- Paperback: 224 pages
- Publisher: Flamingo; New edition edition (7 Sep 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0006551106
- ISBN-13: 978-0006551102
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 1.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,055,698 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Magician's Wife
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More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Brian Moore is best known for his mysteries of faith and fanaticism. The Statement focuses on a murderously unrepentant Vichy collaborator whom the French Catholic church has long sheltered. And in The Colour of Blood--set in an unnamed Iron Curtain country--a cardinal wonders if people aren't using religion "as a sort of politics". Religion and politics again feature in The Magician's Wife, but this time they are accompanied by their long-time companion, illusion. Once again, France is the setting--Second Empire France, though, along with its prospective colony, Algeria.
Moore opens the novel with a bizarre detail. It is 1856 and Emmeline Lambert watches a mechanical gatekeeper salute a departing dignitary. This nuts-and-bolts major-domo is the creation of her autocratic husband, Henri, formerly France's greatest magician, retired and hard at work on such minor contrivances. "Now he was an inventor, a scientist," Emmeline thinks. "But would a real scientist spend his days making mechanical marionettes?" Her impatience with his compulsive tinkering is only one part of a troubled marriage, which seems to consist largely of fossilized accommodations and painful discretion.
According to their visiting dignitary, however, the prestidigitator's country needs him. Colonel Deniau, head of Arab affairs and in many ways the real magician of the tale--or the magician's enchanter--has a mysterious project in mind. The plan is to flatter Henri into creating a series of mind-blowing tricks. According to the colonel, an Algerian marabout, or living saint, is "said to possess miraculous powers" and might call for a holy war. If Henri outperforms the Algerian, he will seem the greater marabout "and convince them that God is not on their side but France's."
The Magician's Wife is a condemnation of colonialism, of which illusion is always a key ingredient. Moore's novel, however, is far from a tract: he infuses his drama of the past with our present anxiety. He also creates, quite literally, a magical narrative. Though the Algerians may consider Henri the devil incarnate, and his wife may slight his legerdemain, you will be awed by his fantastic skills and the apparent effortlessness with which the author relates them.
Review
From the reviews for The Statement:
‘Unputdownable, utterly riveting’
Mark Porter, Sunday Express
‘Once you have opened its first page you won’t be able to stop reading.’
A. N. Wilson, Evening Standard
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
I have say that I was unsure as to whether I would enjoy this book - I didn't know if I would find the mid-19th century setting a challenge and nor was I sure about a storyline with illusion at its' centre. However, after a slow start, I soon found myself lost in the story and caught up in the moral complexities of the French in their colonisation of northern Africa. Ultimately, it's a sad story, exposing the emptiness of doing things for the wrong reasons, but this is no reason not to read it. This would make a good book club read.
Format:Paperback
This is a very good account of France under Napoleon III and its bourgeois society. It lacks action and I certainly did not find it as entertaining as "Lies of Silence". The characters and the action in general are quite predictable and the description of Algeria is what interested me most.
Format:Paperback
The storyline focuses around the wife of Europe's leading magician who is asked by Emperor Napoleon III to show his magical skills to an Algerian holy man who is considering an announcement proclaiming that he is the Mahdi. Brian Moore sets out to show the spiritual emptiness of European colonialism and not withstanding the simple ideas and language used, he manages to get his point across fairly well towards the end of the book. Algeria is beautifully portrayed, as is the 'magician's castle' in France. Worth the read, although a work of literary beauty should not be expected.
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