Book Review: The Prestige by Christopher Priest

The Prestige by Christopher Priest

Two magicians get drawn into a dangerous, hurtful rivalry in late 1800s and early 1900s Britain. Alfred Borden is an old-school illusionist who is very philosophical and technical about his craft. As an illusionist, he keeps lots of secrets, especially about his tricks, the most amazing of which is THE NEW TRANSPORTED MAN. In this trick, he steps into a cabinet on one side of the stage and instantly comes out of another cabinet on the other side of the stage. He might toss a hat or bounce a ball to himself to make it more theatrical. Rupert Angier is the second son of a Lord and has dreamed his whole life of being a magician. He has the theatricality naturally and the technique through practice. He also keeps lots of secrets, especially about his family life. He foreswears his nobility and lives in poverty, scraping by on odd jobs. He develops a spiritualist act (very trendy in late 1800s England) as a side hustle with a woman he marries. Borden hears about this and seeks to debunk Angier. When he finally confronts Angier, an accident causes Angier's wife to miscarry (though Borden does not know she is pregnant). Angier starts to take revenge by exposing Borden's illusions during performances, and Borden does the same for Angier. Their lives intertwine through the decades as their competition escalates to tragic ends.

The story has a framing device with two descendants of the Borden and Angier families trying to reconcile the feud in the early 1990s. The main narrative is told through the diaries of Alfred Borden and Rupert Angier. The reader has to grapple with the different perspectives on events and with the magicians' deliberate obfuscations in their writing. Having seen the movie version, I knew the key secrets which made it easier to comprehend passages that were obviously meant to be intriguingly vague, to force the reader to pay attention to details. The mystery is still interesting because both magicians are flawed but engaging characters. The book clearly sympathizes more with Angier, though both are sympathetic if one looks only at their individual diary (I found the characters in the movie to be universally unsympathetic). Both characters (and thereby I assume the author) realize the professional conflict is a waste and they would have been better off working together. The rivalry drives them to use horrible means and ends that cause problems for both families down to the present day.

The book is very interesting in several ways. If the reader hasn't experienced the story before, immediate re-reading is tempting to fill in narrative holes left in the various diaries. Usually I do not like dramas where information is left out deliberately to enhance the drama but using the ego-written diaries is a plausible way to present partial (and misleading) information. Thematically, there's a lot of duality. As the two magicians proceed in their careers, they have similar experiences, especially with women. They try to outdo each other with the same magic tricks and try the same tactics to expose each other or to find out secrets. Even though they are rivals, they are not so different from each other. The "authors" discuss a lot of the theatrical technique that goes into a good stage performance which gives the reader interesting information. Angier's ultimate method of improving THE NEW TRANSPORTED MAN leaves a lot of moral and philosophical questions for the reader to mull over. The book is a rich source for re-reading and reflection.

Highly recommended.

This book is discussed on A Good Story is Hard to Find Podcast #289. I am glad that they inspired me to read the book because I was not a big fan of the movie.