The Magician's Wife by Brian Moore
"The Magician's Wife" by Brian Moore is a historical novel set in mid-nineteenth century France and Algeria, exploring themes of colonialism, deception, and the complexities of personal and political identity. The story revolves around Emmeline Lambert, the wife of a renowned magician who struggles to find her own identity in a world that often marginalizes women. Her husband is drawn into a political scheme orchestrated by Emperor Napoléon III, which leads them to Algeria where he attempts to manipulate a local leader to prevent a jihad against European forces.
As the narrative unfolds, Emmeline becomes increasingly disillusioned with her husband's true character, discovering that his celebrated persona is a façade hiding moral emptiness. The novel delves into the contrasts between her experiences within French aristocracy and the authentic beliefs she encounters among the Algerian people. This juxtaposition raises questions about faith, integrity, and the nature of human relationships. Ultimately, "The Magician's Wife" presents a critical examination of the interplay between personal deception and broader socio-political realities, inviting readers to reflect on the nature of belief and the impact of cultural exploitation.
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The Magician's Wife by Brian Moore
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1997
Type of work: Novel
The Work
Moore once more engaged his imagination with history, and as he did in Black Robe and Lies of Silence (1990), as he grapples with the effects of colonialism and effects of political and cultural exploitation. His novels shuttle among eras and different nations and cultures; in this novel, action is situated in mid-nineteenth century France and Algeria, revealing the origins of France’s domination of North Africa.
The magician’s wife of the title is Emmeline Lambert, an intelligent woman eclipsed by her husband’s celebrity and her gender’s marginal influence in French aristocratic circles. Her husband is summoned to Emperor Napoléon III’s winter palace for what appears to be royal performance but is actually a political maneuver. Lambert is dispatched to Algeria to hoodwink a local leader into suspending a jihad that would rout Europeans from his country. Just when it appears that his charade has succeeded, his wife, acting out of disgust and an act of conscience, confesses the chicanery to the leader, and her husband is shot and paralyzed.
The theme of deception is paramount. Lambert, though celebrated and famous, is actually a cheap fraud, and like other frauds in Moore’s works, he is a morally vapid figure. Witnessing his self-absorption and chicanery, Emmeline realizes that her marriage is the product of trickery. The man she believed possessed nobility of spirit is an empty vessel. The aristocrats at the emperor’s palace represent another collection of impostors and predatory exploiters. Worst of all is the emperor, whose hapless foreign policy is the furthest thing from his ancestor’s world-altering adventures.
Moore returns one last time to his concern with the role of faith in human life. Emmeline contrasts the empty formalism of Catholicism and its rituals with the prayers of the Muslims. In Algeria, she finds profound, genuine intensity of belief, where people, no matter how elevated or ordinary, are informed by a belief in the power and immanence of God in their lives. Then a Muslim leader forestalls his jihad not because he is overwhelmed by Lambert’s prestidigitation but because of a conviction of his own moral superiority that needs no outward show to confirm its force.
Sources for Further Study
America. CLXXVIII, May 2, 1998, p. 23.
Booklist. XCIV, November 15, 1997, p. 546.
Commonweal. CXXV, February 27, 1998, p. 22.
Forbes. CLXI, March 9, 1998, p. 28.
Library Journal. CXXIII, November 1, 1997, p. 117.
Los Angeles Times Book Review. January 25, 1998, p. 8.
The New York Times Book Review. CIII, February 1, 1998, p. 14.
Publishers Weekly. CCXLV, January 5, 1998, p. 44.
The Times Literary Supplement. September 12, 1998, p. 7.
The Washington Post Book World. XXVIII, January 11, 1998, p. 9.