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The Magicians
Book by Priestley, J. B.
186 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 1954
19 people are currently reading
139 people want to read
About the author
J.B. Priestley
470 books288 followersJohn Boynton Priestley was an English writer. He was the son of a schoolmaster, and after schooling he worked for a time in the local wool trade. Following the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, Priestley joined the British Army, and was sent to France - in 1915 taking part in the Battle of Loos. After being wounded in 1917 Priestley returned to England for six months; then, after going back to the Western Front he suffered the consequences of a German gas attack, and, treated at Rouen, he was declared unfit for active service and was transferred to the Entertainers Section of the British Army.
When Priestley left the army he studied at Cambridge University, where he completed a degree in Modern History and Political Science. Subsequently he found work as theatre reviewer with the Daily News, and also contributed to the Spectator, the Challenge and Nineteenth Century. His earliest books included The English Comic Characters (1925), The English Novel (1927), and English Humour (1928). His breakthrough came with the immensely popular novel The Good Companions, published in 1929, and Angel Pavement followed in 1930. He emerged, too, as a successful dramatist with such plays as Dangerous Corner (1932), Time and the Conways (1937), When We Are Married (1938) and An Inspector Calls (1947).
The publication of English Journey in 1934 emphasised Priestley's concern for social problems and the welfare of ordinary people.
During the Second World War Priestley became a popular and influential broadcaster with his famous Postscripts that followed the nine o'clock news BBC Radio on Sunday evenings. Starting on 5th June 1940, Priestley built up such a following that after a few months it was estimated that around 40 per cent of the adult population in Britain was listening to the programme.
Some members of the Conservative Party, including Winston Churchill, expressed concern that Priestley might be expressing left-wing views on the programme, and, to his dismay, Priestley was dropped after his talk on 20th October 1940.
After the war Priestley continued his writing, and his work invariably provoked thought, and his views were always expressed in his blunt Yorkshire style.
His prolific output continued right up to his final years, and to the end he remained the great literary all-rounder. His favourite among his books was for many years the novel Bright Day, though he later said he had come to prefer The Image Men.
It should not be overlooked that Priestley was an outstanding essayist, and many of his short pieces best capture his passions and his great talent and his mastery of the English language. He set a fine example for any would-be author.
When Priestley left the army he studied at Cambridge University, where he completed a degree in Modern History and Political Science. Subsequently he found work as theatre reviewer with the Daily News, and also contributed to the Spectator, the Challenge and Nineteenth Century. His earliest books included The English Comic Characters (1925), The English Novel (1927), and English Humour (1928). His breakthrough came with the immensely popular novel The Good Companions, published in 1929, and Angel Pavement followed in 1930. He emerged, too, as a successful dramatist with such plays as Dangerous Corner (1932), Time and the Conways (1937), When We Are Married (1938) and An Inspector Calls (1947).
The publication of English Journey in 1934 emphasised Priestley's concern for social problems and the welfare of ordinary people.
During the Second World War Priestley became a popular and influential broadcaster with his famous Postscripts that followed the nine o'clock news BBC Radio on Sunday evenings. Starting on 5th June 1940, Priestley built up such a following that after a few months it was estimated that around 40 per cent of the adult population in Britain was listening to the programme.
Some members of the Conservative Party, including Winston Churchill, expressed concern that Priestley might be expressing left-wing views on the programme, and, to his dismay, Priestley was dropped after his talk on 20th October 1940.
After the war Priestley continued his writing, and his work invariably provoked thought, and his views were always expressed in his blunt Yorkshire style.
His prolific output continued right up to his final years, and to the end he remained the great literary all-rounder. His favourite among his books was for many years the novel Bright Day, though he later said he had come to prefer The Image Men.
