The Illusionists
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
An enchanting, Dickensian tale of desire, magic and the Victorian theatre, perfect for fans of Sarah Waters, The Night Circus and Water for Elephants—from the beloved and bestselling author of The Kashmir Shawl
London, 1885—a challenging place for a young, beautiful woman of limited means. But Eliza is modern before her time. She longs for more than the stifling, if respectable, conventionality of marriage, children, domestic drudgery. Through her work as an artist’s model, she meets the magnetic and irascible Devil Wix—a born showman whose dream is to run his own theatre company.
Devil’s right-hand man is Carlo Bonomi, an ill-tempered dwarf who is a talented magician and illusionist. Carlo and Devil clash at every turn and it falls to Eliza to broker an uneasy peace between them. Jasper Button, a mild-mannered family man at heart, is a gifted artist and the unlikely final member of the motley crew. With self-styled impresario Devil at the helm of the Palmyra Theatre, acrobats and illusionists astonish audiences with their death-defying stunts and the magic of mysterious new inventions—like electricity. Backstage, secret romances, box-office dramas and power struggles inevitably simmer, and intermittently boil over. And as Eliza is drawn into their seductive, precarious and exciting bohemian world, she risks not only her heart, but also her life . . .
Framed by Rosie Thomas’s rich portrayal of the rapidly changing world of late-Victorian England, The Illusionists takes readers on an unforgettable journey with a cast of passionate, larger-than-life figures who are inextricably linked through their shared love of the stage and the theatre, and who will make you laugh and break your heart.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in Victorian England, Thomas's sprawling follow-up to The Kashmir Shawl combines several elements: a story of a theater company, a thriller, and, most successfully, a portrait of a woman trying to create an equal partnership with a man. Eliza Dunlop is working as an artists' model when her suitor, Jasper, takes her to the Palmyra Theater, where she meets Devil Wix and the dwarf Carlo Boldoni who are working as illusionists. Wix is ambitious: he wants to own the theater and devises a plan that requires Carlo, Jasper, Eliza, and automaton-maker Heinrich Bayer to work together to swindle the crooked theater owner Jacko Grady. As the theater progresses, the partnership frays; a nearby murder, a kidnapping, and a ghost from Wix's past add elements of horror and suspense. The heart of the book is Eliza's long, slow attempt to not only marry Devil but to live in parity with him. Since she has no models for the relationship she wants, Thomas shows Eliza working to invent a new kind of life; a creation as novel for her time as the mechanical illusions at the Palmyra.
