Brian Moore |
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Brian Moore (1921-1999) has long been recognized as "one of the best novelists writing, never travelling the same ground twice" (The Times, London). He began his career in 1956 with The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne and has followed it with several other novels that have won the admiration of critics and an ever-widening audience of readers. Four of Moore's novels have been made into films, and he received numerous prestigious literary awards, including two Governor General's Awards for Fiction, and three nominations for the Booker Prize. Born in Belfast, Moore immigrated to Canada in 1948 and lived there until 1958 before moving to California.
The Magician's Wife is, of course, fiction and the characters are my creations but, in part, the novel had its genesis in some odd events which actually occurred in 1856 in France and Algeria.
A few years ago, reading Flaubert's correspondence with George Sand, I came across a reference to one Jean-Eugene Robert-Houdin, described in a footnote as the most famous magician in France and indeed, in all of Europe in the era of Napoleon III.
He was possibly the most inventive magician of all time and, in fact, many years later, Harry Houdini took the name Houdini in homage to Houdin.
I further discovered that in 1856, the French who managed to subdue most of Algeria, feared that the Algerian marabouts (holy men) were believed by the people to take part in a juhad or holy war against the infidels. The marabouts were believed by the people to have miraculous powers and from their ranks would emerge the hahdi or "Chosen One" who would lead them to victory in this conflict. An so, Napoleon's Arab Bureau has the idea of sending Robert Houdin to Algeria to perform his "magic," including the use of electrical devices unknown to the Arabs. The visit was a success and impressed the Arabs. Houdin wrote about it in his memoirs, but it's not known what was it's ultimate effect.
It is also true, as in the novel, that Napoleon III did not wish to commit his troops to Algeria in 1856, as they had just returned from the Crimea. However, in the spring of 1857 a French army under the command of General MacMahon finally brought the whole of Algeria under French rule.
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