It should not be overlooked that Priestley was an outstanding essayist, and many of his short pieces best capture his passions and his great talent and his mastery of the English language. He set a fine example for any would-be author.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
December 23, 2019
I really, really, really want to give this novel 5-stars because the central theme is fascinating and the story situation “uncomfortably” pegged me in a number of aspects. I looked forward to every reading session and found myself discussing key points of that theme with others ... who also decided that they wanted to read THE MAGICIANS.
There were two sections that were something of a disconnect for me, and I’m not even certain that I could explain why. The short answer is that there was a “realism of shared experience” for me with most of the work. The two sections, while well-written, seemed like narrative constructions designed to move the story along rather than flowing as naturally as the others. It didn’t cause me to dislike the book at all. I just became more aware of the “artfulness.”
One aspect has caused a question to play over and over again in my mind. Did Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. read this before penning SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE? The stories are different, but both of them do involve an active involvement with time. In Vonnegut’s book, the main character becomes “unstuck” in time, moving forward and backwards without any control ... living his life over and over again out of order.
In THE MAGICIANS, Priestley introduces the concept of “time alive.” In essence, the reason why so many people lead despairing lives is that they have bought into the idea that time flows forward irrevocably with uncertainty lying ahead and the past lost. But, Priestley maintains that we are the living embodiment of all of our experiences, and we can make changes in our lives by actively placing ourselves in our memories and not just recalling bits and pieces of them. (I will need to be intentionally vague here to avoid spoilers.)
THE MAGICIANS is filled with subtle (and not so subtle) commentary about many things that haven’t changed much since it was written. There’s the corporate view of people as diminishing assets as opposed to adaptable value, the ridiculous tendency to make easy solutions more difficult in order to put a “personal stamp” on them, regrets that are dismissed because they are too painful to remember rather than addressing them, and financial greed laying waste to human consequences. I could go on.
Back when I was discovering the joy of classic horror films, I remember seeing James Whale’s “The Old Dark House” and falling in love with its quirkiness. The film was based on an early book by J.B. Priestley called BENIGHTED and I very much wanted to read it. However, the book was out of print and not available at the library. I soon found that was the same with all of Priestley’s novels (although his famous play, AN INSPECTOR CALLS, was still accessible). Thank goodness, that situation is now being rectified with several of his books back in print, and I plan on enjoying more of them in 2020. (I did read BENIGHTED and I thoroughly enjoyed it.)
If you are part of a book discussion group, I highly recommend THE MAGICIANS. You will be guaranteed many thought-provoking conversations ... and, possibly, more vividly-recalled dreams, which has been my recent experience.
There were two sections that were something of a disconnect for me, and I’m not even certain that I could explain why. The short answer is that there was a “realism of shared experience” for me with most of the work. The two sections, while well-written, seemed like narrative constructions designed to move the story along rather than flowing as naturally as the others. It didn’t cause me to dislike the book at all. I just became more aware of the “artfulness.”
One aspect has caused a question to play over and over again in my mind. Did Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. read this before penning SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE? The stories are different, but both of them do involve an active involvement with time. In Vonnegut’s book, the main character becomes “unstuck” in time, moving forward and backwards without any control ... living his life over and over again out of order.
In THE MAGICIANS, Priestley introduces the concept of “time alive.” In essence, the reason why so many people lead despairing lives is that they have bought into the idea that time flows forward irrevocably with uncertainty lying ahead and the past lost. But, Priestley maintains that we are the living embodiment of all of our experiences, and we can make changes in our lives by actively placing ourselves in our memories and not just recalling bits and pieces of them. (I will need to be intentionally vague here to avoid spoilers.)
THE MAGICIANS is filled with subtle (and not so subtle) commentary about many things that haven’t changed much since it was written. There’s the corporate view of people as diminishing assets as opposed to adaptable value, the ridiculous tendency to make easy solutions more difficult in order to put a “personal stamp” on them, regrets that are dismissed because they are too painful to remember rather than addressing them, and financial greed laying waste to human consequences. I could go on.
