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Points of View
Eclectic and illuminating, these essays are the last that Maugham published. Ranging from an appreciation of Goethe's novels, to an encounter with an Indian holy man, with a considered analysis of the form at which Maugham himself excelled - the short story - they present the enduring views and opinions of this eminent writer.
255 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1958
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About the author
W. Somerset Maugham
2,114 books6,060 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 - 12 of 12 reviews
October 15, 2018
The book is a compilation of five essays. I read the essays 'The Short Story' and 'Three Journalists' first for no specific reason except that the titles appealed to me.
Essay on the short story is an interesting reflection on Anton Chekhov and Katherine Mansfield. I gorged every word that Maugham wrote about Chekhov. He mentioned that Checkhov loved writing and sending his works to various publications, though he never thought too much about himself as a writer. He just wrote. When he first arrived in Saint Petersburg, he was surprised to see that he had already been accepted as one of the leading writers in literary circles. Maugham humanizes Anton in a way that an ordinary reader can relate to the great man.
Most of the time, when one thinks of writers like Anton, one tends to idealize them. In this essay, I see the ordinary aspects of his life, a young man trying to write against all odds, traversing an unusual path of becoming a writer. It is fascinating to read in the essay that Anton himself was not aware that he was writing an unrepeatable history.
In the same chapter, Maugham made some clever observation about Henry James. James, Maugham observes, never knew ordinary people, 'his characters have neither bowels nor sexual organs.' Once James painted a picture of some woman. Someone remarked, 'but a woman is not like that' to which James replied, 'it is not a woman, madam, it is a picture.' According to Maugham, if someone had ventured to suggest that James stories were not lifelike, he would have said, 'those are just stories and not lives.'
In the same chapter, while he wrote in great detail about Chekhov and Mansfield, Poe and James were also featured briefly. However, the essay is mainly on Chekhov and Mansfield. Maugham clearly liked Katherine's craft, and the influence of Chekhov on her. He did not attempt to present her as god-like or impeccable. For instance, he writes, among other things, that Katherine was immensely self-centered, apt to have sudden fits of violent temper, fiercely intolerant, exacting, harsh, selfish, arrogant and domineering.
In the chapter titled three journalists, he writes about Jules Renard, Paul Leautaud. Although I knew little about these French writers, I liked reading about them. The essay is an extremely well-written portrait of these lives that come alive on the page because they deal with something that is permanent in life such as love. I would like to read these chapters again because I had read them too quickly.
There were other essays; one on Goethe and the other on an Indian guru. I think Maugham was fascinated by Indian spirituality. I liked the essay, but I guess he was too reason-oriented to really know spirituality at its core. Such an undertaking demands a certain submission and there is no guarantee of any sort that the submission will produce a positive result. One does not even know if seeking 'spiritual truths' is a worthy activity.
It is very clear that concepts like 'Brahman', 'Karma', 'Maya' are extremely complex and are of great areas of philosophical inquiry. Often, one is tempted to dismiss them because these concepts are not easy to handle. There is enough in Hindu religious texts that one can ridicule, at least aspects of it; there is much more in it that is too formidable to handle, especially when pursued seriously.
Essay on the short story is an interesting reflection on Anton Chekhov and Katherine Mansfield. I gorged every word that Maugham wrote about Chekhov. He mentioned that Checkhov loved writing and sending his works to various publications, though he never thought too much about himself as a writer. He just wrote. When he first arrived in Saint Petersburg, he was surprised to see that he had already been accepted as one of the leading writers in literary circles. Maugham humanizes Anton in a way that an ordinary reader can relate to the great man.
Most of the time, when one thinks of writers like Anton, one tends to idealize them. In this essay, I see the ordinary aspects of his life, a young man trying to write against all odds, traversing an unusual path of becoming a writer. It is fascinating to read in the essay that Anton himself was not aware that he was writing an unrepeatable history.
In the same chapter, Maugham made some clever observation about Henry James. James, Maugham observes, never knew ordinary people, 'his characters have neither bowels nor sexual organs.' Once James painted a picture of some woman. Someone remarked, 'but a woman is not like that' to which James replied, 'it is not a woman, madam, it is a picture.' According to Maugham, if someone had ventured to suggest that James stories were not lifelike, he would have said, 'those are just stories and not lives.'
