Memoirs of Robert-Houdin

The autobiography of the father of modern magic: clockmaker, conjuror and the man who took magic from the fairground to the theatre.

What’s inside

1. My birth and parentage — Colonel Bernard’s lessons, first mechanical attempts, the Abbé Larivière
2. A country idler turned lawyer’s clerk — Dr. Carlosbach the conjuror, a small automaton, the acrobatic canaries
3. How a man becomes a sorcerer — my cousin Robert, my first sleight-of-hand feat, I am poisoned
4. Torrini and Antonio — the fair at Angers, my first sight of a conjuring performance
5. Torrini’s lessons — nomadic life, the conjuror Comus, a duel at piquet
6. Torrini relates his life — the treachery of Chevalier Pinetti, a performance before Pius VII
7. The end of Torrini’s history — the Grand Turk’s performance, my first performance, I return home
8. The prodigal son — Paris, my marriage, Comte, origin of the word prestidigitateur
9. Celebrated automata — Vaucanson’s duck and flute-player, Kempelen’s chess-player, the componium
10. An inventor’s calculations — my new automata, meeting Antonio again, Bosco and the cups
11. A reverse of fortune — inventing an automaton, the mechanical nightingale, two august visitors
12. Philippe the magician — his comic adventures, the Exposition of 1844, the royal visit
13. My theatre in the Palais Royal — building it, the first performance, discouragement and success
14. The invention of second sight — curious experiments, the danger of being a sorcerer, the Vaudeville
15. To Brussels and back — a theatrical agent, the miseries of professional travelling
16. The Fantastic Soirées reopen — a performance at the Château of St. Cloud, Cagliostro’s casket
17. Aerial suspension, and off to London — a performance at the Odéon, 1848, Manager Mitchell, the Great Wizard
18. The St. James’s Theatre — Manchester, a performance at Buckingham Palace
19. A farewell tour — Colchester, giving up my theatre, retiring to St. Gervais
20. Travels in Algeria — performances before the Arab chieftains, the sect of the Aissaoua
21. Into the interior of Africa — tent life, a marabout mystified, a terrible storm, conclusion
22. A course of miracles

Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin, 1859 (1860 edition) · Chapman and Hall. Complete 382-page PDF. Free to download: check out at $0 and the file arrives by email and on your order page.

This classic is in the public domain. Scans come from library copies, so expect the odd stain or stamp of an old book.