Back when I was discovering the joy of classic horror films, I remember seeing James Whale’s “The Old Dark House” and falling in love with its quirkiness. The film was based on an early book by J.B. Priestley called BENIGHTED and I very much wanted to read it. However, the book was out of print and not available at the library. I soon found that was the same with all of Priestley’s novels (although his famous play, AN INSPECTOR CALLS, was still accessible). Thank goodness, that situation is now being rectified with several of his books back in print, and I plan on enjoying more of them in 2020. (I did read BENIGHTED and I thoroughly enjoyed it.)
If you are part of a book discussion group, I highly recommend THE MAGICIANS. You will be guaranteed many thought-provoking conversations ... and, possibly, more vividly-recalled dreams, which has been my recent experience.
May 12, 2014
The Magicians deals with time - a man who is becoming an anachronism in the field of business where finance is breeding cancerously through all aspects of work at the sacrifice of knowledge and wisdom; a man who befriends three mysterious strangers who use the convenient label of 'magicians' when explaining themselves, three strangers who demonstrate the non-linearity of being alive.
J. B. Priestley could be considered something of a visionary in his knowledgeable analysis of the direction that society was taking at the time, its progressive shallowing and opiating of peoples' consciousnesses - in a way it even predicted the futile psychedelia of the late 1960s and the swamping of society with television and its internet ilk.
J. B. Priestley could be considered something of a visionary in his knowledgeable analysis of the direction that society was taking at the time, its progressive shallowing and opiating of peoples' consciousnesses - in a way it even predicted the futile psychedelia of the late 1960s and the swamping of society with television and its internet ilk.
January 28, 2018
4/5
Bueno, la verdad es que no esperaba que me gustara porque no lo conocía, pero mi papá me lo prestó y decidí darle una oportunidad. Al principio me costó enganchar y agarrarle ritmo pero después todo hizo un click y lo empecé a disfrutar. No me esperaba ese pequeño giro del final pero me gustó.
Tal vez en unos días hago la reseña completa.
Bueno, la verdad es que no esperaba que me gustara porque no lo conocía, pero mi papá me lo prestó y decidí darle una oportunidad. Al principio me costó enganchar y agarrarle ritmo pero después todo hizo un click y lo empecé a disfrutar. No me esperaba ese pequeño giro del final pero me gustó.
Tal vez en unos días hago la reseña completa.
September 3, 2018
12 chapters 65,000+ words
A widower, Sir Charles Ravenstreet, quits a job he’s had for many years and gets depressed. I love the accuracy of Priestley’s description of his depression. If I may paraphrase it: His life becomes a muted daydream placed on an edge that is surrounded by darkness.
Lord Mervil offers Ravenstreet a lucrative job to help develop something awful that will cure all ills. It was a good choice to follow Ravenstreet’s depression with a job offer that promises to cure all depressions. Ravenstreet doesn’t like what’s being proposed, but you know that he’s tempted with both the job and the cure-all.
Ravenstreet is visited by three weirdos, Wayland, Merot and Perperek, who may be aliens, time-travellers, angels or psychic experts. Wayland and Marot are dull. Perperek is an annoying clown. Fortunately, Priestley uses them sparingly. They’re called “The Magicians” and for a trio of wise men, they spend much of the time clumsily bungling things. Among other things, Priestley uses them to take a gratuitous swipe at the British legal system.
They take Ravenstreet through some mind-over-matter adventures and change his career path. Along the way the inventor of the cure-all, Ernest Sepman gets very fed up and takes the story toward a climax. Sepman is the best-developed character in the book and the most interesting.
Priestley does a pretty good job here of continuing the conversation started by Aldous Huxley in Brave New World about the “mass man”, the inert nihilist who is vulnerable to manipulation by elites. Priestley adds some good insights. In more than one place Priestley seems to be implying that mass man and other kinds of modern malaise are outgrowths of secularism. For example, see Ravenstreet’s meditations on his wife’s unhappiness. On the other hand he has Lord Mervil imply that mass man would be different if he had real power.
