This book is a must read. It is absolutely worth the time.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is a New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller.

Elegant, witty and utterly compelling, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell creates a past world of great mystery and beauty that will hold the reader in thrall until the last page.

Here are some of the reviews:

Neil Gaiman: "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is unquestionably the finest English novel of the fantastic written in the last seventy years."

Time magazine: "A chimera of a novel that combines the dark mythology of fantasy with the delicious social comedy of Jane Austen into a masterpiece of the genre that rivals Tolkien."

Washington Post: "Many books are to be read, some are to be studied, and a few are meant to be lived in for weeks. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is of this last kind ..."

Kirkus: "An instant classic, one of the finest fantasies ever written."

In March, it was announced that New Line Cinema (The Lord of the Rings trilogy) is adapting the book for a feature film production.

I won't yammer on so much, but I'll say that the dialogue, while very much British, isn't so pendulously wordy as say, some of Sterling's 'Quicksilver' books. Read it. It'll keep you occupied for at least a week.