"Beautifully composed and splendidly written, it has great power and real point ... the command of the contemporary scene is masterly.... One of the best characters that have appeared in fiction for a very long time." - Walter Allen, New Statesman "[T]he story is novel in its incidents and he exploits skilfully the dramatic possibilities of extending human vision into normally hidden dimensions." - The Guardian "Mr. Priestley has always been a man of vision ... The Magicians has a theme of the first importance." ...
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"Beautifully composed and splendidly written, it has great power and real point ... the command of the contemporary scene is masterly.... One of the best characters that have appeared in fiction for a very long time." - Walter Allen, New Statesman "[T]he story is novel in its incidents and he exploits skilfully the dramatic possibilities of extending human vision into normally hidden dimensions." - The Guardian "Mr. Priestley has always been a man of vision ... The Magicians has a theme of the first importance." - Spectator Sir Charles Ravenstreet, in his mid-fifties, is unmarried and childless and lives only for his work in the fast-paced world of business. When he is forced out of his job to make room for someone younger, Sir Charles finds himself at a loose end and facing the dismal prospect of an empty future. Believing he can make use of Sir Charles, the sinister Lord Mervil seeks to enlist his aid in a scheme to earn a fortune by manufacturing a new drug that relieves its users of all anxiety and will reduce the masses to a state of docility and mindless euphoria. But a plane crash and an encounter with three strange old men determined to thwart Lord Mervil's plans will lead Sir Charles to the exciting discovery that when he suspected his life might be over, it had really only just begun. One of the most enjoyable novels by the prolific J.B. Priestley (1894-1984), The Magicians (1954) is both a whimsical story of the strange and fantastic and a sharply satirical fable of modern life. This 60th anniversary edition features a new introduction by Lee Hanson and the original jacket art by Val Biro.
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Very Good- in Very Good- jacket. Ex-Library. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Ex rental lib. Clean, little wear. Innards clean & tight, lib. stamp. Jacket in lib. plastic wrapper(easily removed), clean w/little wear. 246 pp.
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My book group read The Magicians because Priestley was a local boy, and we had heard that this novel was his personal favorite. We wondered why. I don?t know how much autobiography lurks in these pages; the protagonist?s Warwick country house seems to be modeled on Priestley?s Kissing Tree House, but more important in whether the book has a life of its own.
It is an enjoyably fast read. It is not politically correct, and the views it depicts won?t appeal to readers of the Guardian, but so what. It?s reasonably adventurous and decent in its treatment of characters Priestley?s narrator patronises, considering that it was written in the 1950?s. The attitudes assigned to the protagonist may help explain why the book hasn?t enjoyed a revival since its first publication. But I found his being forced to face up to his callous past conduct endearing. He has been a bit of a cad.
Nevertheless, he's allowed to redeem himself by joining a battle for the souls of men, in which he helps the magicians fight a cynical, probably diabolical, business venture to develop a drug that resembles soma from Brave New World. I wondered while reading, whether CS Lewis was an influence and whether this novel in turn has influenced any of Lessing?s fiction in the Canopus in Argos series. The novice stumbling along after the cognoscenti is a theme she explores, but Priestley?s hero enlivens it with uncertainty about just how much stock to put in the three wise men. Finishing the book left me no wiser on these influence questions.
Some of my friends found the story thin and undeveloped. Exposition of Time Alive, the three magicians? stock-in-trade, is fuzzy. Perhaps Priestley liked to keep this a cross between joyful mystery and séance, leaving wormholes and tessera to later writers. Time Alive is not just a skateboard to time travel but a means of self- examination.
Unfortunately, giving his hero a family as fortuitously as the winning card at bingo doesn?t win with me. It doesn't really help that this resolution is presented as a gift from the grateful mages. There?s simply no time at the end for us to feel that his new-found children are any more vivid to him than the protégés he left at the office.
