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The Greatest Short Stories of W. Somerset Maugham: Enriched edition. Love, Betrayal, and Social Commentary in Early 20th-Century Tales
In 'The Greatest Short Stories of W. Somerset Maugham,' readers are gifted a curated collection that encapsulates Maugham's mastery of the short story genre. The book features a diverse range of narratives, from character-driven dramas to incisive social commentaries, all reflecting Maugham's sharp wit and profound understanding of human nature. Written in a lucid style that marries simplicity with sophistication, the stories explore themes of love, betrayal, and existential inquiry, often set against the backdrop of early 20th-century society. Maugham's keen observation and vivid settings allow the narratives to resonate with the emotional complexities of life, making each tale a rich tapestry of experience that reveals both the mundane and extraordinary aspects of human interaction. William Somerset Maugham, a prominent British author born in 1874, was significantly influenced by his experiences in the medical field and his extensive travels around the world. His early life was marked by personal hardship and professional success, elements that undeniably shaped his literary voice. Having navigated the complexities of both British and expatriate life, Maugham's works often reflect a deeply humanistic perspective, as he delves into the moral dilemmas faced by his characters. This anthology is a must-read for those who appreciate finely crafted stories that offer rich layers and profound insights into the human condition. Maugham's succinct but powerful prose invites readers to reflect on their own lives, ensuring that 'The Greatest Short Stories of W. Somerset Maugham' remains an enduring classic that appeals to both new and seasoned readers alike.
In this enriched edition, we have carefully created added value for your reading
- A comprehensive Introduction outlines these selected works' unifying features, themes, or stylistic evolutions.
- The Author Biography highlights personal milestones and literary influences that shape the entire body of writing.
- A Historical Context section situates the works in their broader era—social currents, cultural trends, and key events that underpin their creation.
- A concise Synopsis (Selection) offers an accessible overview of the included texts, helping readers navigate plotlines and main ideas without revealing critical twists.
- A unified Analysis examines recurring motifs and stylistic hallmarks across the collection, tying the stories together while spotlighting the different work's strengths.
- Reflection questions inspire deeper contemplation of the author's overarching message, inviting readers to draw connections among different texts and relate them to modern contexts.
- Lastly, our hand‐picked Memorable Quotes distill pivotal lines and turning points, serving as touchstones for the collection's central themes.
In this enriched edition, we have carefully created added value for your reading
- A comprehensive Introduction outlines these selected works' unifying features, themes, or stylistic evolutions.
- The Author Biography highlights personal milestones and literary influences that shape the entire body of writing.
- A Historical Context section situates the works in their broader era—social currents, cultural trends, and key events that underpin their creation.
- A concise Synopsis (Selection) offers an accessible overview of the included texts, helping readers navigate plotlines and main ideas without revealing critical twists.
- A unified Analysis examines recurring motifs and stylistic hallmarks across the collection, tying the stories together while spotlighting the different work's strengths.
- Reflection questions inspire deeper contemplation of the author's overarching message, inviting readers to draw connections among different texts and relate them to modern contexts.
- Lastly, our hand‐picked Memorable Quotes distill pivotal lines and turning points, serving as touchstones for the collection's central themes.
434 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 26, 2023
About the author
W. Somerset Maugham
1,739 books6,390 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 - 1 of 1 review
June 7, 2026
These stories collected are five stars. I recommend and will read again. The two star rating reflects the quality of this digital collection. The table of contents is non existent and at least one story is repeated (it's hard to be sure since navigation is so difficult). Additionally there is very little additional material - certainly nothing substantive like I have experienced in other digital collections or reprints. I bought this collection because I thought it was the best place to get Maugham's most significant stories without buying multiple collections and I'm satisfied on that front.
Individual story rating follows:
The Punctiliousness of Don Sebastian - 4 stars
Very compelling start to a collection of short stories.
Not sure about the story within the story but I did like the ending …. “and the present Duke has no brother.”
A Bad Example 3 Stars
Living a life as prescribed by the Bible…. the bad example?