In the same chapter, while he wrote in great detail about Chekhov and Mansfield, Poe and James were also featured briefly. However, the essay is mainly on Chekhov and Mansfield. Maugham clearly liked Katherine's craft, and the influence of Chekhov on her. He did not attempt to present her as god-like or impeccable. For instance, he writes, among other things, that Katherine was immensely self-centered, apt to have sudden fits of violent temper, fiercely intolerant, exacting, harsh, selfish, arrogant and domineering.
In the chapter titled three journalists, he writes about Jules Renard, Paul Leautaud. Although I knew little about these French writers, I liked reading about them. The essay is an extremely well-written portrait of these lives that come alive on the page because they deal with something that is permanent in life such as love. I would like to read these chapters again because I had read them too quickly.
There were other essays; one on Goethe and the other on an Indian guru. I think Maugham was fascinated by Indian spirituality. I liked the essay, but I guess he was too reason-oriented to really know spirituality at its core. Such an undertaking demands a certain submission and there is no guarantee of any sort that the submission will produce a positive result. One does not even know if seeking 'spiritual truths' is a worthy activity.
It is very clear that concepts like 'Brahman', 'Karma', 'Maya' are extremely complex and are of great areas of philosophical inquiry. Often, one is tempted to dismiss them because these concepts are not easy to handle. There is enough in Hindu religious texts that one can ridicule, at least aspects of it; there is much more in it that is too formidable to handle, especially when pursued seriously.
June 3, 2016
Classified as a non-fiction on its back cover, this book first published in 1958 entitled “Points of View” by W. Somerset Maugham seemed unfamiliar to me. However, I found reading his five topics that follow interestingly narrated and described with his penetrating remarkable viewpoints: The Three Novels of a Poet, The Saint, Prose and Dr. Tillotson, The Short Story, and Three Journalists.
Condensed in five sentences, the synopsis is as follows. The first deals with Goethe, the great German poet, who with different inspiring literary backgrounds wrote his three remarkable novels entitled “The Sorrows of Werther,” “Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship” and “The Elective Affinities”. The second reveals the life and charisma of the Indian Maharshi whom he met in 1936 and experienced the Swami’s meditation in his ashram. The third describes Dr. Tillotson’s uneventful life (1630-1694) whose famous sermons were legendary and his portrait as a young man we can see in the National Portrait Gallery in London. The fourth exemplifies some great short story writers, that is, the lives and works of Henry James, Guy de Maupassant, Edgar Allan Poe, Anthony Trollope, Rudyard Kipling, Anton Chekov, and Katherine Mansfield. Finally, the fifth is about the three famed French journalists (dissimilar to ‘diarists’) named Edmond de Goncourt, Jules Renard and Paul Léautaud.
In a word, thrilled by his narrating power and supporting facts, I couldn’t help admiring this book by Maugham; therefore, it’s highly recommended as the one you won’t miss if you’re his fans. I think it’s his literary legacy left to us and posterity to read entertainingly and reflectively on and on.
Condensed in five sentences, the synopsis is as follows. The first deals with Goethe, the great German poet, who with different inspiring literary backgrounds wrote his three remarkable novels entitled “The Sorrows of Werther,” “Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship” and “The Elective Affinities”. The second reveals the life and charisma of the Indian Maharshi whom he met in 1936 and experienced the Swami’s meditation in his ashram. The third describes Dr. Tillotson’s uneventful life (1630-1694) whose famous sermons were legendary and his portrait as a young man we can see in the National Portrait Gallery in London. The fourth exemplifies some great short story writers, that is, the lives and works of Henry James, Guy de Maupassant, Edgar Allan Poe, Anthony Trollope, Rudyard Kipling, Anton Chekov, and Katherine Mansfield. Finally, the fifth is about the three famed French journalists (dissimilar to ‘diarists’) named Edmond de Goncourt, Jules Renard and Paul Léautaud.
In a word, thrilled by his narrating power and supporting facts, I couldn’t help admiring this book by Maugham; therefore, it’s highly recommended as the one you won’t miss if you’re his fans. I think it’s his literary legacy left to us and posterity to read entertainingly and reflectively on and on.
September 12, 2023
I was cleaning my room a few days back and this book popped up from nowhere! So couldn't resist reading it!
