The Magician

New York: George H. Doran Company, 1908. First printing w/GDH publisher's six sided sun and sea symbol at title page. Copyright 1908 by Duffield & Co. Green full cloth boards, black stamped cover design and spine titles, moderate cover, edge wear, rub; half inch spine cloth material chip at head. Pages very good. Stylish antiquarian bookplate inside cover: "Dwight R. Meigs"; features three-dimensional cross design w/circles and ovals emanating. Bind good, intact. Stamp at title page, card pocket inside back cover: "Pottstown Public Library, Pottstown, Pa." Maugham's novelization of the character of Aleister Crowley. 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 (Crowley) appears. Maugham 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. Printed in the United States of America. 288 pages. Insured post.. First Edition. Hardcover. Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Book.