num_pages: 216
description: "Though Aleister Crowley served as the model for Oliver Haddo, it is by no means a portrait of him. I made my character more striking in appearance, more sinister and more ruthless than Crowley ever was. I gave him magical powers that Crowley, though he claimed them, certainly never possessed. Crowley, however, recognized himself in the creature of my invention, for such it was, and wrote a full-page review of the novel in Vanity Fair, which he signed 'Oliver Haddo.' I did not read it, and wish now that I had. I daresay it was a pretty piece of vituperation, but probably, like his poems, intolerably verbose." -- W. Somerset Maugham
language: English
title: The Magician by W. Somerset Maugham, Horror, Classics, Literary
titlecomplete: The Magician by W. Somerset Maugham, Horror, Classics, Literary
characters: Susie Boyd, Margaret Dauncey, Arthur Burdon, Oliver Haddo
genres: 20th Century, Literature, Classics, Literary Fiction, Novels, Gothic, Horror, Fiction, Fantasy, British Literature
ratings_count: 4652
places: France, England
publisher: Alan Rodgers Books