Released in 1995, The Prestige is a bewildering idea for a novel. It tells the story of Alfred Borden and Rupert Angier, two Victorian magicians (or more accurately, illusionists), who develop a bitter feud that lasts until their deaths. Their rivalry involves sabotaging each other's stage acts, trying to figure out each other's secrets, and simultaneously respecting and condemning each other's magical abilities. After years of both dangerous and petty bickering, one of Borden's tricks becomes a source of much torment to Angier. Called The Transported Man, the trick involves Borden entering into a cabinet upstage, then instantly coming out of another cabinet downstage while the first cabinet collapses, revealing that it is completely empty and Borden has seemingly traveled across the stage in the blink of an eye. Angier cannot understand how Borden does this trick, and as the years go on, the trick becomes more sophisticated, with flashes and bangs courtesy of that new-fangled invention, electricity. Angier is eventually led to believe that the secret to Borden's trick is known by Nikola Tesla, the famed inventor and contemporary of Thomas Edison, so he heads to America to convince Tesla to build him a machine that will trump The Transported Man.
These are the plot points that you will find in the movie as well. However, the novel goes one step further by including a plot about the spiritualists who were all the craze in England at the time, tricking mourners with illusions that were supposed to be manifestations of the afterlife. The movie is faithful to much of Borden's family life but cuts out large swathes of Angier's life. As a result, Angier is a much more interesting character in the novel, whereas Borden is decidedly the more interesting one in the movie (that observation might also belie my preference for Christian Bale, who plays Borden). But in either case, the ultimate revelation as to how Borden achieves his trick, versus how Angier achieves it with Tesla's help, is magnificent. One of the tricks involves a simple deception, the other involves pure fantasy (the movie version is slightly more opposed to the laws of thermodynamics than the novel), but both make this a compelling book to read and a compelling movie to watch.I think the movie does a much better job of surprising its audience than the novel does. Christopher and Jonathan Nolan have done a masterful job of adapting the novel, and the areas in which their script deviates from the novel only serve to enhance the movie. Instead of including the plot thread that involves the great-grandchildren of these two illusionists, the movie is fixed solely on Borden and Angier. And while the novel gives you an idea of how Borden is conducting his trick within the first hundred pages, the movie keeps its secret until the final minutes. Of course, having watched the film prior to reading the book, I have no idea if I would have initially guessed Borden's secret until it was definitively explained in the final chapters. The novel is largely written as a series of diary entries, and Borden's ramblings made a lot of sense to me as someone who already knew the story, but might be completely obscure to someone who had no idea. So if any readers had the experience of reading the book before watching the movie, I'd appreciate knowing whether you figured out the secret before the end.
No matter which medium you choose, The Prestige is an intricate and wonderful piece of storytelling. The movie has a fantastic ending that ties up all the loose ends with aplomb, while the novel, which has a very different conclusion, leaves you with a spooky yet satisfied feeling upon reading the final sentence. So depending on your preference, watch and/or read The Prestige. It's not just an illusion - it really is magical.
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