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The Contents
The Wand
Wizardry With Watches
Magic With Rings
Magic With Balls
Experiments With Eggs
Linking Rings
Silks and Sorcery
Cunjoring With Cigerettes
Cigar Cunjorations
Thimble Thaumaturgy
Birth of Flowers
Ropes and Cords
Magic With Money
Out Of The Hat
Mental Magic
Playing Cards.

Cost
8.00gbp (sorry no pound sign) second hand from local magic shop.


Difficulty
1-4

Review
As you can see from the chapter list there is a bit of everything in here. The chapters usually start with the basic sleights, holds, vanishes and reproductions with the various items and then move on to explain different effects and routines. Some of the explanations are as explicit as anyone would like but a few leave a lot to be desired.
A nice touch is each chapter has a little literary quote beneath the heading, one of my faves is "everyone will have noticed with what skill a coin let fall on the ground runs to hide itself, and with what art it has in making itself invisible" Victor Hugo, les Miserables
This book is a good introduction to different types of magic, infact it's probably a good introduction to magic itself. It starts with an useful and informative, if sometimes dated and dubious, introduction from Julien J. Proskauer followed by a forward by Theo Hardeen. Both are a nice little look into the world of magic.
Because there are so many different types of magic in the book none of them are explored at depth but saying that, if you could master just one chapter of this book then you would be very adept at that thing and could give a great deal of entertainment to many people.
If you already have a good grounding in a particular area of magic you won't find anything to expand your knowledge in that area in this book, i.e. if you own Bobo's or RRTCM there is nothing in the coin or card chapters that isn't in those books.
There are little snippets of wisdom and truths buried in the instructions to tricks which will, perhaps, always apply, "...it was forgotten again. Recently it was discovered, again it made a hit. and again every magician had to do it. This follow-the-leader complex is one of the great faults of magicians. It is a pity it is not more widely recognised that the secret and the mechanics of a trick are entirely a second matter. It is the presentation, the personality of the man behind it, that makes a trick succesful."

Overall
Well worth a few quid of anyones money. A bit like Mark Wilson's Complete Course but smaller and without the 70's photos.

Now available as a Dover reprint under the title "Hugard's Magic Manual".

This was really the standard textbook for general sleight of hand magic until the Mark Wilson Course came along and it was my magic "bible" for several years. Yes, it is dated, but there's some very useful material; I've had good use from the linking ring and egg bag routines, and there's a very detailed treatment of Hunter's Impossible Knot.

Given the price of Dover books, I'd recommend it highly.

Barry

This is a really great book. I would also recomend the Dover edition as it is very cheap.