The Magician (Maugham Novel) - Allegations of Plagiarism

Allegations of Plagiarism

In the 1908 edition of the magazine Vanity Fair Aleister Crowley (under the pen name Oliver Haddo) wrote a critique of The Magician, accusing Maugham of plagiarism. In this critique, named How to Write a Novel! (After W. S. Maugham), Crowley accuses Maugham of having plagiarised the following books in writing The Magician:

• The Island of Dr Moreau, by H. G. Wells
• Kabbalah Unveiled by Christian Knorr von Rosenroth, translated by Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers
• The Life of Paracelsus by Franz Hartmann.
• Rituel et Dogme de la Haute Magie by Eliphas Levi, translated by A. E. Waite
• The Blossom and the Fruit, by Mabel Collins

In A Fragment of Autobiography, Maugham claimed not to have read Crowley's review, adding, "I daresay it was a pretty piece of vituperation, but probably, like his poems, intolerably verbose."