The third installment in Davies' Deptford Trilogy - and I think my favorite of them. This one features the life of Paul Dempster, by now well known to us all. And how the small act of two boys having an ill-fated snowball fight sets off a chain reaction leading to the poor child's transformation into Magnus Eisengrim - the world famous illusionist.

It is quite a story and the atmosphere created is fantastical. In particular, I loved the depiction of Wanless World of Wonders with that creepy, cut-rate, dirty feel of an early 20th century travelling carnival complete with rubes, a blow-off, geeks, pickpockets. And Abdullah -- preposterous. The whole feel of the novel is charmingly preposterous.

Although the story itself is entertaining, the structure of the novel felt a bit old-fashioned: Eisengrim narrating the story to a group of listeners who occassionally interrupt and analyze the situation felt a bit contrived. Another critique aimed at the series as a whole is that sometimes these characters are hard to empathize with as they are just so odd, and rather cold.

Overall - I did enjoy this and found myself savoring many passages of beautiful writing exploring the concepts of truth, identity, wonder. It certainly ends my reading of Robertson Davies on a high note, but in the main, I am not sure whether I will seek out more of his work. ( )

nearly 40 yrs. ago now. this book launched my reading career. i owe a great debt to mr. davies that i can never pay. i was lucky enough to hear a handful of his lectures at stratford, ont. for this much i am grateful.

Al igual que la primera parte fascinante la historia de estos tres extraños personajes que consiguen manterner una amistad totalmente atípica. ( )

The final book in the Deptford Trilogy, this novel is much more compelling than the tedious Manticore. All three novels use a frame to tell their story: in the first, a letter from Ramsay to the headmaster; in the second, sessions of psychoanalysis and pages of a diary; in the third, famed conjurer Magnus Eisengrim is telling his life story to his friend Ramsay; his friend, lover, and manager, Leisl; and a trio of people involved in making a movie about a nineteenth-century conjurer in which Eisengrim is starring. One of these three, Ingestree, turns out to be a player in this drama, something of an artistic rival. Eisengrim, of course, was born plain Paul Dempster (the infant victim of Boy Staunton’s snowball trick), and bore a number of other names. Kidnapped by a carnival magician who had raped him, he receives the name Cass Fletcher; later, as a theatrical stunt double and stagehand he is Mungo Fetch and Jules LeGrand. It’s a stirring, adventurous story and culminates, finally, in the story of Boy Staunton’s final evening. **SPOILER ALERT** Ramsay assumes that Eisengrim drove him to suicide to get revenge for the snowball trick, but he insists it was nothing so simple. Had that not happened, he might have wound up a totally different person, perhaps a small-town Baptist preacher, to him a worse fate than anything he experienced. No, it seems to have been more a battle of wills; Boy tried to “eat” Eisengrim, in the magician’s words, and it was not allowed. Suicide emerged as an alternative to assuming the tedious, soul-crushing job of Lieutenant Governor which Staunton so actively sought, but now shrinks from. ( )

http://books.kenficara.com/2008/01/wo... ( )