The Prestige

Two 19th century stage illusionists, the aristocratic Rupert Angier and the working-class Alfred Borden, engage in a bitter and deadly feud; the effects are still being felt by their respective families a hundred years later. Working in the gaslight-and-velvet world of Victorian music halls, they prowl edgily in the background of each other's shadowy life, driven to the extremes by a deadly combination of obsessive secrecy and insatiable curiosity. At the heart of the row is an amazing illusion they both perform during their stage acts. The secret of the magic is simple, and the reader is in on it almost from the start, but to the antagonists the real mystery lies deeper. Both have something more to hide than the mere workings of a trick.

First sentence: It began on a train, heading north through England, although I was soon to discover that the story had really begun more than a hundred years earlier.

Year

1995

Language

English

Publisher

Blackstone Audiobooks

Editions

22

Reader rating

3.6 / 5 (9)

Pages

10

ISBN

9780786168415

Data source: Wikidata