Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

The king of England has a psychological illness that makes him incapable of ruling the country, and his lazy, grasping sons want him to either die or get well so they can end their role as regents. (A regent is a proxy ruler on behalf of a king or queen who cannot fulfill his or her role due to age or ill health.) They approach Norrell to ask if magic might cure their father. After Norrell rejects them, they approach Strange, who agrees to at least try. During his research, Strange discovers several spells to lift enchantments in Ormskirk’s Revelations of Thirty-Six Other Worlds. The book is full of nature-based spells and references to the Raven King—just the kind of magic that Norrell hates.

Strange visits the king, who spends his days playing the harpsichord and talking to the man with the thistle-down hair. Strange takes the king on a walk outside, in the castle grounds. The king’s keepers arrive, and they are angry. Someone—not Strange—performs a spell that makes all the statues in the park come to life and play humiliating tricks on the keepers. Strange is glad to be rid of the keepers, but he is unnerved by the notion that someone with powerful magic like that is in the castle.