Latest Magic, Being original conjuring tricks

Hoffmann, Professor, 1839-1919Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 282K words
Chapters: 29

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Latest Magic, Being original conjuring tricks by Professor HoffmannAuthor: Hoffmann, Professor, 1839-1919,Language: English, Class: GV: Geography, Anthropology, Recreation: Recreation, Leisure, Release Date: Aug 6, 2017

Editor's review

This is Professor Hoffmann's English book on original conjuring tricks, released free in electronic form by Project Gutenberg. A representative author of magic instruction writing from the late nineteenth to early twentieth century, Hoffmann focuses on workable sleights and prop ideas rather than vague spectacle. Organized around the theme of "originality," the book helps readers understand from the ground up how classic close-up magic is constructed: how to design an effect, how to direct attention, and how to perform with everyday objects. For readers who want to practice English reading while nurturing an interest in magical principles, this book is both light language material and a hands-on manual to try as you read. Note that the tricks bear clear marks of their era; some props and presentations need adapting to contemporary settings. The electronic edition is the public-domain English original with no Chinese annotations, so readers should use a dictionary and practice with real objects to truly appreciate its value.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Amateur enthusiasts interested in close-up magic and sleight-of-hand principles who want to understand classic trick design
Middle school or university students hoping to boost their interest in English reading through hands-on practice
Performers and event planners seeking ideas for small interactive routines
Readers who collect public-domain ebooks and are curious about nineteenth-century popular literature

Not a good fit for

Absolute beginners looking for systematic video lessons or step-by-step illustrated demonstrations
Readers interested only in revelations of large-scale stage illusions and not in small tricks
Readers with weak English who dislike looking up words and want a Chinese translation

Reading tips

First skim the table of contents, pick three to five tricks that interest you, prepare the small props, and practice as you read.
When you meet a term, guess from context first, then check a dictionary, and build your own glossary of magic vocabulary.
After learning each trick, try restating its effect and steps in your own words to others to test your understanding.
Read alongside contemporary magic instruction to observe how sleights and performance ideas have been passed down and changed.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book suitable for complete beginners who have never touched magic?

You can read it, but adjust your expectations. The book describes tricks mainly in words and lacks the step-by-step illustrations and videos common in modern instruction, so beginners may get stuck on sleight details. Start with the simplest one or two tricks, experiment repeatedly with real objects, and treat it as an introduction to magical thinking rather than a systematic course.

The electronic edition is the English original. Is it hard to read?

It is popular instructional writing with fairly simple sentence structures, though it involves magic terminology and old-fashioned expressions. Readers with intermediate English can finish it with a dictionary. If your English is weaker, read only the chapters that interest you; there is no need to finish the whole book.

Can the tricks in this book still be performed directly today?

Some can, but they need adaptation. Many rely on the props, clothing, and social settings of the time, so copying them directly may feel dated. Keep their effect design and attention-direction ideas, replace them with readily available objects and contemporary wording, and polish them into versions suited to your own style.

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About the author

Hoffmann, Professor, 1839-1919 Author

Professor Hoffmann (1839–1919) was a writer and author on magic in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His representative works are Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring and Latest Magic, Being Original Conjuring Tricks. The former gives a systematic account of the art of conjuring in the manner of a tutorial, emphasizing the principles of technique and their practical application; the latter consists mainly of original tricks and focuses on specific effects and performance design. Both books were addressed to readers wishing to learn magic and circulated widely in English-language magic literature; they are often cited by later enthusiasts and researchers. Because public information is limited, details of his life, nationality and exact identity remain unclear; this note is based only on the works recorded in the database and his dates, and concentrates on his subject matter and place in magic literature.