You are no match for us, for we three are quite united, while you, sir, for all your cleverness, are at war, even with yourself. Strange is rather horrified when he realises what they have done, but they are not inclined to be very interested in his opinion, pointing out that he writes a lot of opinions on magic that he doesn’t even believe himself, just to keep on Norrell’s good side and suit the establishment. It is hard to find fault with them – they could not have resolved the situation legally and the girls were at definite risk. In this story he meets three of them, and their rather grim solution to a problem involving danger to two small children. While this alternative Regency England, true to the patriarchal notions of the time, insisted that magic was the realm of men, Strange in the novel discovers through his own experiences that there have been women practising magic just as successfully. The title story is a tale from the world of Jonathan Strange, as Strange himself is a character. It’s a highly entertaining group of stories for fans of fairy tales and fantasy. By the author of “Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell” and “Piranesi”, these eight short stories are a combination of stories set in the world of “Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell” as well as some fairy tales that readers will find familiar, though reworked in the author’s own style.
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