What reader can resist fiction with footnotes? Strike that. What could be better than a book so dense it inflicts physical pain upon the reader (in the form of carpal tunnel syndrome)? Strike that.

You know you’re in for an epic when the titular hero is introduced on page 200, by which time you’re likely already in it for the long haul. Yes, indeed, brevity is for the weak and Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is anything but brief. It is a genre-bending romp, a careering yarn, a lucid dream of a book.