I enjoyed reading this.
2.88 stars
A widower, Sir Charles Ravenstreet, quits a job he’s had for many years and gets depressed. I love the accuracy of Priestley’s description of his depression. If I may paraphrase it: His life becomes a muted daydream placed on an edge that is surrounded by darkness.
Lord Mervil offers Ravenstreet a lucrative job to help develop something awful that will cure all ills. It was a good choice to follow Ravenstreet’s depression with a job offer that promises to cure all depressions. Ravenstreet doesn’t like what’s being proposed, but you know that he’s tempted with both the job and the cure-all.
Ravenstreet is visited by three weirdos, Wayland, Merot and Perperek, who may be aliens, time-travellers, angels or psychic experts. Wayland and Marot are dull. Perperek is an annoying clown. Fortunately, Priestley uses them sparingly. They’re called “The Magicians” and for a trio of wise men, they spend much of the time clumsily bungling things. Among other things, Priestley uses them to take a gratuitous swipe at the British legal system.
They take Ravenstreet through some mind-over-matter adventures and change his career path. Along the way the inventor of the cure-all, Ernest Sepman gets very fed up and takes the story toward a climax. Sepman is the best-developed character in the book and the most interesting.
Priestley does a pretty good job here of continuing the conversation started by Aldous Huxley in Brave New World about the “mass man”, the inert nihilist who is vulnerable to manipulation by elites. Priestley adds some good insights. In more than one place Priestley seems to be implying that mass man and other kinds of modern malaise are outgrowths of secularism. For example, see Ravenstreet’s meditations on his wife’s unhappiness. On the other hand he has Lord Mervil imply that mass man would be different if he had real power.
I enjoyed reading this.
2.88 stars
May 21, 2009
rather a sad book, Priestley returns to one of his main post war themes (the shapes of sleep has this similiar plot) of a group trying to control people- to dose them with some drug or in some other way to pacify them to make them seem happy but in fact less than human. The inventor and his wife are particularly sad- a couple with dreams and lives that are crushed.
January 5, 2019
A magical, melancholy book about time and the way we make choices as individuals and as a society. Surprisingly modern feeling— read past the slightly dated language (it was written in 1954) and you could be reading about 2019’s concerns about social media, technology, and the power of the elite class. And it’s a bit of a page-turner to boot. Very worthwhile.
June 13, 2020
This was my third, maybe fourth,reading of this book. Always a delight. Despite having been written in the early 1950s, and despite language being used in a more measured way than is currently usual this is a very contemporary book. Don't be put off by the title it is not a what one would call fantasy and there are no Harry Potter type figures.
It might be noted that Priestley wrote it in post-war London. Times were bleak then; some readers may feel thar the times are also bleak today.
Priestley was very much on the socialist left seeking fairness at all levels of society, not simply in financial terms but also in opportunity and the potential for satisfying, even creative, work for all. He was also fascinated by what he saw as the illusory nature of time. Both of these themes lie at the base of this book. It is also about living an authentic life and what can happen if one doesn't.
The characters are not drawn in great depth but yet are seen to be multi-layered. Only the police inspector and the coroner are seen as little more than caricatures. There are beautifully hilarious scenes with Prisk, Perpereck, and Mervil, though the last of these was also grotesque. Karney, unpleasant but not evil, was also a character of pathos.
Through it all Priestley writes with sardonic humour.
Here is our world set out for us and what have we or will we, learn from it for the post Covid-19 future?
It might be noted that Priestley wrote it in post-war London. Times were bleak then; some readers may feel thar the times are also bleak today.
Priestley was very much on the socialist left seeking fairness at all levels of society, not simply in financial terms but also in opportunity and the potential for satisfying, even creative, work for all. He was also fascinated by what he saw as the illusory nature of time. Both of these themes lie at the base of this book. It is also about living an authentic life and what can happen if one doesn't.