De Amicitia 2pStars
Apparently - 'can men and women be friends' was a thing long before Harry Met Sally.
Faith 5 stars
Two head monks in this story are parables of religion. Old blind head monk - believe - doubt is natural - practicing is what matters good will save you. Young with piercing black eyes - believe because you will be punished - your soul is in eternal damnation. Neither are satisfying. Most like religion for those who lack faith.
The Choice of Amyntas 2 stars
Is Maugham really saying that the choice of a man’s (or woman’s) name is that impactful. Or is he saying something different about choice? Choosing love over war, riches, art? What is he saying something about his contemporaries - Alfred Austin, William II, Napoleon? I’m not sure but a little too out there for me.
Daisy 3 stars
True love is not conditional and true value does not always come in neat packages.
Mackintosh 3 stars
I liked this story. Maugham does a good job of creating a character who has a lot of bad qualities balanced with a lot of good. I found myself vacillating between liking and not liking Walker and sympathizing with Mackintosh and his existence. The story had a great ending right down to the splashing sharks. Sometimes we make decisions in our weakest moments. It can be very difficult to live with the consequences of those decision decisions.
The Fall of Edward Barnard. 5 stars
Maugham leaves the reader to judge - despite the title and the very rapid disengagement by the fiancé and subsequent love rewarded to the man who took the conventional road filled with contempt for natives and horn rim glasses - it’s not clear that it’s the high road or even the right road.
As Edward himself puts it.
I haven’t failed. I’ve succeeded. You can’t think with what zest I look forward to life how full it seems to me and how significant.
Do you think it is so little to have enjoyed contentment? We know that it will prop a man little if he gain the whole world and lose his soul I think I have one mine.
There will be enough work to keep me busy and not enough to make me dull. I shall have my books and Eva and children ,I hope, and above all the infinite variety of the sea, and the sky, the freshness of the dawn and the beauty of the sunset and the Rich, magnificent of the night.
I’m not sure Edward fell. How about you?
Red 5 stars
These South Pacific stories are so good. The beauty comes off the page as does the clash of cultures. My only problem is Maugham's use of the Hawaiian word Kahuna as a generic term for Samoans and Tahitians in nondescript roles.
In this story a man (Nielsen) comes to an island to die and gets saved by loving another but then thinking that he deserves love in return, which is not given, is led to believing that love is a tragedy that ends in indifference. In a very enjoyable or cruel (depending on your point of view) irony the titular character who is the recipient of such love is clearly not deserving of it being weak of flesh, mind and decentness. Nor does he appreciate the love that was given leaving the reader to decide if it was even really felt.
My truth - the story people make, especially of love, is often not the true one and passionate love burns out on its own. Another truth I believe is that expecting love because it is owed or deserved is a sure way to disappointment.
Maugham - "The tragedy of love is not death or separation. How long do you think it would have been before one or other of them ceased to care? Oh, it is dreadfully bitter to look at a woman whom you have loved with all your heart and soul, so that you felt you could not bear to let her out of your sight, and realise that you would not mind if you never saw her again. The tragedy of love is indifference[3ql."
My take (with help from ChatGPT)
“Mature love is sustained mutual care, trust, and commitment between two people who continue choosing each other after infatuation fades.”
Maybe Nielsen has truer love than he realizes.
The Pool 3 stars
This story set in Samoa has themes of love, racism, cultural differences, emasculation and depression. The Pool is where love started and where expectations end..
Honolulu 4 Stars
I remember my wife once told me we don't live in grass shacks and canoe between the islands. She is Honolulu born and raised and was pointing out that our stereotype view of Hawaii dismisses it's complexity and modernity. I believe this story is a parable of how the author perceived the stories namesake city. Sophisticated yet mysterious. It might be a story of true love or a story of witchcraft. As Maugham describes the tale within the story. "It is a story of primitive superstition, and it startles me, that anything of the sort should survive in a civilization which, if not very distinguished, is certainly very elaborate." And of course the end has a twist that exposed the inconsistency of human nature.
