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The MagicianDownload Now...

by W Somerset Maugham (Author)

Text Source:

Text URL:

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/14257

Language:

Type:

E-book

Description:

Not available

Table of Contents:

Not available

Amazon.com Information:

Sales Rank:

505183

ISBN:

0143104896

Page Count:

224

Detail Page:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143104896

Download this text: The Magician

Product Description

Maugham’s enchanting tale of secrets and fatal attraction
The Magician is one of Somerset Maugham’s most complex and perceptive novels. Running through it is the theme of evil, deftly woven into a story as memorable for its action as for its astonishingly vivid characters. In fin de siècle Paris, Arthur and Margaret are engaged to be married. Everyone approves and everyone seems to be enjoying themselves—until the sinister and repulsive Oliver Haddo appears.

Customer Review: Good Read, Disappointing Ending

I picked up this book because I had heard that Maugham had based his title character on Aleister Crowley, and Oliver Haddo is a well-drawn and imagined character. The plot and prose are terrific too for the first two-thirds of the novel, then a surprising event happens and it suddenly becomes melodramatic and clichéd with a B-movie ending. In retrospect, at the end of the book, it is easy to see how Maugham layered the work for the ending he wrote, but ultimately it robs the character of becoming magnificently evil and the novel of having the haunting power it could have had.

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