The Secrets of Stage Conjuring

Robert-Houdin reveals the methods behind his celebrated stage illusions and second sight, translated by Professor Hoffmann.

What’s inside

1. The theatre of Robert-Houdin — how his Paris theatre of “fantastic evenings” came to be
2. A conjuror’s stage arrangements
3. Handkerchief tricks
4. The light and heavy chest
5. The hundred candles lighted by a pistol shot
6. The ghost illusion
7. The Indian basket trick
8. Spiritualistic manifestations
9. The bust of Socrates
10. A curious effect in acoustics — Wheatstone’s “telephonic concert” of four harps
11. The decapitated speaking — the talking-head illusion first shown as the “Sphinx” in 1865
12. The Protean cabinet
13. The feats of the Davenport brothers — their performance and the spirit cabinet phenomena examined
14. The enchanted portfolio
15. The magic drum

Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin, 1881 · George Routledge & Sons. Complete 263-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.