I enjoyed the descriptions of the incongruity of Honolulu.
"It is the meeting-place of East and West. The very new rubs shoulders with the immeasurably old. And if you have not found the romance you expected you have come upon something singularly intriguing."
Rain 5 stars
So good. Some might think the ending is left up to the reader but I don't think Maugham had any doubt what happened.
"Dr. Macphail gasped. He understood."
A story of religious fanaticism, clash of cultres, hypocrisy and most horrible (IMHO) of all I know better than you about you. I think Maugham agrees with me.
Maugham - "He looks as if he had plenty of determination," he said, but when you come down to brass tacks he has no backbone."
"I suppose that means he won't do exactly what you want," suggested the doctor facetiously.
The missionary did not smile.
"I want him to do what's right. It shouldn't be necessary to persuade a man to do that."
"But there may be differences of opinion about what is right."
My favorite quote of the story.
"I have no doubt you have a sufficiently goods opinion off yourself to bear mine with equanimity."
Envoi - 3 stars
Very short description of Hawaiian ship departures. Good to picture the scene but not what I would call a story.
Before The Party - 4 stars
Have you ever heard disturbing family news right before you go out to an event? Yes, well how about indifference turning to love and then disgust. This story takes both to an extreme.
A daughter turns to extremes when she realizes that her desire to have something (marriage) is more difficult than she expected. It turns out her family would rather not be inconvenienced by just how hard it was. A selfish father, a selfish daughter, a selfish family -
"Then Millicent did something that made them all feel as though their blood were turned to ice in their veins. She chuckled."
And then they all went to the part more concerned about their outfits and what someone might think of them then dealing with tragic news.
P & O - 4 Stars
A story about witchcraft and magic or is it about living life without regret. Life isn't always fair.
"He wanted to live so much and he had so much to live for, and then just when he stretched out his hand
—oh, it was pitiful; it made all the other distresses of the world of small account. Death with its mystery was the only thing that really mattered......Why did people make themselves unhappy? Let them weep for the death of those they loved, death was terrible always, but for the rest, was it worth while to be wretched, to harbour malice, to be vain and uncharitable?.......He too had said that we live to be happy so short a time and we are so long dead."
The Outstation - 4 Stars
A story of a snob and a racist. Both competent, and surprisingly similar men. From different backgrounds they hid their true selves and found isolation and hate despite their physical proximity in a remote outpost. Maugham allows the reader to decide who is in the right and how the story ends. A little too uncertain for me.
The Force of Circumstance - 3 stars
Interesting story about racism. A couple clearly in love breaks up over a serious omission that the husband did not disclose prior to the marriage. Anyone could understand why the wife could not live with three kids in a prior relationship. But that’s not the surprise of the story. She could live with him having a family out of marriage , and she could live with the lie and not even blame him. She could not live with a brown person in her life even knowing that was on her.
The Yellow Streak - 3 stars
A story about a man's insecurity about so many things. The source of which is fed by his living a lie - pretending to be something other than he is. When a crisis happens he twists his perfectly understandable behavior into something less than honorable and reacts by disparaging someone else. In an ironic twist he finds that his behavior is more than understood.
The Letter - 4 Stars
Who can say what people are capable of?
A Marriage of Convenience - 3 stars
I knows not if Maugham was married but he seems to have a good grasp of some of the fundamental characteristics that make up a good one. Interwoven with this message is a delightful setting and an interesting cast of characters.
"The fact is that in a marriage of convenience you expect less and so you are less likely to be disappointed. As you do not make senseless claims on one another there is no reason for ex-asperation. You do not look for perfection and so you are tolerant to one another's faults. Passion is all very well, but it is not a proper foundation for marriage. Voyez-vous, for two people to be happy in marriage they must be able to respect one another, they must be of the same condition and their interests must be alike; then if they are decent people and are willing to give and take, to live and let live, there is no reason why their union should not be as happy as ours."
