Mr. Norrell is especially concerned with making magic proper and right and not wild and unpredictable at all. He seems to think the best way to do that is to hoard all the knowledge for himself, in the form of his books. He outright lies to Strange and it's all just very manipulative and controlling.

I think my least favorite character, though, is Drawlight (or possibly Lascelles, they're fairly interchangeable when they're together). I hated the way he hounded Arabella for information about Lady Pole, asking if she'd turned into a vampire or something like that.