'Points of View' is an essay collection. It has five essays by Somerset Maugham. The book is around 250 pages long and so each essay is around 50 pages long. So they are long essays. One of them is about the novels of Goethe. Another is about the Indian saint Ramana Maharishi. The third one is about someone called Tillotson. It was the least interesting essay for me. The fourth one is about short stories. The fifth one is about three French journalists. Here Maugham uses the word 'journalist' not in the way we mean today, but he uses it to describe a person who wrote journals. So these three writers wrote journals which became famous and controversial.
I enjoyed reading most of the essays in the book. The Tillotson essay was not my type. Maugham always writes brilliant first passages and brilliant first pages and it is much in evidence in all the essays. For example, the first essay on Goethe's novels starts like this –
"I think it only fair to tell the reader of the following pages why, at this time of day, when surely everything that could be said about Goethe has long since been said, I should write an essay on his novels. It has given me pleasure to do so, and if there is a better reason for writing anything I have yet to hear of it."
I felt that the first one-third of every essay was fascinating and after that somehow it meandered along. I think my favourites were probably the one on short stories and the one on the three French journal writers. The one about the Indian saint was interesting too. The other two had great starts but somehow lost steam somewhere. It didn't help that Maugham criticized Goethe's 'Elective Affinities' which is one of my favourite books.
The short story essay was beautiful and what Maugham says is very relevant even today. Maugham was one of the great practitioners of the art of the short story and his complete collection of short stories are still in print. So it was fascinating to read his thoughts on this literary form. There is a beautiful passage from the short story essay which I loved. I'm sharing it below. It is long and so get yourself a cup of tea before reading 😊
It goes like this –
"Chekhov's early stories were for the most part humorous. He wrote them very easily; he wrote, he said, as a bird sings, and attached no importance to them. It was not till after his first visit to Petersburg, when he discovered that he was accepted as a promising and talented author, that he began to take himself seriously. He set himself then to acquire proficiency in his craft. One day a friend found him copying a story of Tolstoy's and when asked what he was doing, he replied, "I'm re-writing it." His friend was shocked that he should take such a liberty with the master's work, whereupon Chekhov explained that he was doing it as an exercise; he had conceived the idea (for all I know, a good one) that by doing this he could learn the methods of the writers he admired and so evolve a manner of his own. It is evident that his labour was not wasted. He learnt to compose his stories with consummate skill: 'The Peasants', for instance, is as elegantly constructed as Flaubert's 'Madame Bovary'. Chekhov trained himself to write simply, clearly and concisely, and we are told that he achieved a style of great beauty. That, we who read him in translation must take on trust, for even in the most accurate translation the tang, the feeling, the euphony of the author's words are lost.
Chekhov was very much concerned with the technique of the short story and he had some uncommonly interesting things to say about it. He claimed that a story should contain nothing that was superfluous. "Everything that has no relation to it must be ruthlessly thrown away," he wrote. "If in the first chapter you say that a gun hung on a wall, in the second or third chapter it must without fail be discharged." That seems sound enough, and sound too is his claim that descriptions of nature should be brief and to the point. He was himself able in a word or two to give the reader a vivid impression of a summer night when the nightingales were singing their heads off or of the cold brilliance of the boundless steppes under the snows of winter. It was a priceless gift. I am more doubtful about his condemnation of anthropomorphisms. "The sea laughs," he wrote in a letter, "you are of course in raptures over it. But it's crude and cheap. The sea doesn't laugh or cry, it roars, flashes, glistens. Just look how Tolstoy does it: "The sun rises and sets, the birds sing. No one laughs or sobs. And that's the chief thing – simplicity." That is true enough, but, when all's said and done, we have been personifying nature since the beginning of time and it comes so naturally to us that it is only by an effort that we can avoid it.
Chekhov himself did not always do so; and in his story, 'The Duel', he tells us that "a star peeped out and timidly blinked its one eye". I see nothing objectionable in that; in fact I like it. To his brother Alexander, also a short story writer, but a poor one, he said that an author must never describe emotions that he has not felt himself. That is a hard saying. Surely it is unnecessary to commit a murder in order to describe convincingly enough the emotions that a murderer may feel when he has done so. After all, the writer has imagination and if he is a good writer he has the power of empathy which enables him to feel the feelings of the characters of his invention. But the most drastic demand that Chekhov made was that an author should strike out both the beginning and the end of his stories. That was what he did himself, and so rigorously that his friends used to say that his manuscripts should be snatched away before he had a chance to mutilate them, "otherwise he will reduce his stories only to this, that they were young, fell in love, married and were unhappy." When this was told to Chekhov, he replied, "But look here, so it does happen in fact.""
