Magic (novel)

Magic is a psychological horror novel written by William Goldman. It was published in the United States in August 1976 by Delacorte Press. In 1978 Richard Attenborough directed a feature film adaptation of the story that starred Anthony Hopkins and Ann-Margret.

For the feature film adaptation, see Magic (1978 film).
Magic: A Novel
First edition
AuthorWilliam Goldman
Cover artistRichard Huebner[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
PublisherDelacorte Press
Publication date
August 1976
Media typePrint (Paperback, Hardcover)
Pages243 pp
ISBN0-440-05159-2
OCLC2415446
813/.5/4
LC ClassPZ4.G635 Mag PS3557.O384

Plot summary

The novel concerns a man named Corky Withers, a shy, odd-tempered and alcoholic magician, whose lackluster performances start to turn around when he adds a foul-mouthed ventriloquist's dummy, Fats, to the show. It chronicles Corky's childhood and adolescence, and his deep love for a high-school crush named Peggy Ann Snow.

The novel is written kaleidoscopically, changing time period, location, and point of view swiftly and leaving important information, such as the identity of Fats the dummy, unknown for extended periods of time.

Background

Goldman had the idea for a novel about a ventriloquist for a number of years before writing it.[2]

He says his editor suggested he cut the sequence where Corky's father talks about seeing Bronko Nagurski making a comeback in a football game, which Goldman had seen as a boy, but the author refused because he was so moved by it.[3]

Reception

Producer Joseph E. Levine paid $1 million for the film rights and to do the screenplay.[4].[5] The novel was well received.[6]

gollark: What's wrong with the stdlib's htmlgen? This seems fine.
gollark: I'm using karax and abusing it to generate stringified HTML.
gollark: The whatnow?
gollark: This is slower than rust, which manages to do this extremely fast using bees.
gollark: Nim does decently well at my very unscientific web fastness benchmark™, managing 1ms average latency on a test where it generates a simple HTML page and sends it.

References
  1. Modern first editions - a set on Flickr
  2. Egan p 130
  3. Richard Andersen, William Goldman, Twayne Publishers, 1979 p 100-101
  4. "WESTWARD THEY COME, BIG BUCKS FOR BIG BOOKS" Rosenfield, Paul. Los Angeles Times 18 Feb 1979: n1.
  5. "Levine Buys Film Rights To William Goldman Novel" New York Times 3 Mar 1976: 27.
  6. "William Goldman pulls 'Magic' out of elliptical hat", Wolff, Geoffrey. Los Angeles Times 3 Oct 1976: q1.
  • Egan, Sean, William Goldman: The Reluctant Storyteller, Bear Manor Media 2014


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