The Happy Couple - 3 Stars
True love, a perfect murder, and a most interesting alibi.
The Mother - 3 Stars
I read this dark tale within a week of visiting Spain and the lovely town of Sevilla. Picturing some of what Maugham described made the story even better. Anger and love - two sides of the same coin? Don't antagonize inter family relationships?
The Taipan - 4 Stars
A lesson in humility? A self made man has a drink at lunch and embarks on a self congratulatory walk with thoughts of a retirement and sees something that changes everything.
Jane - 4 stars
A nod to authenticity in which the story titled character radically changes her circumstances but stays true to herself. It is humorous observing how everyone else reacts to the changes. Priceless.
"perhaps you don’t know the truth when you see it, Marion, dear" she answered in her mild, good natured way. It certainly gave her the last word.
Mayhew - 3 stars
A very short story which contains a lesson on maintaining balance in life or admiration for the pursuit of a goal.
Quote : He did what he wanted, and he died when his goal was in sight and never knew the bitterness of an end achieved.
German Harry - 3 Stars
A short story of man who isolated himself from the human race after some horrible things occurred. Maugham does not let us see him as a hero or a victim. Perhaps he was the offender. We are left with a "real" portrait of what isolation and survival do.
In a Strange Land - 4 stars
Maugham describes the English woman abroad as maintaining refinement as in “hot water bottles” and “Scottish Scones on Worcester china” but tells a story of one proud to be widowed by a character more similar to Stanley Kowalski than any English gentleman. Maybe the woman abroad is not as refined as the china might suggest.
The Luncheon - 3 stars
If you only eat one thing for lunch you’ll end up at 300lbs.
The Round Dozen - 4 stars
A con man teaching lessons about marriage and how to treat a woman. I could see the end coming, but I enjoyed it anyway, maybe because the narrator did not.
The Happy Man - 4 stars
A short story with some interesting life lessons. I particularly like the intro that talks about how we can hardly provide good counsel to ourselves, but we are so willing to tell other people how to live their lives.
Some excellent quotes.
You might have hesitated to let him remove your appendix, but you could not have imagined a more delightful creature to drink a glass of wine with.
Life is full of compensations.
Poor, I have been and poor I shall always be, but by heaven, I’ve enjoyed myself.
And life, unfortunately, is something that you can lead but once; mistakes are often irreparable, and who am I that I should tell this one and that how he should lead it?
Life is a difficult business, and I have found it hard enough to make my own a complete and rounded thing; I have not been tempted to teach my neighbor what he should do with his.
It is a dangerous thing to order the lives of others, and I have often wondered at the self-confidence of politicians, reformers, and suchlike who are prepared to force upon their fellows measures that must alter their manners, habits, and points of view.
Mr Know-All - 5 stars
Sublime. Great characters with so little prose. The man you don’t like for at first bad reasons than good and then you see some admirable qualities.
quotes
I was prepared to dislike .... even before I knew him. .... I should’ve looked upon it with less dismay. If my fellow passenger’s name had been Smith or Brown.
I felt pretty sure that a closer inspection of that British passport would’ve betrayed the fact that… Was born under a blue sky than it’s generally seen in England.
He knew everything better than anybody else, and it wasn’t upfront to his overweening vanity that you should disagree with him. .....The possibility that he could be mistaken, never occurred to him.
she achieved an effect of quiet distinction. I should not have paid any particular attention to her, but that she possessed a quality that may be common enough in women, but nowadays is not obvious in their demeanor. You could not look at her without being struck by her modesty. It’s shown in her like a flower on a coat.
You could almost see the effort he was making over himself.
No one likes being made to look a perfect damned fool….. if I had a pretty little wife, I shouldn’t let her spend a year in New York while I stayed at Kobe….. at that moment, I did not entirely dislike Mr…..
The Ant and the Grasshopper - 3 stars
Sometimes the grasshopper wins even when it doesn’t deserve it. I’m an ant and would not be happy living as a grasshopper. I try to not let grasshopper’s successes ruin my ant happiness. Maugham might be saying that we should enjoy grasshopper’s success. Hmmm. Maybe he’s right.
