Product Description

Set in the bohemian cafe society of Paris at the turn of the nineteenth century, Maugham's exploration of hypnotism and the occult was inspired by the sinister black magician Aleister Crowley. At the start of this compulsive gothic horror story, Arthur and his beautiful, innocent fiancee Margaret look forward to an idyllic life together, until they encounter the mesmerising and repulsive Oliver Haddo...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #100491 in Books
• Published on: 2000-11-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

About the Author
William Somerset Maugham was born in 1874 and lived in Paris until he was ten. He was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and at Heidelberg University. He spent some time at St. Thomas' Hospital with the idea of practising medicine, but the success of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, published in 1897, won him over to literature. Of Human Bondage, the first of his masterpieces, came out in 1915, and with the publication in 1919 of The Moon and Sixpence his reputation as a novelist was established. At the same time his fame as a successful playwright and writer was being consolidated with acclaimed productions of various plays and the publication of several short story collections. His other works include travel books, essays, criticism and the autobiographical The Summing Up and A Writer's Notebook. In 1927 Somerset Maugham settled in the South of France and lived there until his death in 1965

Customer Reviews

A gem of a find
Maugham himself commented that this, one of his earlier novels, is turgid and overly verbose. And that it certainly is; the opening paragraph excrutiatingly so. Many a reader would turn back at this point and none would call them coward. However, it'd be to their loss. For 'The Magician' is a rip roaring occult pot-boiler not unlike 'Dracula' or Dennis Wheatley's black magic romps of the 40s and 50s. Alongside its period (Edwardian) charm and well rendered sense of place (bohemian Paris) its got a top draw villain (based on the historical satanist/'magician' Alestair Crowley), romance, humour, combat, spirit summonings, possession and human sacrifice! So forgive a tyro author of a hundred years (ish) ago a few stylistic weaknesses and plunge right on in to a genuine pageturner.

The Magician - W. Somserset Maugham
I LIKED this. Despite the turgid opening paragraph which reminded me of overflorid prose poetry, this novel turns into a corker. A rippingly exciting yarn about a young couple whose happy lives are put under threat when they come into contact, in the Bohemian cafe-set of Paris, with a sinister magician, Oliver Haddo, a fabulous villain who one nearly, ever-so nearly (though not quiet!) cheers on. The Magician is basically just a standard potboiler, but there's a definite intelligence behind it. There are themes of autonomy common to some of Maugham's other work, and the writing is (despite some of the misgivings of Maugham himself) very good indeed: there are some sentences the equivalent of flared trousers, btu they're forgiveable, because overall Maugham's writing is great: it's a dark tale, to be sure, but there's a genuine human warmth and largesses in Maugham's writing that allows the whole thing to, well, seem overall like a lot of fun (until a rather shattering and masterfully concocted conclusion, of course).

The Magician is a fine read indeed. Fun, exciting, esoteric and very human at the same time, it's an immensely worthwhile way to wile away a few hours. Very good indeed.

Spell-binding
The Magician is an early work of the still young(ish) Maugham. A compulsive attraction for a person unworthy of it stands between its protagonist and happiness: it shares a similar subject with works such as The Painted Veil, Theatre, and of course Of Human Bondage. But Maugham seems to have been still grappling with the implications of this interesting premise, and while in later works its development is psychological, here the attraction is excused as hypnotic. This makes for less analysis, but a faster-paced plot. Action begins in the artistic and occult demi-monde of 1900 Paris and takes the reader to a climax in the magician's lair in Yorkshire. Good is pitted straightforwardly against evil. Cliffhangers take place in suitably exotic settings. And though The Magician's storyline is mono-dimensional, Maugham weaves skilfully between the supernatural and the still explainable. Unlike other reviewers, or indeed the author himself as his introduction hints, I don't find his style has aged or that it was less effective in this earlier phase of his career.