________________________________VINCULUS
________________________So, friends, who here wants to know
________________________about magic?
____________The CROWD TURNS to look at him.
____________INT - YORK MEETING ROOM
____________The room is full of Yorkshire magicians, including SEGUNDUS and
____________HONEYFOOT, but also several woman and even an ex-slave, all members of
____________the upper classes. Note that I'm guessing at the names of most of the
____________people in this room.
____________________________________SEGUNDUS
________________________I have been approached by a half
________________________dozen different scribes who have
________________________claimed to have transcribed various
________________________parts of Strange's History of
________________________English Magic before their copies
________________________disappeared. Between them, they
________________________think they can reconstruct roughly
________________________three-quarters of the entire volume.
________________________By putting out an appeal to the
________________________public, it might even be possible
________________________to --
____________________________________TANTONY
________________________Strange's book was full of dark
________________________magic . . .
____________________________________SEGUNDUS
________________________It was his daughter . . . I might
________________________quibble with that, but regardless,
________________________you must agree that it is a valid
________________________object of study for those such as
________________________ourselves who can be trusted to
________________________handle the knowledge safely.
____________________________________FOXCASTLE
________________________Mr. Tantony and I met Mr. Strange,
________________________and he's a book thief and a
________________________murderer. Study of the works of
________________________either Norrell or Strange will only
________________________bring shame to his society. The
________________________former is certainly a thief, and the
________________________latter is a suspected murderer, both
________________________of his wife and of Mr. Norrell!
____________________________________SEGUNDUS
________________________Yes, well . . . I do believe that
________________________with a little research, I can clear
________________________the name of Jonathan Strange at
________________________least of all wrong-doing.
____________________________________TANTONY
________________________He certainly murdered his wife, and
________________________probably Mr. Norrell, too. Under the
________________________circumstances, I highly doubt that
________________________you will be able to prove anything,
________________________Mr. Segundus!
____________CHILDERMASS and VINCULUS STEP into the center of the room.
____________________________________CHILDERMASS
________________________Gentlemen!
____________The men eventually stop yelling.
____________________________________CHILDERMASS
________________________Some of you may remember me. I was
________________________here some years ago when Mr. Norrell
________________________did the magic at the Minster. My
________________________name is John Childermass. I was,
________________________until last month, the servant of
________________________Gilbert Norrell. I have summoned you
________________________here to tell you that your agreement
________________________with my old master is void. You are
________________________magicians once more if you wish to
________________________be. (For whatever good it will do
________________________you.)
____________________________________GREYSHIPPE
________________________Is Mr. Strange coming?
____________________________________TANTONY
________________________And what about Mr. Norrell?
____________________________________CHILDERMASS
________________________You must make do with me.
____________________________________FOXCASTLE
________________________Where are the books?
____________________________________CHILDERMASS
________________________All the books of magic in England
________________________have gone with them. Except for one.
________________________This is a book Norrell long desired
________________________and never saw. A book Strange did
________________________not even know existed. It is the
________________________Raven King's book. It held their
________________________fates once and it may still. It is
________________________my hope that we may decipher its
________________________meaning together. Vinculus? And that
________________________is in the exclusive possession of my
________________________rival as chief magician in England,
________________________Mr. Vinculus.
____________VINCULUS REMOVES his coat, exposing his bare torso to all.
____________________________________CHILDERMASS
________________________He was a prophesy before. The things
________________________he has foretold have come to pass
________________________just as they were ordained by the
________________________Raven King himself and now, his
________________________words have changed.
____________The MEN GATHER around VINCULUS.
____________________________________HONEYFOOT
________________________What are you now, sir?
____________________________________VINCULUS
______________________________(prancing around)
________________________I don't know. Maybe I'm a recipe
________________________book. Or a collection of pompous
________________________sermons. Or perhaps, I am a novel.
____________________________________CHILDERMASS
________________________I hope you are what you always have
________________________been: The key to our future, maybe
________________________even theirs.
____________________________________SECUNDUS
________________________Where have they gone, Childermass?
________________________Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell?
____________________________________CHILDERMASS
________________________I do not know. Wherever magicians
________________________used to go, perhaps. Beyond the sky.
________________________On the other side of the rain.
________________________________________________________________________FADE OUT.
____________________________________THE END
____________________________________FOXCASTLE
______________________________(sputtering)
________________________You? You claim to be the foremost
________________________magician in all of England?
____________________________________CHILDERMASS
______________________________(bowing)
________________________At your service, gentlemen. I was
________________________trained by Mr. Norrell himself.
