The Amulet of Samarkand

“So I became a boy I had known once before, someone I had loved. His dust had long ago floated away along the Nile, so my crime would not hurt him, and anyhow it pleased me to remember him like this.”

This passage contradicts the magicians’ purported notion that the only relationship to be had with a spirit is one of forced servitude. Though Bartimaeus is cynical and jaded about magicians, there was once a time when he could appreciate humans and develop bonds with them that were not solely based on what his powers could attain for them.

“Now, now, Bartimaeus, we don’t use the s-word in civilized company, do we? Jabor and I are playing the long game.”

Here, Stroud exposes the different ways in which spirits cope with the magicians’ long-standing system of exploitation. Though Bartimaeus calls spirits “slaves” in magical society, Faquarl chides him for using the “s-word,” implying that it is both rude and unwise to use such explicit language to describe magicians’ treatment of spirits. While Bartimaeus is always looking to escape, Jabor and Faquarl believe in complying quietly until they can exploit the magician who has bound them. Simpkin, however, fully conforms to the system and finds enjoyment in being bound to Sholto, believing that it grants him status in society.

“Shortly afterward I departed to a girder halfway up a crane on the opposite bank, where they were erecting a swanky riverside condo for the magical gentry.”

In this excerpt, Bartimaeus implies a division in social castes within British society. Being a magician does not simply give great magical power; rather, it also implies a social status and political power that far surpasses that of non-magic-using people.