The birth of a new shelf

I specialize in fantasy. The classical sword and sorcery fantasy focusing on heroes and ideals. The modern mind bending variety focussed on action, build up and plot twists. The lyrical poem like fantasy where the prose stands separate from the story though they both share the body of a novel.

Reading to me means mostly reading fantasy of one of the above mentioned types. Or at least it used to, until I read "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell" by Susanna Clarke. As painful as it was when I finished it, that book has ended up drawing me into not 1 but 2 new hereto unexplored realms.

What has happened here is a subtle shift, an expanding in my scope and the birth of an unnamed new shelf.

In the light of the present, it is worth looking back to see the previous books and authors that caused shifts in my reading habits. In order of chronology:

1. Christopher Paolini, for introducing me to high fantasy¹.
2. Brandon Sanderson, for renewing my interest in fantasy after almost giving up under the onslaught of grimdark.
3. Patricia McKillip, for showing me lyrical beauty and poetry disguised as fantasy.
4. Mervin Peake, for showing me the opposite end of the spectrum, complex intricate beauty.

In this line of shifts, Susanna Clarke has managed, in one single² book, to open my view to 2 new genres.

The first of these is clear. It is the genre of Victorian wit and humor, that I have taken to with glee. The authors in this family that I have enjoyed so far are Jane Austen³, Anthony Trollope and Jerome K Jerome. There have also been a bunch of authors and books⁴ in this space that I dislike⁵, so it's not all smooth sailing⁶.

The second of the 2 genres that I mention is far more difficult for me to pin down. So elusive, it is, that I have to invent a new name for it, though it seems to me that I have not enough data points for this.

The books in the category that I have enjoyed so far:

1. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
2. Once upon a River, by Diane Setterfield
3. The Bear and the Nightingale - Katherine Arden (currently reading)

At first glance, these books don't really share a lot in common, but whatever they do share is what I am trying to pin down. Let's cross out a bunch of possible candidates.

Gothic

JS&N is definitely gothic. So is Gormenghast. I enjoyed them both, but I have also most certainly seen Gothic that I don't like⁷. Besides, OUAR can be called a lot of things, but Gothic seems to be pushing it.

Fairytale

Fairy tale seems suiting, esp for 2 and 3 above. But the problem is I have seen a distinct genre of books⁸ that have to be called fairy tales and they are very different from the books above.

Magical Realism

I love the name. But it's taken by a genre that does not seem to encompass these books. Every book I have seen in this genre is very different from the ones above. Primarily, I think Magical Realism has taken a very strong does of Surrealism and the 2 related genres are muddled up into one continuous spectrum.

Historical Fantasy

This is a nice category; the books above certainly have the historical part down. They are after all based on real events, places or characters which is why they cannot be outright called fantasy. But the names also does not capture the quaintness and the whimsiness that these books invoke.

Mystery

At least the first 2 books share a deep rooted thread of mystery. I was certainly misled after OUAR to look into this genre, but it's not for me. There is, to put it bluntly, not enough magic and too much gritty realism.

So this new genre is both fantasy and not fantasy, real and not real, fairy tale-ish but also not fairy tale. It's got magic in it, but it's not about magic. It is fantastical, but cannot be cleanly categorized into fantasy. You begin to see my problem.

My working title for this shelf is going to be fairytale-realism. It's not much, but it's a start. Let's see how this shelf grows and whether this shelf lives up to its name.