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A review by sraev19
The Magician by W. Somerset Maugham
2.5
Of Shelley’s Frankenstein, I asked, “Where’s the horror? Where’s the fright?” My expectations of the classic Gothic novel were ratcheted high then subsequently cut down by its rather undisturbing and unterrifying story.
My expectations of the lesser-known and lesser-praised The Magician were a lot lower. I only hoped for a solid dip into the occult world that would whet my curiosity. But upon reaching the end of the novel, I must again ask, Where’s the horror? Where’s the fright? And I must add, Where’s the occult?
For the time of the book’s publication, 1908, Maugham’s writing style is surprisingly okay. Maugham doesn’t lose himself in flowery descriptions, overwrought metaphors, or the-meaning-of-life rhetoric. While Maugham might lean more on dialogue than action, he is straightforward and keeps to the central point of his novel.
There is nothing striking, good or bad, about Maugham’s writing. It is readable and understandable and not torturous. Reading the novel was a neutral experience.
Where Maugham falters is his plot and characters. The story is boring and dull for three-quarters of the novel, until a burst of action and mystery grip the book at its very end. That burst comes too late, though.
The conflict of the plot centres on Haddo’s character as a mysterious, frightening figure of the occult who disturbs all who come in contact with him. I’ll grant that Haddo is weird, but he’s not mysterious, he’s not frightening, and he’s not all that occultish. All these elements are just talk from the other central characters, and I can’t believe that they have the strong, negative reactions to Haddo that they do. Their behaviour is really the strangest thing in the novel.
Because as for the occult, actual demonstrations of it are too few and too tame. Maugham divulges some occult lore and history, but he refrains Haddo, the eponymous magician, from practising it onscreen except for two actual magical feats. The rest of Haddo’s occult affiliations is speculation. For a book that claims to be about the occult, that’s not the kind of speculation I want.
My expectations of the lesser-known and lesser-praised The Magician were a lot lower. I only hoped for a solid dip into the occult world that would whet my curiosity. But upon reaching the end of the novel, I must again ask, Where’s the horror? Where’s the fright? And I must add, Where’s the occult?
For the time of the book’s publication, 1908, Maugham’s writing style is surprisingly okay. Maugham doesn’t lose himself in flowery descriptions, overwrought metaphors, or the-meaning-of-life rhetoric. While Maugham might lean more on dialogue than action, he is straightforward and keeps to the central point of his novel.
There is nothing striking, good or bad, about Maugham’s writing. It is readable and understandable and not torturous. Reading the novel was a neutral experience.
Where Maugham falters is his plot and characters. The story is boring and dull for three-quarters of the novel, until a burst of action and mystery grip the book at its very end. That burst comes too late, though.
The conflict of the plot centres on Haddo’s character as a mysterious, frightening figure of the occult who disturbs all who come in contact with him. I’ll grant that Haddo is weird, but he’s not mysterious, he’s not frightening, and he’s not all that occultish. All these elements are just talk from the other central characters, and I can’t believe that they have the strong, negative reactions to Haddo that they do. Their behaviour is really the strangest thing in the novel.
Because as for the occult, actual demonstrations of it are too few and too tame. Maugham divulges some occult lore and history, but he refrains Haddo, the eponymous magician, from practising it onscreen except for two actual magical feats. The rest of Haddo’s occult affiliations is speculation. For a book that claims to be about the occult, that’s not the kind of speculation I want.