Kevin Jackson

Use Your Illusions

Conjuring Asia: Magic, Orientalism, and the Making of the Modern World

By

Cambridge University Press 327pp £18.99 order from our bookshop

Fun fact: in 1849, Charles Dickens, a keen amateur conjuror, blacked up his face and hands, donned a set of colourful robes and presented himself as The Unparalleled Necromancer Rhia Rama Rhoos – a name probably inspired by a well-known pair of Indian jugglers, Ramo Samee and Kia Khan Khruse. One thread of Chris Goto-Jones’s frequently interesting book sketches the craze, at its height towards the end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th, for British and American stage magicians to present themselves as masters of arcane arts derived from the Mysterious East and, in some cases, actually to pose as Indian, Arabian, Chinese or Japanese talents.

Sign Up to our newsletter

Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.

Follow Literary Review on Twitter

  • Last Tweets

    • Sign up to our email newsletter below! Get free articles, highlights from the archive, and chances to win theatre… ,
    • RT : Founded in 1979, is a trusted independent source for reviews of new books across a variety of genres. A… ,
    • RT : Here we are - "Shelf Indulgence" by Ed Potten, a wonderful read, well worth your time: @Lit_Review,
    • 'Like going to a party hoping to get away as quickly as politeness allowed and at 4am finding myself still engrosse… ,
    • 'Neville never shed his sense of being the junior, and perhaps least-deserving Chamberlain.' From the archive, Mic… ,
    • 'The erecting and immediate destruction of a series of straw men rather detracts from what is for the most part an… ,
    • RT : A magnificent demolition job on this "acid laced tirade...unpleasantly self-obsessed...self pitying polemic...book… ,
    Follow Us