____________________________________FOXCASTLE
________________________And why would we want anything to do
________________________with you, sir, or your messy form of
________________________magic?
____________Despite Foxcastle's condemnation, most of the group in the room PRESS
____________nearer to CHILDERMASS.
____________________________________CHILDERMASS
________________________In case you haven't noticed, the
________________________world of the North is changing, and
________________________it is the people of the land and the
________________________machines, the people out there, that
________________________are using magic to decide what that
________________________change will be. Now I for one would
________________________much rather be at the front of that
________________________crowd, doing my best to give them
________________________direction, then be stuck in the back
________________________and be told who and what we are
________________________going to be in this new world.
____________FOXCASTLE TURNS away in disgust, but the others think this over.
____________________________________HONEYFOOT
________________________How do you propose we begin?
____________SEGUNDUS hesitantly RAISES his hands into the air. A faint SINGING
____________begins to be heard.
____________________________________CHOIR (V.O.)
______________________________(singing)
________________________And did those feet in ancient time, . . .
____________Smiling, HONEYFOOT RAISES his hands as well, to be joined by a couple
____________others.
____________________________________CHOIR (V.O.)
_____________________________(singing)
________________________Walk upon England's mountains green.
____________________________________CHILDERMASS
________________________Yes, that's the spirit! Ladies, if
________________________you may? It is the will alone that
________________________is needed.
____________One of the women hesitantly copies the movement of the others, and is
____________gratified when the volume of the ghostly singing becomes measurably
____________louder. The others soon join her.
____________________________________CHOIR (V.O.)
______________________________(singing)
________________________And was the holy Lamb of God,
________________________On England's pleasant pastures seen!
____________EXT - YORK MEETING ROOM
____________VINCULUS REMOVES his coat, exposing his bare torso to all.
____________________________________VINCULUS
________________________Behold your advantage upon those
________________________simpering lords and ladies upstairs.
________________________I have written upon me the only book
________________________of magic left in all of England.
____________________________________DAVEY
________________________So what? I'm not exactly intimately
________________________acquainted with the King's written
________________________English, but I do know well the way
________________________that self-same writing is used to take
________________________away my God-given rights as an
________________________Englishman.
____________________________________MARY
______________________________(points)
________________________And besides, that's not proper
________________________English anyhow. Bunch of squiggles
________________________and lines. See for yourself.
____________She hands VINCULUS a hand MIRROR, which he uses to EXAMINE himself.
____________________________________VINCULUS
________________________Huh. Guess that rules out me being a
________________________novel, then. More like a textbook.
____________________________________MARY
______________________________(incredulously)
________________________A textbook?
____________________________________VINCULUS
________________________Sure!
____________The SOUND of an angelic choir singing "Jerusalem" begins to EMANATE from
____________the window upstairs. VINCULUS uses his mirror to locate a particular
____________diagram on his shoulder.
____________________________________VINCULUS
______________________________(pointing at the window)
________________________Now see, in all this arguing you've
________________________allowed the lords and ladies to get
________________________a head start. You're all here to
________________________learn magic, aren't you? Then why
________________________don't you begin by taking a look at
________________________Illustration Number One, right here.
________________________Just get a good look, then close
________________________your eyes and imagine that shape in
________________________your head, simple as that!
____________A doubtful MARY does as she is asked, and an ANGEL APPEARS above her
____________head, singing the hymn. The CROWD GASPS in delight. Mary OPENS her eyes
____________and looks where the others are POINTING, tears coming to her eyes.
____________Within moments, the one angel BECOMES a MULTITUDE, as the other peasants
____________CROWD around VINCULUS to get a look at his diagram.
____________ZOOM OUT to City of York, just as the MEMBERS of the Society LOOK out of
____________the window at the angels with dumbstruck expressions.
____________________________________NARRATOR (V.O.)
________________________The Learned Society of Yorkshire
________________________Magicians never did discover what
________________________happened to Jonathan Strange and Mr.
________________________Norrell in the brief period before
________________________being disbanded and re-incorporated
________________________as the "Fellowship of Northern
________________________Magicians". In the minutes of the
________________________last Society meeting, Mr.
________________________Childermass was allowed to enter his
________________________rather romantic speculation. In his
________________________words, the pair had disappeared to
________________________"wherever magicians used to go in
________________________the days of old: beyond the sky, and
________________________on the other side of the rain."
____________The image ripples and then dissolves, revealed to be a reflection in a
____________bowl disrupted by the delicate fingers of FLORA.
________________________________________________________________________FADE OUT.
____________________________________THE END
Told you she was an author-insert.
Well, you've added something to my reading list if nothing else. Cool analysis.
I remember loving that book, yet remember very little that was in it. Old manors, books, a battle, mirrors, an "in-between", a faerie. Perhaps I couldn't connect any of it to my life.