The End of the Flight - 2 Stars
If you were all alone and wanting to be a most hospitable host - a host that would encourage your guests to feel comfortable, safe and wanting to stay longer and return sooner - would you tell that story. This one seemed a bit contrived - a mechanism to make the story clever.
The Consul - 2 Stars
[These stories are getting shorter and worse]
Being single leads to eccentricity it also makes understanding attraction, love and relationships infuriating. Well apparently anyway. Not that good.
The Creative Impulse - 4 stars
Per ChatGPT, the creative impulse is the inner drive to make, express, invent or shape something that did not exist before. What feeds that inner drive? The desire to make humor out of a semi-colon? Rub elbows with the elite? The love of art? Or perhaps it’s lower on Maslow’s pyramid. In this story the provider of that pyramid - supporting an artist lifestyle - was a well concealed object of scorn. Mrs. Forrester enjoyed a joke comparing her husband to an empty room and her own analogy of a Persian cat.
“ a writer of Merritt, had said that when you looked into a room into which Albert had just gone, there was nobody there. …… though she pretended to be annoyed she had not been able to prevent the smile that rose to her lips.”
“ but like a very well-trained, well-bred, and well mannered Persian cat,”
But who knew who better. The spouse paying the bills selecting the menus and the wines may have been uninterested in fancy prose but he did know who really was dull and how to fix it.
“The fact is, my dear, you’re dull.”
“My dear, the critics’ll eat it. And written in your beautiful English they won’t be afraid to call it a masterpiece.”
Unfortunately, our artist was too vain to share the source.
I found this to be one of the more disliked villains that Maugham portrays. His character characters both heroes and villains are very human and have both faults and redeeming qualities. Maybe it’s because he was criticized for his lack of prose.
Individual story rating follows:
The Punctiliousness of Don Sebastian - 4 stars
Very compelling start to a collection of short stories.
Not sure about the story within the story but I did like the ending …. “and the present Duke has no brother.”
A Bad Example 3 Stars
Living a life as prescribed by the Bible…. the bad example?
De Amicitia 2pStars
Apparently - 'can men and women be friends' was a thing long before Harry Met Sally.
Faith 5 stars
Two head monks in this story are parables of religion. Old blind head monk - believe - doubt is natural - practicing is what matters good will save you. Young with piercing black eyes - believe because you will be punished - your soul is in eternal damnation. Neither are satisfying. Most like religion for those who lack faith.
The Choice of Amyntas 2 stars
Is Maugham really saying that the choice of a man’s (or woman’s) name is that impactful. Or is he saying something different about choice? Choosing love over war, riches, art? What is he saying something about his contemporaries - Alfred Austin, William II, Napoleon? I’m not sure but a little too out there for me.
Daisy 3 stars
True love is not conditional and true value does not always come in neat packages.
Mackintosh 3 stars
I liked this story. Maugham does a good job of creating a character who has a lot of bad qualities balanced with a lot of good. I found myself vacillating between liking and not liking Walker and sympathizing with Mackintosh and his existence. The story had a great ending right down to the splashing sharks. Sometimes we make decisions in our weakest moments. It can be very difficult to live with the consequences of those decision decisions.
The Fall of Edward Barnard. 5 stars
Maugham leaves the reader to judge - despite the title and the very rapid disengagement by the fiancé and subsequent love rewarded to the man who took the conventional road filled with contempt for natives and horn rim glasses - it’s not clear that it’s the high road or even the right road.
As Edward himself puts it.
I haven’t failed. I’ve succeeded. You can’t think with what zest I look forward to life how full it seems to me and how significant.
Do you think it is so little to have enjoyed contentment? We know that it will prop a man little if he gain the whole world and lose his soul I think I have one mine.
There will be enough work to keep me busy and not enough to make me dull. I shall have my books and Eva and children ,I hope, and above all the infinite variety of the sea, and the sky, the freshness of the dawn and the beauty of the sunset and the Rich, magnificent of the night.
