Just Finished Reading The Magician by W. Somerset Maugham

The British fiction writer W. Somerset Maugham, reportedly very popular in his time of the early twentieth century, is probably best known for his novels Of Human Bondage and The Razor's Edge.  He wrote many other stories, and I just finished reading one of them: The Magician, from 1908...

The Magician is the tale of an engaged couple, Arthur Burdon and Margaret Dauncey, who meet a sinister character by the name of Oliver Haddo.  Haddo is reputedly a magician by profession, but our interpretation of that designation most likely diverges greatly from his.  Haddo would more appropriately be called a combination occultist and mad scientist.  He antagonizes both Arthur and Margaret, and after the former punches him out for cruelly kicking their friend's pet dog, the villain plots his revenge, working through the world of the occult to take over Margaret's mind and steal her away from her fiancé.  Haddo,  however, has a much more evil intent with his actions...I did mention, didn't I, that he is also a mad scientist...

The Magician, while starting off harmlessly enough, evolves into a gothic horror story, reminiscent of those later written by H.P. Lovecraft...and one of the scenes reads eerily like one in Stephen King's recent novel Revival.  It isn't terribly long, so even if you don't like it you haven't wasted much of your time.  I didn't especially like any of the characters in this story, and that can be a big problem...at least for me as a reader of fiction.  It wasn't one of my favorite books, but I'm not going to condemn the author...instead I think I'll look into some of his other, more popular works...