The characters are not drawn in great depth but yet are seen to be multi-layered. Only the police inspector and the coroner are seen as little more than caricatures. There are beautifully hilarious scenes with Prisk, Perpereck, and Mervil, though the last of these was also grotesque. Karney, unpleasant but not evil, was also a character of pathos.
Through it all Priestley writes with sardonic humour.
Here is our world set out for us and what have we or will we, learn from it for the post Covid-19 future?
January 9, 2024
Three magicians enter the life of world-weary and squeezed-out Ravenstreet, just when an entirely different cadre of men offer him the business opportunity of a lifetime: putting a new wonder-drug in the world that will shut down worrying. Hard to believe these two situations represent competing philosophies of life and where it could go, but that’s what happens when mysticism, science, and the death of caring and meaning collide where Ravenstreet is standing.
All the books and films that flashed through my mind, as I read this intriguing, uplifting, unsettling novel:
The Magus, by John Fowles
the novels of Brian Moore: The Great Victorian Collection, and Cold Heaven
You’re All Alone, by Fritz Leiber
the movie Limitless
the movie Unbreakable
the movie It’s A Wonderful Life
A Christmas Carol, by Dickens
Memories, by Mike McQuay
Lost Horizon, by James Hilton
Is Ravenstreet part of a solution, or stuck and numb in the world’s problem? Can he still care? Pills or magic, time travel or memories? Regret or renewal? (Regret with renewal?…).
The magicians don’t really do clear explanations…but other gifts are frightening, astonishing. Ravenstreet, would-be pill-provider, curious new friend (disciple?) of long-game wizards, will never be the same. But what will happen to the rest of us, once a secret, creeping, gentle but merciless battle for the future comes to rest? …
4.5 stars out of 5. A remarkable whirl of a story, gonna stick by me for a while.
All the books and films that flashed through my mind, as I read this intriguing, uplifting, unsettling novel:
The Magus, by John Fowles
the novels of Brian Moore: The Great Victorian Collection, and Cold Heaven
You’re All Alone, by Fritz Leiber
the movie Limitless
the movie Unbreakable
the movie It’s A Wonderful Life
A Christmas Carol, by Dickens
Memories, by Mike McQuay
Lost Horizon, by James Hilton
Is Ravenstreet part of a solution, or stuck and numb in the world’s problem? Can he still care? Pills or magic, time travel or memories? Regret or renewal? (Regret with renewal?…).
The magicians don’t really do clear explanations…but other gifts are frightening, astonishing. Ravenstreet, would-be pill-provider, curious new friend (disciple?) of long-game wizards, will never be the same. But what will happen to the rest of us, once a secret, creeping, gentle but merciless battle for the future comes to rest? …
4.5 stars out of 5. A remarkable whirl of a story, gonna stick by me for a while.
September 7, 2021
Very enjoyable, very British look at the concepts of time and happiness. Kind of a sci-fi/fantasy ‘ghost of Christmas past’ idea, with the rich industrialist shown through his own history what will make him happy post career. Wouldn’t have minded it being fleshed out some more, it’s pretty short. I look forward to reading more Priestley after finishing ‘Benighted’, ‘Saturn Over the Water’ and this one.
December 20, 2024
As much as I would like to unravel the mystery of this magic anti-anxiety pill, the time stuff, and the three weirdos that show up after much boring meandering…
I just can’t be bothered. What flat and drab writing this is with an utterly bland and unlikeable protagonist. Someone condense this into a short story for me please
DNF @50%
I just can’t be bothered. What flat and drab writing this is with an utterly bland and unlikeable protagonist. Someone condense this into a short story for me please
DNF @50%
January 11, 2023
Two long (and for Priestley) rather tedious chapters of exposition and something of a tail-off in the denouement...but the middle section makes up for this. Haven’t laughed this much since Gavin Williamson was sacked.