Did you like this quote? It made me think a lot. It also made me appreciate Chekhov better. Such a master!
Now about the last essay in the book. The three journal keepers that Maugham writes about are the Goncourt brothers (after whom the famous French literary award the Prix Goncourt is named), Jules Renard, and Paul Léautaud. We'll ignore the Goncourt brothers, because I didn't find them interesting. I remember first hearing the name of Jules Renard around twelve years back. At around that time Renard's journals had been translated into English, and some of my friends who always tried looking cool, when I asked them what they were reading, they said they were reading Renard's journals. I've never heard of Jules Renard before. The only Renard I knew was the villain from the James Bond movie, 'The World is Not Enough'. So I added Renard's journals to my list and hoped to read them sometime, but either because it was too expensive or because I got distracted by other things, I never got it. So it was interesting for me to see his name pop up in Maugham's essay. The Renard part of the essay was very fascinating. Maybe I should read his journals sometime. The most fascinating person out of the three though is Paul Léautaud. His life is very fascinating, and after reading about him in Maugham's essay, I want to read his biography. He seems to be literally unknown in the English speaking world (have never heard of him before) but his life is very fascinating. There is a biography of him from the '70s which is hard to find and expensive. Hope I'm able to get it.
Something about Somerset Maugham. I first discovered Maugham when I was a teenager. I saw his book 'Of Human Bondage' in the library. I read the first few pages and I loved it. Unfortunately, I couldn't borrow it and so I made a note of it. Many years later after I'd gone to work and I could afford to buy books, I looked for it and got it. I loved it when I read it. It became one of my favourite books. After that, once in a few years, I read a novel by Maugham. At one point I felt that I had grown out of his books. But then I read his book, 'The Painted Veil' and loved it too. I realized that he is my writer and I'll always love his books. I read my last Maugham novel six years back. I think it is time to read another one.
Maugham was a popular writer during his time. He studied to become a doctor but became a writer instead. He wrote novels, plays, short stories, and essays. At one point he was the most successful playwright in London and four of his plays were running simultaneously. He also travelled widely during the pre-airplane era, and he used many of those exotic settings in his stories. He is an acknowledged short story master. Maugham knew French and German and read, wrote and spoke them fluently and that influence could be felt in many of his stories. Maugham was also a prolific reader and his knowledge of French and German literature was encyclopaedic, which was rare for British writers of that time. Maugham believed that we should write about what we know, and that is the most important advice he gave to aspiring writers. So he kept detailed notes about things he read, conversations he had, places he travelled to, people he met. And when the right time came, he used them in his books. Sometimes he used confidential stuff that his friends told him, in a story, and when the story came out, his friends were upset. Some of them was so upset that they filed a case against him and asked him to change the names of the characters and the locations.
Another interesting thing about Maugham was that he was gay. How he managed to survive during an era when gay people were put in prison (for example, Oscar Wilde and Alan Turing), I don't know. But glad he got through it. Maugham bought a house in the French Riviera and he used to run a French style literary salon there and invite writers and other literary minded friends and have literary conversations with them. I always wonder which famous writers got invited there. It would have been fun to listen to the conversations.
Sadly, after he passed away, the British literary establishment and readership ignored him and Maugham slipped into obscurity. Because he was a prolific writer of short stories, his American publishers kept him in print. Today he is rarely read on either side of the Atlantic, though his books are still in print. In recent times, Haruki Murakami, for some reason, has raved about Maugham, and because of that some of Murakami's fans have picked up Maugham's books and have discovered the pleasure of reading them. But it is still a trickle and I don't know how long it will last. It is such a shame, because Maugham is such a wonderful writer.
So that's it. Review of the book and love letter to Maugham complete 😊
Have you read this book or any other book by Maugham? What do you think about him?
