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Cosmopolitan
COSMOPOLITAS
302 pages, Leather Bound
First published January 1, 1936
6 people are currently reading
131 people want to read
About the author
W. Somerset Maugham
2,130 books6,114 followersWilliam Somerset Maugham was born in Paris in 1874. He spoke French even before he spoke a word of English, a fact to which some critics attribute the purity of his style.
His parents died early and, after an unhappy boyhood, which he recorded poignantly in Of Human Bondage, Maugham became a qualified physician. But writing was his true vocation. For ten years before his first success, he almost literally starved while pouring out novels and plays.
Maugham wrote at a time when experimental modernist literature such as that of William Faulkner, Thomas Mann, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf was gaining increasing popularity and winning critical acclaim. In this context, his plain prose style was criticized as 'such a tissue of clichés' that one's wonder is finally aroused at the writer's ability to assemble so many and at his unfailing inability to put anything in an individual way.
During World War I, Maugham worked for the British Secret Service . He travelled all over the world, and made many visits to America. After World War II, Maugham made his home in south of France and continued to move between England and Nice till his death in 1965.
At the time of Maugham's birth, French law was such that all foreign boys born in France became liable for conscription. Thus, Maugham was born within the Embassy, legally recognized as UK territory.
His parents died early and, after an unhappy boyhood, which he recorded poignantly in Of Human Bondage, Maugham became a qualified physician. But writing was his true vocation. For ten years before his first success, he almost literally starved while pouring out novels and plays.
Maugham wrote at a time when experimental modernist literature such as that of William Faulkner, Thomas Mann, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf was gaining increasing popularity and winning critical acclaim. In this context, his plain prose style was criticized as 'such a tissue of clichés' that one's wonder is finally aroused at the writer's ability to assemble so many and at his unfailing inability to put anything in an individual way.
During World War I, Maugham worked for the British Secret Service . He travelled all over the world, and made many visits to America. After World War II, Maugham made his home in south of France and continued to move between England and Nice till his death in 1965.
At the time of Maugham's birth, French law was such that all foreign boys born in France became liable for conscription. Thus, Maugham was born within the Embassy, legally recognized as UK territory.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 28, 2025
After four outstanding books of six novellas each by Maugham, he presents us here with much shorter stories. I hesitate to even call them all stories as most of these are merely incidents. They just don’t measure up to his earlier works.
May 6, 2020
3.5 stars. Well written, amusing with every now and then a flash of brilliance. Interesting remarks of the author in the Foreword as well, about writing and literature. Maugham clearly is a people’s person, he loves to observe and describe them and in this he excels. The stories themselves are for the most part quite simple, anecdotal. My preferred ones: MR KNOW ALL and THE PROMISE.
‘I travel not to see imposing monuments, which indeed somewhat bore me, nor beautiful scenery, of which I soon tire; I travel to see men.’
‘She was in fact a woman of forty ... and she gave me the impression of having more teeth, white and large and even, than were necessary for any practical purpose.’
‘For thirty years now I have been studying my fellow-men. I do not know very much about them.’
‘... self-contradictory is what most of us are. We are a haphazard bundle of inconsistent qualities.’
‘She was a mistress of cold praise.’
‘She had a very agreeable smile; it did not light up her face suddenly, but seemed rather to suffuse it by degrees with charm.’
‘I travel not to see imposing monuments, which indeed somewhat bore me, nor beautiful scenery, of which I soon tire; I travel to see men.’
‘She was in fact a woman of forty ... and she gave me the impression of having more teeth, white and large and even, than were necessary for any practical purpose.’
‘For thirty years now I have been studying my fellow-men. I do not know very much about them.’
‘... self-contradictory is what most of us are. We are a haphazard bundle of inconsistent qualities.’
‘She was a mistress of cold praise.’
‘She had a very agreeable smile; it did not light up her face suddenly, but seemed rather to suffuse it by degrees with charm.’
July 19, 2019
(PT) "Em Terras Estranhas", Sommerset Maugham conta mais de vinte contos sobre pessoas que viajam pelo mundo, que contam as suas histórias num ponto de vista que o narrador acha invulgares. Contadas de um modo que vai entre o trágico e o cómico, contam como são as coisas vistas de um ponto de vista que todos têm: são humanos.
