The Magician and Other Stories

What a fine collection of short stories these are – and how fortunate the accident that led it to join my home library! I purchased this book entirely by mistake; attracted by a preface by Somerset Maugham, I confused the book’s title with another by Maugham himself. And while I am glad to have a copy of Maugham’s preface, I am even more so to have had the chance to read and enjoy these stories. Of the thousands of short stories that I must have read over the years, a few of the ones in this collection must rank among my favorites.

Their author, Bruno Frank (1887–1945) was a writer, dramatist, and poet who fled Nazi Germany in 1933 and eventually took up residence in the US. Although he is known for his novels and his screenplay show more of the 1939 The Hunchback of Notre Dame, in the 1930s he wrote various short stories that were translated into English for this posthumous collection.

The Magician and Other Stories contains nine short stories plus a “fragment of a projected novel”. They are tales of courage, sorrow, regret, loss, retribution,and inspiration. Most are life- affirming stories, brimming with the joy of human existence in a troubled and difficult world. In “Pantomime,” two young lovers being forced to terminate their relationship choose to end their lives in a double suicide – and through accident, live to see how short- sighted their act would have been. In “Sixteen Thousand Francs,” a former soldier is tormented for decades over his thoughtless act on the battlefield, and in trying to make amends, finds that there are worse things than forgetting the past. In “The Golden Beetle,” an escaped prisoner has the chance to end the life of the cruel jailer who made his life so miserable – and in a sudden revelation of wisdom, accepts the existence of his own tormentor.

In “The Suitcase,” a husband who has grown indifferent to his wife discovers the miracle of unquestioning love and trust, and grows to become the man worthy of both. In “The Unknown Woman,” a young man falls in love with a woman (a stranger) on a train – and the experience opens in him an aching need that life cannot fill. “The Concert” recounts a vicious rivalry between two male singers, with an ending worthy of de Maupassant or Maugham. “The Moon Watch” is a strange and powerful story with a chilling ending. Other stories in the collection include “An Adventure in Venice” and “The Magician.” The final selection, “Chamfort Releases His Death” is presented as a fragment of a never – written autobiography, of an author who lost his life during the French Revolution. It ends thus:

“I have been a witness to great changes, a witness moved by bitter passions, though not of heroic stature. The violent earth-quakings and earth-shatterings of recent history consume me in my waking hours. And thus, between life and death, sitting as it seems in an open grave, I deliver my report.”

The stories in this collection deserve to be remembered, and it is sad to contemplate how few copies of this book seem to exist. Granted, the language is at times florid and dated, and the descriptions of people and scenes more detailed than some might prefer. But with eloquence and wisdom they celebrate the experience of human existence. I enjoyed them immensely (and one -- I shall not reveal which -- has brought tears to my eyes both times that I have read it). As the saying goes: "it is not you who reads the book, the book reads you."

(Note: Somerset Maugham’s preface, like all of his writing, is worth reading in its own right. Maugham knew Bruno Frank, and could therefore give the reader a sense of what he was like as a man. The stories are very different from Maugham’s own work, as in his maturity, he eschewed lengthy description and melodramatic language. In reading his preface closely, I infer that he was being generous towards a style of writing that was not quite to his taste. However, as he points out, an individual’s own opinion of fiction is all that should matter. show less