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The Essential W.Somerset Maugham Collection
William Somerset Maugham (25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English playwright and novelist. The Essential W.Somerset Maugham Collection (with active table of contents), contains 14 books, includes:
•Caesar’s Wife
•The Canadian
•East of Suez
•The Explorer
•The Hero
•The Land of the Blessed Virgin
•Liza of Lambeth
•The Magician
•The Making of a Saint
•Moon and Sixpence
•Of Human Bondage
•Orientations
•Play: Lady Frederick, The Explorer, A Man of Honor
•The Trembling of a Leaf
•Caesar’s Wife
•The Canadian
•East of Suez
•The Explorer
•The Hero
•The Land of the Blessed Virgin
•Liza of Lambeth
•The Magician
•The Making of a Saint
•Moon and Sixpence
•Of Human Bondage
•Orientations
•Play: Lady Frederick, The Explorer, A Man of Honor
•The Trembling of a Leaf
- GenresFiction
4099 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 24, 2010
49 people are currently reading
53 people want to read
About the author
W. Somerset Maugham
2,114 books6,062 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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January 14, 2013Read almost all of Somerset Maugham in translation many years ago, loved it. Time to read again, in original.
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