Christopher Priest
The Prestige (1996)
Author: Christopher Priest
Genre: Science Fiction
Plot Summary:
Journalist Andrew Westley is brought to an old house to speak with its mistress, Kate Angier, about an incident that happened when they were children. Kate claims that she saw her father kill him when he was about two years old, yet here he is speaking with him. The two join forces to read and interpret the diaries of their respective ancestors, Alfred Borden and Rupert Angier, who were illusionists in the late 19th century. As we read the two men's journals, the mystery is unraveled. The feud began when Borden attended a seance run by Angier and his wife. In his eagerness to uncover their scam Borden injures Mrs. Angier, causing her to miscarry. In the years following they ruin each other's acts countless times while constantly improving their own acts. Borden finally comes up with a new illusion that he calls the New Transported Man, in which he transports himself instantaneously from one cabinet to another amidst flashes of electrical energy. Angier becomes obsessed with figuring out how the illusion works. After receiving a one-word clue from Borden ("Tesla"), Angier travels to Colorado to meet with the eccentric electrical engineer Nikola Tesla, and commissions a machine that will allow Angier to transport himself for real, with no illusions. With the machine complete Angier begins performing his new illusion, In a Flash, in England (only in electrified theaters, of course), baffling his audiences and Borden. At one performance, however, Borden manages to get backstage and ruin the illusion at the worst possible moment. What happens afterward helps Kate and Andrew solve the mystery of Andrew's apparent death and rebirth.
Geographical Setting: Mostly England, but part of the story occur in Colorado, U.S.A.
Time Period: 20th century, and late 1800s/early 1900s
Appeal Characteristics:
The tone throughout the The Prestige is bleak and dark, as both men's obsession with their feud becomes central in their life. This mirroring obsession truly ruins both Borden's and Angier's lives and continues to haunt their ancestors several generations later. The story is first told through entries from Borden's personal journal, followed by a section of entries from the journal of Angier. Because of this, Priest's prose is crisp and unencumbered, as he tries to convey a writing style that someone would actually use while writing in a journal. The reader is immersed both in Borden's and Angier's minds, and both characters are richly drawn out. In the journal entries, some of the nastier pranks Borden pulls on Angier are present in Angier's journal, but not Borden's, and visa versa, which makes both men seem realistic. This way of writing the book might seem to preclude suspense, but the deliberate pacing of the novel keeps the reader guessing as to what will happen next. The setting, rather than being London, really becomes a magician's workshop, and the author spends a great deal of time describing the props and costumes that are needed to maintain a magician's life. If the historical detail provided is not factual, it is at least believable, as Priest provides the reader with a snapshot of 19th century, including its fascination with new technology, such as electricity, and the paranormal.
Read-alikes:
For those that enjoyed the bleak tone and rich characterization found in The Prestige, try Mary Reilly by Valerie Martin. Mary Reilly is a fresh look at the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde tale, as the story is told through journal entries of Mary Reilly, a servant of Dr. Jekyll. Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is another story about magicians, and the jealousy that is felt between Norrell and Strange is reminiscent of the feud between Borden and Angier in The Prestige. In the novel, Strange becomes Norrell's pupil and they are charged with restoring magic to England in the age of Napoleon. The story has a very deliberate pace, like The Prestige, along with a satisfactorily bleak tone. A collection of short stories with fantastical themes, The Barnum Museum by Steven Millhauser, would be an excellent book to pick up if you enjoyed The Prestige. While each story has its own appeal elements, the overarching idea of the collection was to provide the reader with stories of a darker tone that feature rich characters and intriguing ideas about the world. World of Wonders, by Robertson Davies, is the life story of magician Magnus Eisengrim, at least as he recounts it to an audience of five very different people. The story employs the same type of unencumbered prose found in The Prestige, and Davies' setting also mirrors the setting in The Prestige, as 19th century life is carefully chronicled, and much time is spent inside of a traveling magician's life of props and costumes. Lastly, try The Golem's Eye by Jonathan Stroud. This story is about fourteen-year-old magician Nathaniel, who is charged with stopping a secret group of commoners who are attempting to undermine the ruling class of magicians. The story features a dark tone and realistic, engaging characters.
If you enjoyed the blending of fictional and historical characters, try The Amazing Dr. Darwin by Charles Sheffield. Set in the 18th century, Dr. Erasmus Darwin (Grandfather to Charles), these six mini-mysteries send Dr. Darwin to explore the darkest mysteries of Europe, with help from the likes of engineer James Watt, chemist Joseph Priestly, and renaissance man Benjamin Franklin. The classic Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley shares the gothic flavor that is prominent in The Prestige, and like Priest's novel, is heavily psychological. In this engrossing novel a traveler encounters Dr Frankenstein, who tells his story of the creation of his famous monster. and the monster's odd story of his adventures in the world. For more of the science fiction aspects of The Prestige, you might like Lord Kelvin's Machine by James P. Blaylock. In this book set in the Victorian age Langdon St. Ives uses Lord Kelvin's electromagnetic machine to travel back in time to confront his enemy, the evil Dr. Narbondo. Nominated for the 1995 World Fantasy Award, The Circus of the Earth and Air by Brooke Stevens is a psychological suspense novel with a fantastic flavor. Alex's wife, Iris, volunteers for a vanishing act in a circus and vanishes for real. When no one in the circus seems to remember her, Alex sets out in a surreal quest to discover Iris's fate.
Red Flags: Murder of a child, miscarriage, heavy drinking, revenge, unappetizing bodily ills, and a grisly secret.
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