'Points of View' is an essay collection. It has five essays by Somerset Maugham. The book is around 250 pages long and so each essay is around 50 pages long. So they are long essays. One of them is about the novels of Goethe. Another is about the Indian saint Ramana Maharishi. The third one is about someone called Tillotson. It was the least interesting essay for me. The fourth one is about short stories. The fifth one is about three French journalists. Here Maugham uses the word 'journalist' not in the way we mean today, but he uses it to describe a person who wrote journals. So these three writers wrote journals which became famous and controversial.
I enjoyed reading most of the essays in the book. The Tillotson essay was not my type. Maugham always writes brilliant first passages and brilliant first pages and it is much in evidence in all the essays. For example, the first essay on Goethe's novels starts like this –
"I think it only fair to tell the reader of the following pages why, at this time of day, when surely everything that could be said about Goethe has long since been said, I should write an essay on his novels. It has given me pleasure to do so, and if there is a better reason for writing anything I have yet to hear of it."
I felt that the first one-third of every essay was fascinating and after that somehow it meandered along. I think my favourites were probably the one on short stories and the one on the three French journal writers. The one about the Indian saint was interesting too. The other two had great starts but somehow lost steam somewhere. It didn't help that Maugham criticized Goethe's 'Elective Affinities' which is one of my favourite books.
The short story essay was beautiful and what Maugham says is very relevant even today. Maugham was one of the great practitioners of the art of the short story and his complete collection of short stories are still in print. So it was fascinating to read his thoughts on this literary form. There is a beautiful passage from the short story essay which I loved. I'm sharing it below. It is long and so get yourself a cup of tea before reading 😊
It goes like this –
"Chekhov's early stories were for the most part humorous. He wrote them very easily; he wrote, he said, as a bird sings, and attached no importance to them. It was not till after his first visit to Petersburg, when he discovered that he was accepted as a promising and talented author, that he began to take himself seriously. He set himself then to acquire proficiency in his craft. One day a friend found him copying a story of Tolstoy's and when asked what he was doing, he replied, "I'm re-writing it." His friend was shocked that he should take such a liberty with the master's work, whereupon Chekhov explained that he was doing it as an exercise; he had conceived the idea (for all I know, a good one) that by doing this he could learn the methods of the writers he admired and so evolve a manner of his own. It is evident that his labour was not wasted. He learnt to compose his stories with consummate skill: 'The Peasants', for instance, is as elegantly constructed as Flaubert's 'Madame Bovary'. Chekhov trained himself to write simply, clearly and concisely, and we are told that he achieved a style of great beauty. That, we who read him in translation must take on trust, for even in the most accurate translation the tang, the feeling, the euphony of the author's words are lost.
Chekhov was very much concerned with the technique of the short story and he had some uncommonly interesting things to say about it. He claimed that a story should contain nothing that was superfluous. "Everything that has no relation to it must be ruthlessly thrown away," he wrote. "If in the first chapter you say that a gun hung on a wall, in the second or third chapter it must without fail be discharged." That seems sound enough, and sound too is his claim that descriptions of nature should be brief and to the point. He was himself able in a word or two to give the reader a vivid impression of a summer night when the nightingales were singing their heads off or of the cold brilliance of the boundless steppes under the snows of winter. It was a priceless gift. I am more doubtful about his condemnation of anthropomorphisms. "The sea laughs," he wrote in a letter, "you are of course in raptures over it. But it's crude and cheap. The sea doesn't laugh or cry, it roars, flashes, glistens. Just look how Tolstoy does it: "The sun rises and sets, the birds sing. No one laughs or sobs. And that's the chief thing – simplicity." That is true enough, but, when all's said and done, we have been personifying nature since the beginning of time and it comes so naturally to us that it is only by an effort that we can avoid it.
Chekhov himself did not always do so; and in his story, 'The Duel', he tells us that "a star peeped out and timidly blinked its one eye". I see nothing objectionable in that; in fact I like it. To his brother Alexander, also a short story writer, but a poor one, he said that an author must never describe emotions that he has not felt himself. That is a hard saying. Surely it is unnecessary to commit a murder in order to describe convincingly enough the emotions that a murderer may feel when he has done so. After all, the writer has imagination and if he is a good writer he has the power of empathy which enables him to feel the feelings of the characters of his invention. But the most drastic demand that Chekhov made was that an author should strike out both the beginning and the end of his stories. That was what he did himself, and so rigorously that his friends used to say that his manuscripts should be snatched away before he had a chance to mutilate them, "otherwise he will reduce his stories only to this, that they were young, fell in love, married and were unhappy." When this was told to Chekhov, he replied, "But look here, so it does happen in fact.""
