Robertson Double Take

Christopher Priest. The Prestige. New York: Tor Books, 2005
0312858868 Amazon Review The Washington Post called this "a dizzying magic show of a novel, chock-a-block with all the props of Victorian sensation fiction: seances, multiple narrators, a family curse, doubles, a lost notebook, wraiths, and disembodied spirits; a haunted house, awesome mad-doctor machinery, a mausoleum, and ghoulish horrors; a misunderstood scientist, impossible disappearances; the sins of the fathers visited upon their descendants." Winner of the 1996 World Fantasy Award, The Prestige is even better than that, because unlike many Victorians, Priest writes crisp, unencumbered prose. And anyone who's ever thrilled to the arcing electricity in the "It's alive!" scene in Frankenstein will relish the "special effects" by none other than Nikola Tesla. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Publishers Weekly Priest, one of Granta's Best Young British Novelists (1983 list), has not been overproductive since he made a small reputation with The Affirmation and The Glamour, published here more than a dozen years ago. His new novel (the title of which refers to the residue left after a magician's successful trick) is enthrallingly odd. In a carefully calculated period style that is remarkably akin to that of the late Robertson Davies, Priest writes of a pair of rival magicians in turn-of-the-century London. Each has a winning trick the other craves, but so arcane is the nature of these tricks, so incredibly difficult are they to perform, that they take on a peculiar life of their own?in one case involving a mysterious apparent double identity, in the other a reliance on the ferocious powers unleashed in the early experimental years of electricity. The rivalry of the two men is such that in the end, though both are ashamed of the strength of their feelings of spite and envy, it consumes them both, and affects their respective families for generations. This is a complex tale that must have been extremely difficult to tell in exactly the right sequence, while still maintaining a series of shocks to the very end. Priest has brought it off with great imagination and skill. It's only fair to say, though, that the book's very considerable narrative grip is its principal virtue. The characters and incidents have a decidedly Gothic cast, and only the restraint that marks the story's telling keeps it on the rails. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title..

Paperback, New

[SW: magic, fantasy, historical, illusions, adventure stories, intriguing, pulp heroes, look at later, movie adaptation, read it, suspense,]

Details

Colin Simpson: Take Me To Russia, Sydney, Australia Angus & Robertson 1965 ; fester Einband / hard cover
Very Good

512 pages plus 4 green pages of practical information from the author. Pages are clean and tight and well bound. Dust jacket shows some wear and tear and has been clipped to front inside though will be covered in new protective plastic prior to shipping. Previous owners name to inside first page noted. Second Edition Good to very Good Hard Cover Double Elephant - over 25" - 50" tall; Second Edition

[SW: Travel / RussiaRussia]

Details

Simpson, Colin: Take Me to Spain; Including Majorca and a Sampling of Portugal, Angus & Robertson, London . Sydney . Melbourne . Wellington, 1964 ISBN: No ISBN

Reasonable Reasonable. Maroon Board with Gilt 1st Edition 345 g; 232 pages, list of illustrations, index and 24 Green Pages of Practical Information. Photographic endpapers, showing a horse-drawn carts standing outside of a Spanish house. 3 map frontispieces, one showing rainfall on the Iberian peninsula, a double page map showing the route that the author took and the third map showing the regions of Spain. The text is illustrated with both coloured and black-and-white photographs and the occasional map. Brewing coloured boards with a gilt illustration to the front panel and gilt writing to the spine. Bumping to the head and to the heel of the backstrip with shelf wear to the lower book edges. Some loss of colour to the cloth to the lower lefthand corner of the front panel. Rubbing to the book corners. Browning to the text block edges. The internal pages are slightly brown as well. Previous owner's name to the top edge of the free front endpaper. Photographic dustwraper, showing a matador with pink and black writing to the front panel and black and yellow to the spine. Rubbing and chipping, with loss to be top dustwraper corners and to the top backstrip edge. Rubbing to the lower dustwraper edge. Some sun damage to the backstrip area. A small travelogue and guide from the 1960s for the Iberian peninsula -- Spain and Portugal. Included is a small section of up-to-date ( for the time ) prices and places to go when travelling in Spain and Portugal. Part of the Travellers' Compact Edition series of books. Digital image available upon request. Size: 16mo - up to 6 ¾" tall - Sextodecimo. Illustrator: Photographic. Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: Under 1 kilo. Category: Travel; Spain ; Inventory No: 0105119. Illustrated by: Photographic

[SW: Spain Travel, Spain and Portugal, Travellers' Compact Edition -- Series Travel; Spain ; NOISBN]

Details