World of Wonders was published by Macmillan of Canada in 1975, completing the Deptford Trilogy. The novel is narrated by Magnus Eisengrim (born Paul Dempster — the premature baby whose birth was triggered by the snowball in Fifth Business) as he tells his life story to a film crew making a documentary about the great nineteenth-century magician Robert-Houdin.
Paul’s story begins with childhood abuse: at ten, he is kidnapped by a carnival performer (Willard the Wizard) who sexually abuses him and hides him inside a mechanical automaton called Abdullah. Paul spends years literally inside the machine — operating it from within, invisible, dehumanized. This is Davies’s darkest material, handled with restraint but without evasion: the abuse is real, its effects permanent, and Paul’s survival is neither miraculous nor complete.
From this beginning, Paul transforms himself through a series of apprenticeships: he learns stage magic, becomes an assistant to a Shakespearean actor (Sir John Tresize), travels the world with a theatrical company, and eventually reinvents himself as Magnus Eisengrim — the world’s greatest illusionist. Each transformation is a kind of magic: the creation of a new self from the materials of the old, the use of art to transmute suffering into meaning.
Davies’s argument is that art and magic share the same function: both create the appearance of transformation, and both — at their highest level — achieve genuine transformation. Magnus does not merely appear to be someone other than Paul Dempster; he has genuinely become someone else. The illusion, sustained long enough and believed deeply enough, becomes truth.
Collecting World of Wonders
First edition (Macmillan of Canada, Toronto, 1975): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First Canadian edition in dust jacket: $25–$60
- Signed first edition: $50–$120
- US first (Viking, 1976): $15–$35
- Complete Deptford Trilogy set (Canadian firsts): $100–$300