The Magician

The Magician is a story originally published in 1908. In this novel, the magician Oliver Haddo attempts to create life. Haddo was a caricature of Aleister Crowley. The novel inspired a 1926 Rex Ingram film of the same name. Later Maugham commented he had spent days and days reading in the library of the British Museum to come by all the material on the black arts.