I’m not sure Edward fell. How about you?
Red 5 stars
These South Pacific stories are so good. The beauty comes off the page as does the clash of cultures. My only problem is Maugham's use of the Hawaiian word Kahuna as a generic term for Samoans and Tahitians in nondescript roles.
In this story a man (Nielsen) comes to an island to die and gets saved by loving another but then thinking that he deserves love in return, which is not given, is led to believing that love is a tragedy that ends in indifference. In a very enjoyable or cruel (depending on your point of view) irony the titular character who is the recipient of such love is clearly not deserving of it being weak of flesh, mind and decentness. Nor does he appreciate the love that was given leaving the reader to decide if it was even really felt.
My truth - the story people make, especially of love, is often not the true one and passionate love burns out on its own. Another truth I believe is that expecting love because it is owed or deserved is a sure way to disappointment.
Maugham - "The tragedy of love is not death or separation. How long do you think it would have been before one or other of them ceased to care? Oh, it is dreadfully bitter to look at a woman whom you have loved with all your heart and soul, so that you felt you could not bear to let her out of your sight, and realise that you would not mind if you never saw her again. The tragedy of love is indifference[3ql."
My take (with help from ChatGPT)
“Mature love is sustained mutual care, trust, and commitment between two people who continue choosing each other after infatuation fades.”
Maybe Nielsen has truer love than he realizes.
The Pool 3 stars
This story set in Samoa has themes of love, racism, cultural differences, emasculation and depression. The Pool is where love started and where expectations end..
Honolulu 4 Stars
I remember my wife once told me we don't live in grass shacks and canoe between the islands. She is Honolulu born and raised and was pointing out that our stereotype view of Hawaii dismisses it's complexity and modernity. I believe this story is a parable of how the author perceived the stories namesake city. Sophisticated yet mysterious. It might be a story of true love or a story of witchcraft. As Maugham describes the tale within the story. "It is a story of primitive superstition, and it startles me, that anything of the sort should survive in a civilization which, if not very distinguished, is certainly very elaborate." And of course the end has a twist that exposed the inconsistency of human nature.
I enjoyed the descriptions of the incongruity of Honolulu.
"It is the meeting-place of East and West. The very new rubs shoulders with the immeasurably old. And if you have not found the romance you expected you have come upon something singularly intriguing."
Rain 5 stars
So good. Some might think the ending is left up to the reader but I don't think Maugham had any doubt what happened.
"Dr. Macphail gasped. He understood."
A story of religious fanaticism, clash of cultres, hypocrisy and most horrible (IMHO) of all I know better than you about you. I think Maugham agrees with me.
Maugham - "He looks as if he had plenty of determination," he said, but when you come down to brass tacks he has no backbone."
"I suppose that means he won't do exactly what you want," suggested the doctor facetiously.
The missionary did not smile.
"I want him to do what's right. It shouldn't be necessary to persuade a man to do that."
"But there may be differences of opinion about what is right."
My favorite quote of the story.
"I have no doubt you have a sufficiently goods opinion off yourself to bear mine with equanimity."
Envoi - 3 stars
Very short description of Hawaiian ship departures. Good to picture the scene but not what I would call a story.
Before The Party - 4 stars
Have you ever heard disturbing family news right before you go out to an event? Yes, well how about indifference turning to love and then disgust. This story takes both to an extreme.
A daughter turns to extremes when she realizes that her desire to have something (marriage) is more difficult than she expected. It turns out her family would rather not be inconvenienced by just how hard it was. A selfish father, a selfish daughter, a selfish family -
"Then Millicent did something that made them all feel as though their blood were turned to ice in their veins. She chuckled."
And then they all went to the part more concerned about their outfits and what someone might think of them then dealing with tragic news.
P & O - 4 Stars
A story about witchcraft and magic or is it about living life without regret. Life isn't always fair.
