The Magician

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Maugham’s enchanting tale of secrets and fatal attractionThe 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.ReviewMaugham tells his tale of the weird and the horrible with simple sincerity and a constant matching of the unhallowed practices with the clean, sweet things of common life that make its effect uncommonly impressive. (The New York Times) About the AuthorW. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) was a successful playwright and the celebrated author of short stories and novels, including Of Human Bondage.Robert Calder is a professor of English at the University of Saskatchewan and the author of numerous nonfiction books, including two biographies of Somerset Maugham.