Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Here I am again.
I'm sorry I am talking of "old" books, but I buy them late, read them months after they've been published, so...Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.
Warning: can be severely boring in the first 50 or so pages. Or maybe it is only me.
Fact: footnotes are boring, distracting elements I don't like and cannot appreciate. Even the less when they come as one page long as it happened a few times during the reading of this particular book. Of course, they were also interesting sometimes, in that they told funny stories or details, but I have always felt that I can live without footnotes and be happy. Unless they explain the meaning of a word, and especially when that word is magic-speak.
This critique set aside, I did like Jonathan Strange. It was fascinating, interesting and funny. I liked when Wellington referred to (and called) Jonathan Strange as "Merlin". There was a good use of humour and irony throughout the story, so it really was enjoyable and the third part was definitely unputdownable. A+.
Accurate references (of course) to the war between England and France, although it is obviously only as the story unravels, and the facts of the war are not the most important bit of the telling; the readere's guide questions whether this is historical fiction, and I do think it is, rather than fantasy. But then, my notions on fictional genres &Co may be a bit rusted...
Then again, and I appreciated this, you don't see much magic performed, like formulas and magic spells in weird languages (and mind you, I am a linguist, so I should like this sort of things, but no, it takes the focus away from the story, I believe): magic is discussed by the two characters, and referred to, but performed...quite rarely to me. Except when the gentleman with the thistle-down hair appears, and that's an interesting part, not to say that it features one of the characters I have preferred, Stephen Black, the butler. Also, I can see that magic is more in the atmosphere of the story, in the appearance of magical roads, in seeing people who are not there, in fairies and in the remembrance of the time when the Raven King was...King!
Oh, thumbs down, almost at the end, after so many pages of "Strange pronounced the spell of...", not actually giving the spell away to the reader, what does Strange do? Cast a spell by saying "Abracadabra"? No comment...
The notes about the book say that the author had, among her other inspirational books, Jane Austen in mind as she set down the story. Can't comment on that because I've never read any Jane Austen, but the setting was very detailed, the historical time described, the language, it was all very Victorian: thumbs up!
They (the notes) say also that this Jane Austen reference would be in the love story...Have we read the same book? I see no love story really, unless they mean Strange's commitment to call on a fairy and ultimately on the Raven King to rescue his loved one.I am not one for fantasy books, so I cannot really comment too much on this, and the reading guide requires a longer reflection on the subjects. So I'm going to take some time to study on the subject; hopefully (or not) I'll be back with more to say about it.

Comments and ideas are always well accepted.