[latepaul]

Well we're at episode 3 of 7 and the differences are becoming more significant I think. It's no longer just about compressing the story-telling it's changing the tone quite significantly.

Specifically:

Spoiler:

• Using the tapestry as a way of communicating about Lost-hope is quite different, because it assumes a loophole in the magic stopping her telling anyone that's not there in the book.
• Norrell confronting Lady Pole on her sick bed. In the book he mostly ignores her and tells her husband from afar that he can't cure madness with magic.
• Strange struggling to do magic in Portugal. In the book almost everything he does he does with ease, it's more a matter of having to have the idea (such as the road). That whole section in the forest was new. True he does do the resurrection of the Neopolitans and he does feel uneasy about it, but the idea that he has abandoned "modern magic" at this stage is not there in the book.
• Watching the TV show you'd be forgiven for thinking the Gentleman is merely manipulating Stephen Black for his own ends - he more or less says it would be worth making him a king so he can kill "the magician". In the book, a) he genuinely just seems to like Stephen and think he ought to be king, b) there's no sense he doubts his own ability to kill anyone should he feel the need.