Best Short Stories

by W. Somerset Maugham

"Reading the stories of Somerset Maugham is rather like curling up and up listening to the delicious, risqué tales of an old, dear and rather wicked friend. You turn the pages and enter a magical world of fabulous characters, are transported to the very place, the villa, the street, the bar, of which he writes.

This Macmillan Collector’s Library selection features ten of his finest and most vivid stories: 'The Letter', 'The Verger', 'The Vessel of Wrath', 'The Book-Bag', 'The Facts of Life', 'Lord Mountdrago', 'The Colonel's Lady', 'The Treasure', 'Rain' and 'P&O'.

This elegant edition of W. Somerset Maugham's Best Short Stories features an afterword by writer and journalist Ned Halley.

Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure."

Genres: Fiction, Classics

416 pages, Hardcover

Published October 19, 2017

About the author

William 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.

Reviews

[Liedzeit Liedzeit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some people read for instructions, which is praiseworthy, and some for pleasure, which is innocent, but not a few read from habit, and I suppose that this is neither innocent nor praiseworthy. Of that lamentable company am I.

This is the beginning of The Book-Bag. And this alone would have secured Maugham a place in my heart. And he continues: “I never cease to wonder at the impertinence of great readers, who because they are such, look down on the illiterate.”

I always wonder do I like Maugham because he thinks like I do or do I think like I do because I like Maugham? Or, if this is possible, both at the same time.

So Maugham, or the narrator of the story, always brings with him a bag of books. So that he has a book ready for any mood. An acquaintance borrows a book about Byron and soon a story is told by him about a love that ended in suicide of her part because she was in love with her brother.

The language of Maugham is seemingly simple and one advantage of his style is that the narrator of the stories can switch (as they often do) without becoming unbelievable when the tone of the teller of the inside story is the same as that of the teller of the frame story.

I received the book as a Christmas present. I do have all the Somerset story collections and also a nice volume of his collected stories. But I rather get a book I already know than one bad one I fell then obliged to read. I was very glad to have an excuse to reread Maugham.

Normally I forget everything I read at once. But in the case of this book I remembered every story. Some only close to the end like The Treasure some right from the start as in The Verger. All of them utterly wonderful.

[Philip Taffs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short but stunning.
Timeless.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book - Maugham’s writing is superb and I found it effortless and a joy to read. Each story took me in, with absorbing plots and interesting characters. All achieved in just a couple of dozen pages or so per story. The stories also provide an interesting perspective of the culture, values, and attitudes of westerners during the last periods of the British Empire, particularly towards the nations and peoples that had been colonised. This is very much at odds with contemporary views, which must be allowed for when reading these stories, otherwise it would be too easy not to enjoy them.

The best author I have read to date is Steinbeck, and the standard of Maugham’s work in this collection is comparable - no wonder Maugham is widely celebrated. I’m looking forward to reading more of Maugham’s work.

I rated it 4 out of 5 stars, which for me indicates it is excellent. I have yet to rate any book 5 out of 5, but this one came very close to earning my first!

[Anna Hart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the stories were racier than I was expecting, considering Maugham was my grandfather’s favourite author. They aren’t dissimilar to Waugh or Mitford in terms of the set of characters and comic tone, but the ones set in the colonies remind me of Cézanne’s paintings. Definitely Maugham has the art of engaging prose, so I’d be interested to read a full novel to see how he uses it to develop his themes to greater depth.

[Rimantė · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good selection, beautiful edition, best writer

[E · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classic for a reason

[Paul Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Somerset Maugham tales are of an era long past but they retain their currency because he understood people, their minds and their motivations.

[Maru Peng · Rating 4 out of 5]

Throughly enjoyed it more than i expected!
Once again confirmed that Maugham is one of my top favorite authors

[Luis Rodrigues · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most enjoying books I recall to have read. The virtuous writing serves well crafted plots. Start with The Letter: you will want to read it through the end.

[Lise · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a joy to read. I get so tired of contemporary experimental short stories that leave you wondering what it was all about.

[Victoria Foote-Blackman · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the most remarkable of early 20th century storytellers, under-rated today, despite his immense talent.