Tag: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

This week's TTT theme is a list of atmospheric books - and Jana gives us the following explanations of what we might understand by that term. The Novelry explains this concept as: “A novel feels atmospheric when the setting and the narrative are deeply involved with one another; when characters and plot are physically embedded in their surroundings, and a near-tangible mood lifts from the pages and wraps itself around the reader.”  Study.com explains that, “The atmosphere is how a writer constructs their piece to convey feelings, emotions, and mood to the reader. The atmosphere in literature might be tense, fast-paced, mysterious, spooky, whimsical, or joyful and can be found in poetry, stories, novels, and series.” Okay, yes I get those definitions... for me, a book is atmospheric when our feelings as a reader are brought to the fore - often by a genuine investment in setting and sense of place, where the setting is used to contribute to and enhance the experience. But it can also come across from characterisation, language and any other tool in the writer's toolkit. And the very real difficulty for me is narrowing this down to just ten... atmosphere is possibly