"He wanted to live so much and he had so much to live for, and then just when he stretched out his hand
—oh, it was pitiful; it made all the other distresses of the world of small account. Death with its mystery was the only thing that really mattered......Why did people make themselves unhappy? Let them weep for the death of those they loved, death was terrible always, but for the rest, was it worth while to be wretched, to harbour malice, to be vain and uncharitable?.......He too had said that we live to be happy so short a time and we are so long dead."
The Outstation - 4 Stars
A story of a snob and a racist. Both competent, and surprisingly similar men. From different backgrounds they hid their true selves and found isolation and hate despite their physical proximity in a remote outpost. Maugham allows the reader to decide who is in the right and how the story ends. A little too uncertain for me.
The Force of Circumstance - 3 stars
Interesting story about racism. A couple clearly in love breaks up over a serious omission that the husband did not disclose prior to the marriage. Anyone could understand why the wife could not live with three kids in a prior relationship. But that’s not the surprise of the story. She could live with him having a family out of marriage , and she could live with the lie and not even blame him. She could not live with a brown person in her life even knowing that was on her.
The Yellow Streak - 3 stars
A story about a man's insecurity about so many things. The source of which is fed by his living a lie - pretending to be something other than he is. When a crisis happens he twists his perfectly understandable behavior into something less than honorable and reacts by disparaging someone else. In an ironic twist he finds that his behavior is more than understood.
The Letter - 4 Stars
Who can say what people are capable of?
A Marriage of Convenience - 3 stars
I knows not if Maugham was married but he seems to have a good grasp of some of the fundamental characteristics that make up a good one. Interwoven with this message is a delightful setting and an interesting cast of characters.
"The fact is that in a marriage of convenience you expect less and so you are less likely to be disappointed. As you do not make senseless claims on one another there is no reason for ex-asperation. You do not look for perfection and so you are tolerant to one another's faults. Passion is all very well, but it is not a proper foundation for marriage. Voyez-vous, for two people to be happy in marriage they must be able to respect one another, they must be of the same condition and their interests must be alike; then if they are decent people and are willing to give and take, to live and let live, there is no reason why their union should not be as happy as ours."
The Happy Couple - 3 Stars
True love, a perfect murder, and a most interesting alibi.
The Mother - 3 Stars
I read this dark tale within a week of visiting Spain and the lovely town of Sevilla. Picturing some of what Maugham described made the story even better. Anger and love - two sides of the same coin? Don't antagonize inter family relationships?
The Taipan - 4 Stars
A lesson in humility? A self made man has a drink at lunch and embarks on a self congratulatory walk with thoughts of a retirement and sees something that changes everything.
Jane - 4 stars
A nod to authenticity in which the story titled character radically changes her circumstances but stays true to herself. It is humorous observing how everyone else reacts to the changes. Priceless.
"perhaps you don’t know the truth when you see it, Marion, dear" she answered in her mild, good natured way. It certainly gave her the last word.
Mayhew - 3 stars
A very short story which contains a lesson on maintaining balance in life or admiration for the pursuit of a goal.
Quote : He did what he wanted, and he died when his goal was in sight and never knew the bitterness of an end achieved.
German Harry - 3 Stars
A short story of man who isolated himself from the human race after some horrible things occurred. Maugham does not let us see him as a hero or a victim. Perhaps he was the offender. We are left with a "real" portrait of what isolation and survival do.
In a Strange Land - 4 stars
Maugham describes the English woman abroad as maintaining refinement as in “hot water bottles” and “Scottish Scones on Worcester china” but tells a story of one proud to be widowed by a character more similar to Stanley Kowalski than any English gentleman. Maybe the woman abroad is not as refined as the china might suggest.
The Luncheon - 3 stars
If you only eat one thing for lunch you’ll end up at 300lbs.
The Round Dozen - 4 stars
A con man teaching lessons about marriage and how to treat a woman. I could see the end coming, but I enjoyed it anyway, maybe because the narrator did not.
The Happy Man - 4 stars
A short story with some interesting life lessons. I particularly like the intro that talks about how we can hardly provide good counsel to ourselves, but we are so willing to tell other people how to live their lives.
Some excellent quotes.
You might have hesitated to let him remove your appendix, but you could not have imagined a more delightful creature to drink a glass of wine with.
Life is full of compensations.
Poor, I have been and poor I shall always be, but by heaven, I’ve enjoyed myself.
And life, unfortunately, is something that you can lead but once; mistakes are often irreparable, and who am I that I should tell this one and that how he should lead it?
Life is a difficult business, and I have found it hard enough to make my own a complete and rounded thing; I have not been tempted to teach my neighbor what he should do with his.
It is a dangerous thing to order the lives of others, and I have often wondered at the self-confidence of politicians, reformers, and suchlike who are prepared to force upon their fellows measures that must alter their manners, habits, and points of view.
Mr Know-All - 5 stars
Sublime. Great characters with so little prose. The man you don’t like for at first bad reasons than good and then you see some admirable qualities.
quotes
I was prepared to dislike .... even before I knew him. .... I should’ve looked upon it with less dismay. If my fellow passenger’s name had been Smith or Brown.
I felt pretty sure that a closer inspection of that British passport would’ve betrayed the fact that… Was born under a blue sky than it’s generally seen in England.
He knew everything better than anybody else, and it wasn’t upfront to his overweening vanity that you should disagree with him. .....The possibility that he could be mistaken, never occurred to him.
she achieved an effect of quiet distinction. I should not have paid any particular attention to her, but that she possessed a quality that may be common enough in women, but nowadays is not obvious in their demeanor. You could not look at her without being struck by her modesty. It’s shown in her like a flower on a coat.
You could almost see the effort he was making over himself.
No one likes being made to look a perfect damned fool….. if I had a pretty little wife, I shouldn’t let her spend a year in New York while I stayed at Kobe….. at that moment, I did not entirely dislike Mr…..
The Ant and the Grasshopper - 3 stars
Sometimes the grasshopper wins even when it doesn’t deserve it. I’m an ant and would not be happy living as a grasshopper. I try to not let grasshopper’s successes ruin my ant happiness. Maugham might be saying that we should enjoy grasshopper’s success. Hmmm. Maybe he’s right.
The End of the Flight - 2 Stars
If you were all alone and wanting to be a most hospitable host - a host that would encourage your guests to feel comfortable, safe and wanting to stay longer and return sooner - would you tell that story. This one seemed a bit contrived - a mechanism to make the story clever.
The Consul - 2 Stars
[These stories are getting shorter and worse]
Being single leads to eccentricity it also makes understanding attraction, love and relationships infuriating. Well apparently anyway. Not that good.
The Creative Impulse - 4 stars
Per ChatGPT, the creative impulse is the inner drive to make, express, invent or shape something that did not exist before. What feeds that inner drive? The desire to make humor out of a semi-colon? Rub elbows with the elite? The love of art? Or perhaps it’s lower on Maslow’s pyramid. In this story the provider of that pyramid - supporting an artist lifestyle - was a well concealed object of scorn. Mrs. Forrester enjoyed a joke comparing her husband to an empty room and her own analogy of a Persian cat.
“ a writer of Merritt, had said that when you looked into a room into which Albert had just gone, there was nobody there. …… though she pretended to be annoyed she had not been able to prevent the smile that rose to her lips.”
“ but like a very well-trained, well-bred, and well mannered Persian cat,”
But who knew who better. The spouse paying the bills selecting the menus and the wines may have been uninterested in fancy prose but he did know who really was dull and how to fix it.
“The fact is, my dear, you’re dull.”
“My dear, the critics’ll eat it. And written in your beautiful English they won’t be afraid to call it a masterpiece.”
Unfortunately, our artist was too vain to share the source.
I found this to be one of the more disliked villains that Maugham portrays. His character characters both heroes and villains are very human and have both faults and redeeming qualities. Maybe it’s because he was criticized for his lack of prose.
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