December 14, 2024
A snapshot in Ravenstreet's life that was a turning point to his course. Not too absurd a phenomenon described. Intriguing. Love the long sentences that describe various people and incidents. Mysterious. Blissful ending.
October 28, 2022
okay read. unreccomended. i loved the way the story wandered aimlessly at times. not a fan of the protag
June 29, 2025
Great magical realism with an important message. Sentimental, for sure, but it doesn't get in the way.
May 23, 2020
A magical read. I loved every chapter.
February 15, 2016
This is an excellent book which I have no hesitation in giving five stars.
The first book by Priestly that I've ever read- I picked it up as an ebook for a reason I have totally forgotten (it was connected with an interest is all I can remember), I was drawn in by the introduction, and have never looked back. I was going to read it purely as a travel book as I travelled to work and back- but it was so good I found myself reading it in the bath, while waiting to sleep, on breaks...
It follows a man, Ravenstreet, as he is forced from his long term job as managing director of an electronics concern by the incoming wave of financiers who take over businesses despite producing nothing and only having knowledge of accounts and finance. Priestly's opinion of this kind of business future-which we are currently living in (and is responsible for serious financial crashes) is obvious.
Finding himself rich, and at a loose end, Ravenstreet is picked up, after a disastrous 'love affair' (the reason for the ' marks will become obvious on reading) by a group of wealthy 'movers and shakers' who want to promote a new drug, Sepman 13, a cure for worry.
But he meets a group of three mysterious 'magicians', who teach him about life, time and second chances- and leave him in a much better place than he began...
An excellent story, well written, light and enjoyable. I cannot recommend this enough, I will return to it.
The first book by Priestly that I've ever read- I picked it up as an ebook for a reason I have totally forgotten (it was connected with an interest is all I can remember), I was drawn in by the introduction, and have never looked back. I was going to read it purely as a travel book as I travelled to work and back- but it was so good I found myself reading it in the bath, while waiting to sleep, on breaks...
It follows a man, Ravenstreet, as he is forced from his long term job as managing director of an electronics concern by the incoming wave of financiers who take over businesses despite producing nothing and only having knowledge of accounts and finance. Priestly's opinion of this kind of business future-which we are currently living in (and is responsible for serious financial crashes) is obvious.
Finding himself rich, and at a loose end, Ravenstreet is picked up, after a disastrous 'love affair' (the reason for the ' marks will become obvious on reading) by a group of wealthy 'movers and shakers' who want to promote a new drug, Sepman 13, a cure for worry.
But he meets a group of three mysterious 'magicians', who teach him about life, time and second chances- and leave him in a much better place than he began...
An excellent story, well written, light and enjoyable. I cannot recommend this enough, I will return to it.
September 30, 2012
I had the rare pleasure of knowing nothing about this book when I began it. Absent a dust jacket, bio or blurb, I picked it up off the library shelf solely because of the lovely design and intriguing title. Unfortunately, this was the sole pleasure of The Magicians. It's a slim story so larded with casual misogyny, racism and classism that all hope of taking the author's points about the nature of time, about power and self-awareness are lost. Why this was republished in the 90s is a mystery; it was no great loss to the canon to leave it moldering in the past where it belonged.
February 27, 2012
Rather downbeat (until the conclusion) interesting novel from Priestley that ties in with his famous time-plays. A man leaves his job at an electrical company to work for a company that is going to sell a wonder drug, but along the way meets three old men who for the sake of humanity can't allow the drug to reach the market.
November 19, 2011
Interesting ideas, and seemed very contemporary, though I think I found the 1950's original print in my dad's library. The 'magicians' trying to save humankind from soporifics. Actually, the one about to be manufactured would probably have got a sale from me... But I was intrigued by the idea of 'time' being all-at-once, and not linear. People were just as jaded in the good old days.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews