Levitation: Physics and Psychology in the Service of Deception

This graphic novel is the first I've read with an annotated bibliography. It's a fictionalized history of a single trick of stage magic, how it was devised, and its passage through three generations of performers. Although some supporting characers are purely fictional, the three magicians and the stage technician who serves as narrator are all actual historical figures.

The technical explanations that make up much of the book are not boring, nor do they seem too digressive. The ending, factual as it evidently is, has a small and quizzical taste of tragedy to it.

For over a century, audiences have been mesmerized by magicians who appear to levitate their beautiful assistants. This graphic novel tells the story of how this trick began and spread all over the world. The narrator, an inventor living in the time of the depression, details to his coworkers the tale of brilliant ideas, deception, trickery, and theft of intellectual property as the best levitation methods were stolen, perfected, and, in some cases, ruined. The pages of this graphic novel feel as though they are from a newspaper. The detailed images are all black and white and appear to have been drawn with a pencil and contain very thin lines. After the story, the readers are presented with real advertisements from the time these show more tricks were first performed, a detailed sketch of how the levitation apparatus was built into the stage, and a written explanation about how his story compares to the way things really happened. The reader will be compelled to read on and find out which characters are able to perfect this trick and claim it as their own. This book is recommended for young adults who enjoy graphic novels, magic, and/or science. show less

A little less engaging than some of Ottaviani's other work. A good story of stage magicians stealing each other's secrets, but it just didn't catch my attention as much as I wanted it to.

The story of the modern levitation illusion from Maskelyne and the Egyptian hall to Kellar and his successor Thurston. The finest touch in this graphic non-novel is that Guy Jarrett (one of the not-so well known geniuses behind many modern illusions) is the central character. Excellent.

Graphic comic book explaining history of levitation in magic. It was ok, I think it would be better in written form. But for brief read it was ok.