The Magician 1908 William Heinemann

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Record Number	MMC_N_M1908WH
Title	The Magician
Creator	W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965)
Format	Print Book
Genre / Form	Novel
Publisher	London : William Heinemann
Date	November 1908
Language	English
Physical Description	p. [i] half title, p. [ii] ads. [14 titles], p. [iii] title, p. [iv] copyright, p. [i] fly title, pp. [3]-310 main text, 3 pages ads. | 19cm | hardback
Identifier - Edition	First UK
Identifier - Cover Colour (Approximate)	#526166 (Shuttle Gre)
Identifier - Dust Jacket	No
Identifier - Other Catalogues	Stott 11
Description - Characters	Arthur Burdon Dr. Porhoët Margaret Dauncey Susie Boyd Oliver Haddo Warren - painter Jagson - painter Marie - waitress at Chien Noir Mr. O'Brien - painter Rouge - illustrator Madame Rouge - Rouge's mistress Madame Rouge's mother Madame Meyer - mistress to a landscape painter Raggles - painter Clayson - American sculptor
Description - Plot Summary	Set in Paris; Arthur Burdon arrives to visit his fiancée Margaret Dauncey, who has gone there to study art, chaperoned by Susie Boyd, a typical Maugham character, cold and detached observing people and life in general with a heart of gold. However, she is also slightly different, because she gets emotionally involved towards her friend's fiancé Arthur. They meet Oliver Haddo, a repulsive obese big mouth who can talk well nevertheless, and somehow he seems to follow them around. The subject is magic and necromancy, with a minor character Dr. Porhoët, researcher also in necromancy, to counter the black arts of Haddo. After a very well-described humiliating scene in which Arthur thrashes Haddo like a dog, the latter (Haddo, not the dog) takes his revenge by mesmerizing Margaret to yearn for him uncontrollably and thus stealing Arthur's love of his life. Then the narrative plunges into the mysterious.
Notes	This must be the first book with which Maugham got himself into trouble. Aleister Crowley, the model of the infamous Oliver Haddo, was upset when he found himself portrayed so realistically in the novel. Though initially Maugham denied it, in a later revised edition he admitted his "sin." Crowley, however, charged him with something more serious, plagiarism in a review when the book first came out. The scandal didn't seem to arouse too much wave. Many years later, Maugham defended creative writers' use of others' material and he advised that if one's work was being taken advantage of by others, one should be unperturbed, and pleased instead.
Subject	Magic -- Fiction. Paris (France) -- Fiction.
Cost	US$523.95 in 2014 6s in 1908 | 3,000 copies
Links	Review Download