Confesso nunca ter sido um apreciador de contos, mas ao ler este livro, passei a apreciá-los e a entender-os, porque são especialmente episódios de vida de pessoas que acham interessantes e que nos fazem reagir, de uma maneira ou de outra. E ainda por cima, neste caso em particular, essas histórias humanas misturam-se com a presença do narrador nos quatro cantos do mundo, mostrando ser uma pessoa muito viajada.
Mais de 75 anos depois da sua publicação, ainda vale a pena ler uma obra como esta.
Confesso nunca ter sido um apreciador de contos, mas ao ler este livro, passei a apreciá-los e a entender-os, porque são especialmente episódios de vida de pessoas que acham interessantes e que nos fazem reagir, de uma maneira ou de outra. E ainda por cima, neste caso em particular, essas histórias humanas misturam-se com a presença do narrador nos quatro cantos do mundo, mostrando ser uma pessoa muito viajada.
Mais de 75 anos depois da sua publicação, ainda vale a pena ler uma obra como esta.
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July 15, 2017E a vida desgraçadamente é algo que podemos viver apenas uma vez, os erros que cometemos no mais dos casos são irreparáveis, e quem sou eu para dizer a este ou àquele como deve levar a vida?Viver é assunto difícil e já achei bastante duro fazer da minha própria vida algo de completo e harmonioso; não me tenho sentido tentado a ensinar ao próximo o que ele deve fazer com a sua"
June 5, 2021
This is a collection of very short pieces that Maugham was commissioned to write for Cosmopolitan Magazine. They were published between 1924 and 1929. Maugham is one of the great masters of the short story genre. These pieces are shorter than a typical short story, having been designed to fit--with illustration--on two opposite pages of the magazine. They are, however, stories, or, as Maugham suggests, anecdotes. They are spare, but unmistakably Maugham. They are worthwhile reading--as is Maugham's introduction to the collection.
December 18, 2021
Sometimes anecdotal, sometimes thought provoking, sometimes horrifying. The stories are easy to consume but take a good while to digest. That is to say that they are full of substance, which made this compilation of little gems thoroughly worthwhile.
June 10, 2023
I think I said it before. I used to read Science Fiction in my youth and to this day I love Asimov and Tubb. Then I discovered Voltaire. And then Maugham. And for many years I would without hesitation name him as my favourite writer. Over the years many other writers had a more or less legitimate claim to this position; Singer, Barth, Hamsun, Fowles, Balzac, Raabe, Hardy, Trollope, Bennett. But now, as I am approaching old age and after reading this story collection, it is Maugham again.
Now Maugham, although maybe not really forgotten, is normally not regarded as one of the giants of literature. I heard people say that he was only a writer for very young people. He himself said he was the best of the second rate writers. I guess, he was not entirely serious. He did know what he was able to do.
In what maybe the best story of this collection, Salvatore, he starts with: “I wonder if I can do it.” And then he tells the simple story of a poor Italian boy. He is in love with a girl, has to go to the army, gets sick and after his return the girl does not want him anymore because he was not a real man anymore due to his sickness. He decides to listen to his mother and marries a “grim-visaged” female. “But she had a good heart and was no fool.” Children are born and he leads his simple life.
And then Maugham reminds us of his opening statement and he tells us what he was aiming to do. “I wanted to see whether I could hold your attention for a few pages while I drew for you the portrait of a man, just an ordinary fisherman who possessed nothing in the world except a quality which is the rarest, the most precious and the loveliest that any man can have. [...] And in case you have not guessed what this quality was, I will tell you. Goodness. Just goodness.”
And while I am writing these lines I have tears in my eyes. This is how brilliantly he has succeeded. And I am pretty sure no one could have accomplished this in a way he did.
Nearly all the stories are written in the first person singular. And you could almost believe that what he tells you, mostly a story someone tells him, has happened exactly as he says it did. Very simple and short stories (they were written for Cosmopolitan and had to be very short). And as he says in the preface they are almost only anecdotes. But all of them share a basic structure. They have a beginning, a middle and an ending. And all of them are worth telling. (I disliked only one story: The Escape).
