"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

Maugham was a very successful and well-regarded author, but even he, looking back on this early novel, had little good to say about it. Narrator James Adams makes the most of the novel's strong point, its dialogue, with an array of adept accents and moods. Even so, the villain, Oliver Haddo, comes across as more bombastic than evil. Only towards the end, when Adams has some genuine emotion and drama to work with, does the story start to come to life. As a rare fantasy story from Maugham's early career, the novel is an interesting artifact, and the research into the history of magic and alchemy is exhaustive. But not even Adams's fine reading can raise it above the level of a curiosity. D.M.H. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine