Svengali
Sign in to savethumbnail|Svengali as a spider in his web. Illustration by [[George du Maurier (1895).]] Svengali () is a character in the novel Trilby which was first published in 1894 by George du Maurier. Svengali is a Jewish man who seduces, dominates and exploits Trilby, a young orphan girl working in Paris, and makes her into a famous singer.
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
6 sectionsContents
- Definition
- Novel
- Portrayals
- See also
- References
- External links
thumbnail|Svengali as a spider in his web. Illustration by [[George du Maurier (1895).]] Svengali () is a character in the novel Trilby which was first published in 1894 by George du Maurier. Svengali is a Jewish man who seduces, dominates and exploits Trilby, a young orphan girl working in Paris, and makes her into a famous singer.
== Definition == Since the book's publication in 1894, the word "svengali" has come to refer to a person who, with evil intent, dominates, manipulates and controls another.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Svengali” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.