The Illusionists: A Novel

By Rosie Thomas

 

 The intoxicating new novel of magic and intrigue by “a master storyteller” (Cosmopolitan), for fans of The Night Circus and Water for Elephants

 

Over the course of three decades of writing, bestselling novelist Rosie Thomas has earned an untold number of awards and the devotion of millions of loyal readers. Her new novel, The Illusionists, set in London in 1870, is a thrilling step forward—a captivating tale of passion and fantasy set in the theater world.

At the start of The Illusionists, we meet Eliza, a young, beautiful woman of limited means. Eliza is modern before her time. Not for her the stifling if respectable conventionality of marriage, children, domestic drudgery. She longs for more. Through her work as an artist’s model, she meets the magnetic and irascible Devil—a born showman whose dream is to run his own theater company.

Devil’s right-hand man is the improbably-named Carlo Bonomi, an ill-tempered dwarf with an enormous talent for all things magic and illusion. Carlo and Devil clash at every opportunity and it constantly falls upon Eliza to broker an uneasy peace between them. And then there is Jasper Button. Mild-mannered, and a family man at heart, it is his gift as an artist that makes him the unlikely final member of the motley crew.

Thrown together by a twist of fate, their lives are inextricably linked: the fortune of one depends on the fortune of the other. And as Eliza gets sucked into the seductive and dangerous world her strange companions inhabit, she risks not only her heart, but also her life, which is soon thrown into peril.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Release date: Jun 26, 2014
• ISBN: 9781468309911

Rosie Thomas

Rosie Thomas is the author of a number of celebrated novels, including the bestsellers The Kashmir Shawl, Iris and Ruby and Constance. Once she was established as a writer and her children were grown, she discovered a love of travelling and mountaineering. She has climbed in the Alps and the Himalayas, competed in the Peking to Paris car rally, spent time on a tiny Bulgarian research station in Antarctica and travelled the silk road through Asia. She lives in London.

Reviews for The Illusionists

[helenliz_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This has flashes of really good writing, but there are the occasional parts that leave you going "eh,what?" and they sort of jolt you out of the swing of the thing. The surmise is excellent, two illusionists form a double act that contains an undercurrent of tension between them, but they are better together than apart. They are Devil Wix - a man with a back story and a very guilt conscience - and Carlo Baldini who is actually Charlie Moriss and is dwarf with a giant chip on his shoulder. They gradually take over the theatre they are performing in, and turn it into a place of wonder, the driving force being Devil. Thrown into this mix is Eliza, who starts off as determined to exert her independence, and turns into a dishrag at about half way for no apparent reason. There is a supporting cast who are little more than two dimensional cut outs. At times this drags, at others something momentous happens and everyone carries on without turning a hair. It could have been really god, but was a bit of a let down.

[smits_52 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really like how the Daily Mail described "The Illusionists" as "A brilliant Gothic mix of glitter and grime". Only I'm not sure it was brilliant. The novel did not get to a deeper level that I was hoping it would into theatrical life in Victorian London. The ending was okay but could have been better.

[big_bang_gorilla · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

In which two aspiring magicians who are attempting to climb the greasy pole of the late-Victorian world of show business link their fates with a spunky young woman and a moody exotic from Switzerland who designs and builds automata. These characters are believable and well-drawn, but not so much as to mask this book's great flaw: its length. If publishers edited novels any more, this would need at least a third of its logorrhea excised to make it an enjoyable read. As it is, the book is essentially devoid of action for around 350 pages; after that, when this brontosaurus finally starts trotting, the rest of the book is reasonably interesting, though still something less than a page-turner. Recommended for jury duty weeks, or a 10-hour layover in a train station.

[cherylk_44 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I liked this book. It was way on the darker side than I expected. Which is a nice present. Sometimes the magical world can come off as just that "magical", The author did a good job of portraying the other side of this profession. Not the one as an audience member sees as all fun and illusions but the daily grind of this work and the people who live it. Kind of like carnie people at a carnival. Don't let the name Devil confuse you as he turned out to be a complex character but also a likable character. In fact, all of the characters were good. Don't get me wrong. It is just that the pacing of the story was slow. Which I would not have had a problem with if I had fully embraced the characters and the story itself. I felt that there was a lot of dialect and at times that was all there was was talking. Overall, a good book. So if you are looking for a book about magic with the old English/Victorian feel to it than you might check this book out.

[lauriebrown54 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

“The Illusionists” has a premise that should be great: set in 1885 London, a group of people-stage magicians, a scientist who makes life sized mechanical dolls, an independent woman who leaves her middle class home to become an artist’s model, an artist who makes amazing wax models and props. Add in a highly competitive theater owner and a lot of sexual tension between, well, nearly everyone and it should be a story that one couldn’t put down. Sadly, while the book is okay- I enjoyed it- I can’t call it great. While the characters are interesting- Devil Wix the fast talking stage magician; his new partner Carol Boldoni, a dwarf who is a world class contortionist and illusionist; Jasper Button the artist and childhood friend of Wix’s; Heinrich Bayer the introverted engineer who adores his mechanical dancer; and Eliza Dunlop, who has a very modern outlook for someone of her class and time and seems a bit of a Mary Sue- none of them has much depth. We get backstory on Devil and Eliza, and a bit on Button, but nothing on Boldoni or Bayer. The setting is wonderful; the decaying theater brought back to life and the hustle of the behind the scenes work- I loved the descriptions of the magical illusions. The pace is odd, though. There are a couple of events of great tension and excitement that would seem to be the climax of the story, but they don’t resolve anything. The first one, around the middle of the book, just happens with no explanation. Why the character does what he did there and what his goal was are never explored. The violence at the end upsets everyone, but it changes no one; they just go on about their lives. I enjoyed the book but it could have used a good editor to help with the pacing and characters.