Svengali's Web: The Alien Enchanter in Modern Culture Book

From the immediate success of George Du Maurier's 1894 book Trilby came a transatlantic sensation of all things Trilby- sausages, hats, candies, even a town in Florida. Trilby has faded now, leaving behind in its wake pervasive lingering traces of Svengali, the dark character who crossed from his role as a charismatic Jewish musician who hypnotised and exploited a young woman, into a cultural icon of all things concealed, sinister, and malignantly persuasive. Using Trilby as the starting point for an exploration of cultural history Pick analyses the Trilby phenomenon, and explores what it was about the themes of the book that resonated so immediately and widely with the deep psychological dreads of fin de siecle society and beyond. Guiding us through the smoke-and-mirrors world of 19th century neurologists and anti-semites, best-selling novelists, Jewish conductors enthralling divas, and political nightmares, Pick unearths representations of Svengali in literature, theatre, film, music and politics to reveal the constituents of post-modern angst. This is a short book, immaculately written, and thick with allusion and revelation.Read More