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Modern Magic and the War on Miracles in French Colonial Culture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Graham M. Jones
Graham M. Jones
Affiliation:
Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts, Princeton University
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Extract

On 16 September 1856, gentleman illusionist Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin embarked from Marseille on the steamship Alexandre bound for the embattled French colony of Algeria. Thirty-six hours later, a detachment of French soldiers met him in the port of Algiers. Recently retired as an entertainer to pursue research in optics and the emerging field of applied electricity, Robert-Houdin was about to return to the stage in a series of magic performances that a French general purportedly called the most important campaign in the pacification of indigenous Algeria (Chavigny 1970: 134).

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Research Article
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Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 52 , Issue 1 , January 2010 , pp. 66 - 99
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 2010

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