Reviews of Classic Books

[Dan]

Please only post reviews of older or classic books here.

[Dan]

The Magician

I didn't know what to expect from this book since I haven't previously read W. Somerset Maugham, but I was pointed towards it by some of the research I was doing on Aleister Crowley I have been doing for a novel I'm working on. I ended up eating it up. It was easy to read, absorbing, and intriguing.

It breaks pretty much all the rules that modern novels live and eat by, and because of that I found it all the more delightful. It was delicate and polite in dealing with a subject that must have been extremely shocking for the readers of the day, and yet for all that managed to capture some of the horrors that the characters must have felt.

Most of the narrative took place in description of the characters, their conversation, and their feelings, rather than in action scenes. The language was deft, but definitely it was a pot boiler in its day. Maugham did not consider himself a great writer, but he was certainly a fun storyteller and I could see why he was so popular as a writer then.

Briefly the story centers around a group of friends (only four), of whom two are in love and to be married - until they meet a debauched and eccentric character who claims to be a real magician. Our friends react differently to him depending on their beliefs: we have a skeptic, a man more open to the idea of magic existing, a lovely innocent artist, and her practical plain friend. Unfortunately these friends incur the wrath of the magician... and thus we get the drama.