Did you like this quote? It made me think a lot. It also made me appreciate Chekhov better. Such a master!
Now about the last essay in the book. The three journal keepers that Maugham writes about are the Goncourt brothers (after whom the famous French literary award the Prix Goncourt is named), Jules Renard, and Paul Léautaud. We'll ignore the Goncourt brothers, because I didn't find them interesting. I remember first hearing the name of Jules Renard around twelve years back. At around that time Renard's journals had been translated into English, and some of my friends who always tried looking cool, when I asked them what they were reading, they said they were reading Renard's journals. I've never heard of Jules Renard before. The only Renard I knew was the villain from the James Bond movie, 'The World is Not Enough'. So I added Renard's journals to my list and hoped to read them sometime, but either because it was too expensive or because I got distracted by other things, I never got it. So it was interesting for me to see his name pop up in Maugham's essay. The Renard part of the essay was very fascinating. Maybe I should read his journals sometime. The most fascinating person out of the three though is Paul Léautaud. His life is very fascinating, and after reading about him in Maugham's essay, I want to read his biography. He seems to be literally unknown in the English speaking world (have never heard of him before) but his life is very fascinating. There is a biography of him from the '70s which is hard to find and expensive. Hope I'm able to get it.
Something about Somerset Maugham. I first discovered Maugham when I was a teenager. I saw his book 'Of Human Bondage' in the library. I read the first few pages and I loved it. Unfortunately, I couldn't borrow it and so I made a note of it. Many years later after I'd gone to work and I could afford to buy books, I looked for it and got it. I loved it when I read it. It became one of my favourite books. After that, once in a few years, I read a novel by Maugham. At one point I felt that I had grown out of his books. But then I read his book, 'The Painted Veil' and loved it too. I realized that he is my writer and I'll always love his books. I read my last Maugham novel six years back. I think it is time to read another one.
Maugham was a popular writer during his time. He studied to become a doctor but became a writer instead. He wrote novels, plays, short stories, and essays. At one point he was the most successful playwright in London and four of his plays were running simultaneously. He also travelled widely during the pre-airplane era, and he used many of those exotic settings in his stories. He is an acknowledged short story master. Maugham knew French and German and read, wrote and spoke them fluently and that influence could be felt in many of his stories. Maugham was also a prolific reader and his knowledge of French and German literature was encyclopaedic, which was rare for British writers of that time. Maugham believed that we should write about what we know, and that is the most important advice he gave to aspiring writers. So he kept detailed notes about things he read, conversations he had, places he travelled to, people he met. And when the right time came, he used them in his books. Sometimes he used confidential stuff that his friends told him, in a story, and when the story came out, his friends were upset. Some of them was so upset that they filed a case against him and asked him to change the names of the characters and the locations.
Another interesting thing about Maugham was that he was gay. How he managed to survive during an era when gay people were put in prison (for example, Oscar Wilde and Alan Turing), I don't know. But glad he got through it. Maugham bought a house in the French Riviera and he used to run a French style literary salon there and invite writers and other literary minded friends and have literary conversations with them. I always wonder which famous writers got invited there. It would have been fun to listen to the conversations.
Sadly, after he passed away, the British literary establishment and readership ignored him and Maugham slipped into obscurity. Because he was a prolific writer of short stories, his American publishers kept him in print. Today he is rarely read on either side of the Atlantic, though his books are still in print. In recent times, Haruki Murakami, for some reason, has raved about Maugham, and because of that some of Murakami's fans have picked up Maugham's books and have discovered the pleasure of reading them. But it is still a trickle and I don't know how long it will last. It is such a shame, because Maugham is such a wonderful writer.
So that's it. Review of the book and love letter to Maugham complete 😊
Have you read this book or any other book by Maugham? What do you think about him?
February 22, 2023
Good collection of essays by Maugham .. the Indian Saint he has written about is Saint Ramana Maharshi of Tiruvannamalai ( A friend mentioned that the saint has been fictionalized in The Razor's Edge by Maugham which is on my #TBR list ).
