Fantasy Books With Footnotes Like Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

The late David Foster Wallace was famed for his use of unconventional narrative structure, extensive asides and tangents, and footnotes that often took up more page space than the main story. Infinite Jest, his magnum opus, includes hundreds of footnotes, some of which have their own footnotes! 

Set in a near future where United States, Canada, and Mexico have united to form a North American superstate, corporations have taken over the calendar and hazardous waste has polluted much of the continent. A fringe group of radicals plan to take over Quebec. Students of the Enfield Tennis Academy train for something unexpected. A mysterious film that is apparently so compelling that its viewers become addicted to it to the point of death is floating around looking for an audience. And that's just the beginning.

Nathaniel is a boy magician-in-training, sold to the government by his birth parents as a child and forced into apprenticeship to a powerful master, Arthur Underwood. He's a cold and cruel man who works in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Nathaniel's only saving grace is the master's wife, Martha Underwood, the only person who shows him kindness. When he turns 11, he is publicly humiliated by the ruthless magician Simon Lovelace and betrayed by his cowardly master. All that he can do is vow revenge, plotting against his master while keeping up the illusion of obedience. He'll need immense power in his corner, like that of the 5,000-year-old, wise-cracking djinni Bartimaeus.

There may be no novel more famous (or infamous) for its extensive use of footnotes than House of Leaves. It’s a labyrinth of stories, scares, and mind-altering madness. Johnny Truant claims to have found an unfinished manuscript by a mysterious man named Zampanò. In it, he talks of The Navidson Record, a documentary film about a very odd house. The residents slowly realize that the inside has started to become bigger than the outside. New doors appear. Corridors go on and on. And a maze has emerged that doesn't seem to end. What is real and what isn't?

Mia Corvere is the daughter of a traitor whose failed rebellion ended in his execution. Alone, mistrusted by others, and hunted by everyone on both sides, she hides in a city built from the bones of a dead god. Her only chance of survival is when she is apprenticed to the deadliest flock of assassins in the entire Republic—the Red Church. If she survives the training and her own backstabbing classmates, she'll be inducted among the Blades of the Lady of Blessed Murder. All she wants is revenge on those who wronged her family, but a plot to bring down the entire congregation is unfolding before her eyes.

Terry Pratchett’s legendary Discworld series is full of hilarious footnotes and asides that offer insight into the magical and utterly surreal world he’s created. We could pick any of the series for this list but we’ve gone with one of the most beloved and frequently recommended books in the series. 

A secret monastic order plots to overthrow the government of the city of Ankh-Morpork by summoning a dragon. It doesn't go well. The night Watch, the city's useless guards of so-called law and order, is trying to clean up its act. First, they must look for a stolen book of magic. Captain Samuel Vimes is too busy getting drunk or recovering from a hangover to really care. But with people dying by vaporization across the city, he'll need to become the best detective he can be before he's turned to smithereens by this dragon that shouldn't even exist.

Kihrin is a bastard orphan who is claimed against his will as the long-lost son of a notorious prince. Now, he's been thrust into the spotlight as an heir in waiting, a future leader in a world of magic and quests. But this life is nothing like the ones that Kihrin read about in his storybooks. He's practically a prisoner now, at the mercy of hid new family's cycle of backstabbing and treachery. Can Kihrin rise to the occasion and become a hero, or is he destined to be the villain?

In R.F. Kuang's modern classic, Robin Swift is an orphan who has been brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he spends years studying the ancient languages in preparation for the legendary Royal Institute of Translation at the University of Oxford, better known as Babel. Here, students wield language and translation as a magical force, one that has helped the British Empire to dominate the world. For Robin, working at Babel puts him in a bind, as a Chinese boy raised in Britain now working for the colonizers. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China, he is forced to pick a side.

In an alternate 1985, Britain is a world dominated by two grand forces: the written word and time travel. Baconians are trying to convince the world that Francis Bacon really wrote Shakespeare's plays. The surrealists are at war with the impressionists. Acheron Hades, the third most wanted man in the world, has stolen original manuscript of Dickens’ Martin Chuzzlewit and killed a minor character, wiping him from every volume of the book ever written. Hades' next target is Jane Eyre. It's up to the literary detective Thursday Next to stop him and prevent a rip in the space-time continuum.

It's a tale as old as time: the fair maiden, the handsome but dastardly prince, and the dashing rogue who comes to save the day. The Princess Bride is a legendary novel, one that was adapted into an equally beloved film. According to William Goldman, the book was written by S. Morgenstern, and he's now offering an edited version of it for readers that cuts out all the "boring parts" his dad omitted during their bedtime reading sessions. He offers all his explanations for what he cut and why throughout this story of sword fights, giant rodents, poison, kidnapping, and true love.