The Prestige

This is a Christopher Priest novel written in 1995.

Now this novel has all the trappings that should make a successful story. At the heart of the story is the bitter feud between two stage magicians Alfred Borden and Rupert Angier.

The reader is first introduced to the grandchildren of these two magicians who are investigating what really happened between the two and the effects this has had on their own lives almost a century later.

The overall structure is very familiar to anyone who has even a glancing knowledge of the classical Gothic horror story. We have the large house with its unspeakable secrets hidden in the basement, in this particular case the Tesla machine, we have the secrets hidden in the manuscripts of Borden and Angier – manuscripts found and read in the middle of a dark and stormy night leading to horrible conclusions. And towards the very end the main character even goes into the cavernous basement where the past becomes known in all its decadent gory glory. The basement also happens to double as a family tomb.

So – yeah, I’ve seen this before.

Another main theme of the novel is the “dark double”, another Gothic classic. Stage magicians rely heavily on the prestige, the reveal at the end of a magic trick. And they rely on deceit. Some magicians go further than others in staging an illusion – and there is throughout the novel a discussion of whether Borden is one or two men. He might actually be a set of identical twins, something that figures heavily in his most famous trick “The New Transported Man” – an illusion that plagues and harrows Angier until he actually finds a way to replicate and improve on act.

But Angier takes it further than Borden. He finds a way to actually transport himself, at a high cost, via his Tesla machine. The machine itself is a classic Gothic horror too, complete with coils and wires and electrical flashes. He pays through the nose to have the machine constructed and then pays a more subtle price for using it.

All this makes for one fine and lurid tale indeed. Problem is, I know the conventions too well and find myself unaffected by the prose. The epistolary style leaves me cold, it is written in a way that’s meant to be a couple of diaries and when the voice does not appeal to you as a reader you quickly lose interest. I like Borden, there is a greater sense of mystery there, but the diary of Angier is quite frankly dull. It doesn’t bother with evoking the period, it doesn’t sketch the personality of the author to any great extent,  merely cataloguing the main events.

The ending is supposed to be a big reveal, but by the time we get there I have frankly lost interest. Borden, who is the foil all through the action, is summarily knocked-off earlier and we are left with the vestiges of the prestige of Angier

I can’t really go in to it in greater detail than that without giving it all away.

I remain sadly unimpressed. But then I have read all the classics in the genre, The Castle of Otranto, Frankenstein, Dracula, The Inmost Light and The Fall of the House of Usher to mention but a few – and they are by far a much more interesting read. Mostly I think because in and around the horrors are woven the minute and detailed character portraits that drive the action. If you want Gothic go straight to the source.  Start with Arthur Machen. Leave The Prestige for those who have not read the forerunners.

Or watch the movie. It makes good the promises of costume, time and suspense in a way you could only infer in the novel.

Mule