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A review by scribepub
Empire of Enchantment: The Story of Indian Magic by John Zubrzycki
Zubrzycki has found the most wonderful story, and told it brilliantly. It is — quite literally — a book of marvels.
William Dalyrymple
In Empire of Enchantment, John Zubrzycki explores the history of magic rituals in India and the way they shaped western imaginations.
The author … draws on the accounts left by travellers, merchants, pilgrims and missionaries.
He has a pleasing sense of humour … and an eye for the absurd.
The Times
John Zubrzycki’s Empire of Enchantment, a fantastic and thoroughly engaging history of Indian magic, is bristling with anecdotes … tales of conjurors, tricksters, illusionists, jugglers, and cunning conmen across the centuries.
Financial Times
An amazing, brilliant, and incredibly erudite book. Zubrzycki’s knowledge is dazzling, and his discussions of Indian magicians and their Western imitators or denigrators allow him to tell marvellous stories about animal trainers, snake charmers, not to mention, thieves, Thugs, folk healers, spies, automatons, and about fascinating characters – Thurston, Sleeman, Sorcar – and many more.
Lee Siegel, Professor of Religion, University of Hawaii, and author of Net of Magic: Wonders and Deceptions in India
Exceptionally well-crafted and brilliantly told, Empire of Enchantment brings alive the most enchanting tales and traditions from the history of Indian magic, packed with an extraordinary cast featuring emperors and politicians, street performers and thugs. Travelling with Zubrzycki from distant antiquity down to our own, more recent times, what this book offers is a universe of pure, unadulterated delight.
Shashi Tharoor, author of Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India
A strange, deeply learned but consistently entertaining salmagundi of marvels, myths and outrageous cons a surefooted survey of a vast terrain.
The Spectator
‘Delightful and charming … an extraordinarily riveting social history of India, and of India’s encounter with the world.’
The National
Empire of Enchantment is a remarkable feat of scholarship and showmanship. It is scrupulously researched, richly illustrated and highly entertaining — and readers will never watch a rabbit snatched from a hat in quite the same way again.
Mandy Sayer, Weekend Australian
In Empire of Enchantment, Sydney-based historian, journalist, and former diplomat John Zubrzycki assembles a jewel case of illusion and wonder ... Empire of Enchantment holds together with a spirit of wonder usually reserved for works of magical realism, a genre that after all owes debts to the jinns and trickery within these pages.
Alexandra Roginski, Australian Book Review
A valuable and entertaining book.
The Washington Post
Hugely entertaining … a vividly illuminating history of the place of magic in Indian life ... [a] fabulous book of marvels and wonders.
Literary Review
Enjoyable, authoritative and unexpected ... a wonderfully restrained commentary.
John Keay
A whirlwind tour of a tradition that stretches from the spells of the Atharva Veda to the kitschy razzle-dazzle of today’s stage conjurers.
India Today
A magic trick performed in three acts, Zubrzycki plays raconteur in the book to the birth, disappearance, and reappearance of modern Indian magic.
scroll.in
In this page-turner, Zubrzycki teases apart the many strands of India’s magical history with a sleight of hand that would put a conjuror to shame.
Outlook
Zubrzycki focuses on magic and its derivates as entertainment, and has brought to life the history of the art in India.
The Hindu
From the pomp and circumstance of the stage, the death-defying sword swallowers, the amazing levitating brahmins, the trapeze artists, the mysterious rope-climbing sadhus, the amazing contortionists and jugglers, the book is a treatise on the varied skills and trappings of the magical art in India.
The Asian Age
William Dalyrymple
In Empire of Enchantment, John Zubrzycki explores the history of magic rituals in India and the way they shaped western imaginations.
The author … draws on the accounts left by travellers, merchants, pilgrims and missionaries.
He has a pleasing sense of humour … and an eye for the absurd.
The Times
John Zubrzycki’s Empire of Enchantment, a fantastic and thoroughly engaging history of Indian magic, is bristling with anecdotes … tales of conjurors, tricksters, illusionists, jugglers, and cunning conmen across the centuries.
Financial Times
An amazing, brilliant, and incredibly erudite book. Zubrzycki’s knowledge is dazzling, and his discussions of Indian magicians and their Western imitators or denigrators allow him to tell marvellous stories about animal trainers, snake charmers, not to mention, thieves, Thugs, folk healers, spies, automatons, and about fascinating characters – Thurston, Sleeman, Sorcar – and many more.
Lee Siegel, Professor of Religion, University of Hawaii, and author of Net of Magic: Wonders and Deceptions in India
Exceptionally well-crafted and brilliantly told, Empire of Enchantment brings alive the most enchanting tales and traditions from the history of Indian magic, packed with an extraordinary cast featuring emperors and politicians, street performers and thugs. Travelling with Zubrzycki from distant antiquity down to our own, more recent times, what this book offers is a universe of pure, unadulterated delight.
Shashi Tharoor, author of Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India
A strange, deeply learned but consistently entertaining salmagundi of marvels, myths and outrageous cons a surefooted survey of a vast terrain.
The Spectator
‘Delightful and charming … an extraordinarily riveting social history of India, and of India’s encounter with the world.’
The National
Empire of Enchantment is a remarkable feat of scholarship and showmanship. It is scrupulously researched, richly illustrated and highly entertaining — and readers will never watch a rabbit snatched from a hat in quite the same way again.
Mandy Sayer, Weekend Australian
In Empire of Enchantment, Sydney-based historian, journalist, and former diplomat John Zubrzycki assembles a jewel case of illusion and wonder ... Empire of Enchantment holds together with a spirit of wonder usually reserved for works of magical realism, a genre that after all owes debts to the jinns and trickery within these pages.
Alexandra Roginski, Australian Book Review
A valuable and entertaining book.
The Washington Post
Hugely entertaining … a vividly illuminating history of the place of magic in Indian life ... [a] fabulous book of marvels and wonders.
Literary Review
Enjoyable, authoritative and unexpected ... a wonderfully restrained commentary.
John Keay
A whirlwind tour of a tradition that stretches from the spells of the Atharva Veda to the kitschy razzle-dazzle of today’s stage conjurers.
India Today
A magic trick performed in three acts, Zubrzycki plays raconteur in the book to the birth, disappearance, and reappearance of modern Indian magic.
scroll.in
In this page-turner, Zubrzycki teases apart the many strands of India’s magical history with a sleight of hand that would put a conjuror to shame.
Outlook
Zubrzycki focuses on magic and its derivates as entertainment, and has brought to life the history of the art in India.
The Hindu
From the pomp and circumstance of the stage, the death-defying sword swallowers, the amazing levitating brahmins, the trapeze artists, the mysterious rope-climbing sadhus, the amazing contortionists and jugglers, the book is a treatise on the varied skills and trappings of the magical art in India.
The Asian Age