December 26, 2014
Maugham has a particularly readable style and the ability to make a giant like goethe seem silly and immature without seeming to be overly catty. The reader feels he is a party to salon level gossip. You have to admire such an ability. Of course one wonders how Goethe ever got to be considered a giant of literature in the first place if his novels were so slight. In all frankness I have no intention of reading Goethe myself so I'll take Maugham's criticism as it is offered. It's amusing and for all I know it's deserved.
Maugham also introduces us to to little known writers (even in their own day) who are idiosyncratically curious. Not all of the selections seemed worth slogging through. However you can pick and choose. The selection on the Goncourts is similarly one where the reader is invited to witness the foibles, weaknesses and inconsequential nature of the two brothers who are for the most part forgotten in our present time. But the discussion of their career is never boring. When I say that Goethe and the Goncourts are the best known of the subjects Maugham chooses to discuss, you get an idea of how obscure the other subjects are.
Maugham also introduces us to to little known writers (even in their own day) who are idiosyncratically curious. Not all of the selections seemed worth slogging through. However you can pick and choose. The selection on the Goncourts is similarly one where the reader is invited to witness the foibles, weaknesses and inconsequential nature of the two brothers who are for the most part forgotten in our present time. But the discussion of their career is never boring. When I say that Goethe and the Goncourts are the best known of the subjects Maugham chooses to discuss, you get an idea of how obscure the other subjects are.
March 28, 2011
Or: five essays on obscure topics.
The first, Three Novels of a Poet, is an overview, with synopses, of some of the works of Goethe. I've never read any Goethe, which isn't to say I won't, just haven't yet, so this didn't interest me.
The second, The Saint, is a biography, clearly cadged from other sources and reworked in Maugham's style, of an Indian mystic Maugham encountered (some 30 years before the Beatles made it fashionable). This was my favorite.
The third, Prose and Dr. Tillotson, covers the writings of John Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury in the 1690s.
The fourth, The Short Story, takes a swipe at Henry James, then goes on to discuss Poe, Kipling, Mansfield, and other masters of the genre (a group of which Maugham himself should be considered a member, but he demurs).
Finally, Three Journalists, biographies of three once-famed French diarists: The Goncourt Brothers, now known as the creators of a French literary prize which bears their name; Jules Renard; and Paul Leautaud.
Dull, for Maugham fans and completists only.
The first, Three Novels of a Poet, is an overview, with synopses, of some of the works of Goethe. I've never read any Goethe, which isn't to say I won't, just haven't yet, so this didn't interest me.
The second, The Saint, is a biography, clearly cadged from other sources and reworked in Maugham's style, of an Indian mystic Maugham encountered (some 30 years before the Beatles made it fashionable). This was my favorite.
The third, Prose and Dr. Tillotson, covers the writings of John Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury in the 1690s.
The fourth, The Short Story, takes a swipe at Henry James, then goes on to discuss Poe, Kipling, Mansfield, and other masters of the genre (a group of which Maugham himself should be considered a member, but he demurs).
Finally, Three Journalists, biographies of three once-famed French diarists: The Goncourt Brothers, now known as the creators of a French literary prize which bears their name; Jules Renard; and Paul Leautaud.
Dull, for Maugham fans and completists only.
November 5, 2009
The essay on Goethe's colorfully maudlin love life is well worth a read, as well as Maugham's brief character studies of both Chekhov and Mansfield. He is so concise and unpretentious that I usually take his opinions as gospel. Although, not being familiar with any of the writers under scrutiny, made reading the short essay, "Three Journalists" an exercise in futility. Apparently this is the last thing that Maugham ever wrote, however, I felt like "The Summing Up" is more suitably poised to be his goodbye to literature.
November 2, 2018
A collection of five essays by W. Somerset Maugham.
1. The Three Novels of a Poet is about Goethe and his novels.
2. The Saint about an Indian holy man.
3. Prose and Dr. Tillotson is about the writings of John Tillotson.
4. The Short Story is about writers of short stories.
5. Three Journalists is about three French journalists.
I read this for the Gilmore Girls reading challenge - Richard was reading it in season 4, episode 19.
