Christopher Priest's Novel The Prestige
Priest wrote the novel in 1995 and the Nolans adapted it over five years
Christopher Priest's The Prestige was published in 1995 and won the World Fantasy Award the following year. The novel tells its story through four narrators across two time periods: a modern-day frame story featuring the descendants of the rival magicians, and the Victorian-era rivalry itself, narrated through competing memoirs and diaries. The Rashomon-style unreliable narration was Priest's literary equivalent to a magician's sleight of hand. (wikipedia)
Priest was impressed by Nolan's Following and Memento, and producer Valerie Dean brought the novel to Nolan's attention. Aaron Ryder of Newmarket Films purchased the option in 2001. Jonathan Nolan began the screenplay while Christopher was occupied with Insomnia, and the brothers worked on it intermittently for five years. (wikipedia)
The screenplay made two structural changes Priest praised and several he questioned
The Nolans removed the novel's modern-day frame story -- which follows the descendants of Angier and Borden -- and replaced it with Borden's trial and imprisonment. They also eliminated a subplot involving spiritualism, in which Angier begins his career as a fake medium. Both changes tightened the narrative around the rivalry.
"An extraordinary and brilliant script, a fascinating adaptation of my novel." — Christopher Priest, Wikipedia (2007)
Priest saw the film three times and was specific about what he admired.
"The seriousness of approach, the lack of levity, the quality of the direction." — Christopher Priest, christopher-priest.co.uk (2007)
"The indirect, multi-level narrative." — Christopher Priest, christopher-priest.co.uk (2007)
"The fact that there were no car chases, no songs, no sex scenes, no guns used to resolve issues -- with one small exception." — Christopher Priest, christopher-priest.co.uk (2007)
Priest's central criticism: Nolan hid the twin secret as a twist instead of letting the reader deduce it
In the novel, the twin arrangement is not concealed from the reader as a surprise revelation. Priest introduces the doubling motif early and develops it throughout, making the twin secret something the reader assembles gradually rather than receiving as a shock. Nolan reversed this approach, hiding the revelation until the final minutes and presenting it as a twist ending.
"In the novel the central mystery about Borden is not concealed from the reader... Christopher Nolan did not grasp this subtlety. In his film he tried to hide the mystery, then weakly presented the revelation of it as a 'twist' ending." — Christopher Priest, christopher-priest.co.uk (2007)
The disagreement exposes a genuine structural question: is a mystery better when the audience assembles the answer alongside the characters, or when the answer arrives as a sudden reframing of everything that came before? Priest preferred the former; Nolan's film commits to the latter.
Priest praised the performances and photography but criticized Bowie and the music
Priest's assessment was granular. He praised Christian Bale ("acted with conviction") and the cinematography ("beautiful, and at times artful"), but had pointed criticisms of David Bowie's Tesla and the end-credits music.
"The wooden performance of David Bowie. The role of Nicolai Tesla is one of the most important in the story... Bowie was merely adequate in the part." — Christopher Priest, christopher-priest.co.uk (2007)
"The pop song played over the final credits, which was completely out of key with the rest of the film. Another big hint that Nolan has a tin ear for music." — Christopher Priest, christopher-priest.co.uk (2007)
Despite these objections, Priest concluded with an overall positive assessment.
"I liked what I liked much more than I disliked what I disliked, and found many scenes admirable." — Christopher Priest, christopher-priest.co.uk (2007)
"I therefore believe The Prestige is the best of Christopher Nolan's films to date." — Christopher Priest, christopher-priest.co.uk (2007)
The novel's duplication device works differently from the film's
In the novel, the Tesla machine produces a copy that is materially degraded -- a "prestige" in Priest's terminology -- while the film's machine creates perfect duplicates. This difference has significant thematic consequences. The novel's imperfect copies raise questions about what is lost in duplication; the film's perfect copies raise questions about identity and continuity -- whether the original and the duplicate are meaningfully different. (wikipedia)