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On Deception
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| List Price: | £7.99 |
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Product Description
On Deception presents the highlights of Houdini's writings on illusions, revealing him to have been a remarkably prescient champion of rationalism and an ardent opponent of the duping of susceptible individuals. Throughout his life, the world's most famous escapologist strove to expose the methods and tricks of illusionists and sham spiritualists. Studying entertainers and criminals alike, Houdini investigates the tricks of the mind and sleights of hand that have deceived people throughout history. The magician's writings caused a public sensation; legend has it that The Right Way to do Wrong was bought in bulk by burglars in an attempt to guard the tricks of their trade. This collection also includes Houdini's revelations about the methods behind some of his own most famous tricks, and articles he wrote to expose his imitators, demonstrating him to be unarguably the master of his craft.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #7371 in Books
- Published on: 2009-11-20
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Paperback
- 112 pages
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Harry Houdini (1874-1926) was a magician, escapologist and performer of stunts, as well as a sceptic and investigator of spiritualists. He produced films, acted, and penned numerous books. Derren Brown is a well-known English magician, mentalist, and psychological illusionist.
Customer Reviews
alright, not great
An OK read but brief and not quite what I had been expecting. It's basically a list of various scams and illusions with some insight into how they were performed when the book was written. A few anecdotes from Houdini's travels are thrown in for good measure. I had been expecting a deeper insight from Houdini into human psychology with some unique observations based on his own experiences. From that point of view the book was quite disappointing.
It's not badly written, but Houdini's prose isn't interesting enough to make this book feel particularly special in my opinion.
It's very much a collection of short essays and I was suprised by how short it was, coming in well under 100 pages. I think that the publishers have tried to pad it out as much as possible with the foreword and the way the text and "chapters" are set out.