1. The Three Novels of a Poet is about Goethe and his novels.
2. The Saint about an Indian holy man.
3. Prose and Dr. Tillotson is about the writings of John Tillotson.
4. The Short Story is about writers of short stories.
5. Three Journalists is about three French journalists.
I read this for the Gilmore Girls reading challenge - Richard was reading it in season 4, episode 19.
September 13, 2023
这本书是毛姆生前最后几年创作力衰退时期的产物。
其中《圣者》和《散文与神学家蒂乐生》这两篇我觉得都相当乏味，《短篇小说》居中，《诗人的三部小说》和《三位日记体作家》这两篇才比较有意思。特别是《三位日记体作家》里那三组四个作为作家已经大致被历史遗忘的名字，在毛姆笔下的形象却显得格外生动别致。他们那些在当年震天动地、伤风败俗的作品，勾起了我炙热的好奇心。结果却发现它们根本就没有任何的中译本，而法文原著我又看不懂。叹息。
我觉得毛姆在晚年写不了小说的时候，没有转型去当一个传记作家，实在是全人类的巨大损失。尤其是让毛姆去为能写出“别人的成功让我心烦意乱，不过如果他值得的话，我会感觉稍好一点”这种句子的主人公著书立传，恐怕天底下都找不到比这更合适的事情了吧。
其中《圣者》和《散文与神学家蒂乐生》这两篇我觉得都相当乏味，《短篇小说》居中，《诗人的三部小说》和《三位日记体作家》这两篇才比较有意思。特别是《三位日记体作家》里那三组四个作为作家已经大致被历史遗忘的名字，在毛姆笔下的形象却显得格外生动别致。他们那些在当年震天动地、伤风败俗的作品，勾起了我炙热的好奇心。结果却发现它们根本就没有任何的中译本，而法文原著我又看不懂。叹息。
我觉得毛姆在晚年写不了小说的时候，没有转型去当一个传记作家，实在是全人类的巨大损失。尤其是让毛姆去为能写出“别人的成功让我心烦意乱，不过如果他值得的话，我会感觉稍好一点”这种句子的主人公著书立传，恐怕天底下都找不到比这更合适的事情了吧。
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August 26, 2025"What makes old age hard to bear is not the failing of one's faculties, mental and physical, but the burden of one's memories."
June 10, 2023
It is, of course, easy to enjoy a writer’s points of view when you feel that you share almost all of them. And that surely is the case. But then, a lot of my points of view concerning literature have been shaped by Maugham. Or maybe he became the favourite (nearly contemporary) writer because of it. It does not sound very original that the first duty of a writer it is to entertain. But Maugham had the dignity to openly announce it.
An admirable book. Also a bit repetitive, which is to be expected if he is talking about short stories on different occasions for maybe different audiences. And I just love the way he writes. His piece about the life (and works) of Goethe is so much better than Goethe himself. And the autobiographical stuff about the Goncourts, Chechov or Renard is exactly the right amount of information I need about these guys. (On the other hand, I did not care to be introduced to some Indian Saint.) And who but Maugham could write something like this: “Now I have most of my life been miserably conscious that I am not the average Englishman. Let no one think I say this with self-satisfaction, for I think that there is nothing better than to be like everybody else. It is the only way to be happy, and it is with a wry face that one tells oneself that happiness is not everything.” 9/10
An admirable book. Also a bit repetitive, which is to be expected if he is talking about short stories on different occasions for maybe different audiences. And I just love the way he writes. His piece about the life (and works) of Goethe is so much better than Goethe himself. And the autobiographical stuff about the Goncourts, Chechov or Renard is exactly the right amount of information I need about these guys. (On the other hand, I did not care to be introduced to some Indian Saint.) And who but Maugham could write something like this: “Now I have most of my life been miserably conscious that I am not the average Englishman. Let no one think I say this with self-satisfaction, for I think that there is nothing better than to be like everybody else. It is the only way to be happy, and it is with a wry face that one tells oneself that happiness is not everything.” 9/10
September 21, 2013
Essay collections are always tricky, since the topics often come across as dated and obscure.
These, the first book I've read of Somerset Maugham, were a mixed bag. I enjoyed "Three Journalists" and "The Short Story," but the others didn't do much for me.
These, the first book I've read of Somerset Maugham, were a mixed bag. I enjoyed "Three Journalists" and "The Short Story," but the others didn't do much for me.
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