I had read all the stories before (having read his collected stories) but it is an additional pleasure to read them in the way he has intended them to be published. And I add that I just love the Heron (blue fake leather) Books. Just the smell of the books sets me into a mood of ecstasy (which maybe is a Pavlovian effect after having read so many Maugham books in that edition).
I clearly remembered only one of them: The Luncheon a comic story about him having to pay for the lunch of a woman who goes on saying that she never eats anything while ordering the most expensive dishes. A couple seemed vaguely familiar. E.g. The Happy Man even simpler than Salvatore about a man who becomes a doctor in Sevilla. Really, reall good Mr. Know-All and The Promise.
The most extraordinary story, one of the few that Maugham could not have had any first or second hand information is The Judgement Seat where we meet a man and his wife and the woman he has loved. And also God himself who is going to judge them. He does just that. And in a magnificent punchline addressed to a philosopher who does not believe in him he says that in the judgement he has happily combined his All-Power with his All-Goodness.
Now Maugham, although maybe not really forgotten, is normally not regarded as one of the giants of literature. I heard people say that he was only a writer for very young people. He himself said he was the best of the second rate writers. I guess, he was not entirely serious. He did know what he was able to do.
In what maybe the best story of this collection, Salvatore, he starts with: “I wonder if I can do it.” And then he tells the simple story of a poor Italian boy. He is in love with a girl, has to go to the army, gets sick and after his return the girl does not want him anymore because he was not a real man anymore due to his sickness. He decides to listen to his mother and marries a “grim-visaged” female. “But she had a good heart and was no fool.” Children are born and he leads his simple life.
And then Maugham reminds us of his opening statement and he tells us what he was aiming to do. “I wanted to see whether I could hold your attention for a few pages while I drew for you the portrait of a man, just an ordinary fisherman who possessed nothing in the world except a quality which is the rarest, the most precious and the loveliest that any man can have. [...] And in case you have not guessed what this quality was, I will tell you. Goodness. Just goodness.”
And while I am writing these lines I have tears in my eyes. This is how brilliantly he has succeeded. And I am pretty sure no one could have accomplished this in a way he did.
Nearly all the stories are written in the first person singular. And you could almost believe that what he tells you, mostly a story someone tells him, has happened exactly as he says it did. Very simple and short stories (they were written for Cosmopolitan and had to be very short). And as he says in the preface they are almost only anecdotes. But all of them share a basic structure. They have a beginning, a middle and an ending. And all of them are worth telling. (I disliked only one story: The Escape).
I had read all the stories before (having read his collected stories) but it is an additional pleasure to read them in the way he has intended them to be published. And I add that I just love the Heron (blue fake leather) Books. Just the smell of the books sets me into a mood of ecstasy (which maybe is a Pavlovian effect after having read so many Maugham books in that edition).
I clearly remembered only one of them: The Luncheon a comic story about him having to pay for the lunch of a woman who goes on saying that she never eats anything while ordering the most expensive dishes. A couple seemed vaguely familiar. E.g. The Happy Man even simpler than Salvatore about a man who becomes a doctor in Sevilla. Really, reall good Mr. Know-All and The Promise.
The most extraordinary story, one of the few that Maugham could not have had any first or second hand information is The Judgement Seat where we meet a man and his wife and the woman he has loved. And also God himself who is going to judge them. He does just that. And in a magnificent punchline addressed to a philosopher who does not believe in him he says that in the judgement he has happily combined his All-Power with his All-Goodness.
January 12, 2015
Im here to review a single story in this collection, "A Friend In Need" . Unable to find an edition for the story alone in the archives so thought of reviewing it here. It was a good smooth passage without peaks or downfalls. Pretty average but entertaining. Not very thought provoking like the work of Chekhov or Poe but nobody can hate a story like this one. Im gonna read more of Somerset Maugham
November 10, 2015
This is the first written work I've read by Maugham, and I really enjoyed it. My personal favorite was "Salvatore." It was a very sweet, love story with a nice ending!
I will definitely read more books from this author. I really loved his style of writing and I love stories from the Jazz Age!
I will definitely read more books from this author. I really loved his style of writing and I love stories from the Jazz Age!
July 28, 2013
Me encantó. Pequeños relatos, grandes historias. Recomendado.
February 5, 2014
Not Maugham's best, but entertaining nonetheless.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews