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The Skeptical Romancer: Selected Travel Writing
W. Somerset Maugham was one of the seminal writers of the twentieth century, and his travel writing has long been considered among his finest work. Now, acclaimed travel writer Pico Iyer maps out a masterful tour of these vivid, evocative pieces that are collected here for the first time.
Maugham worked as a secret agent in Russia, published novels in London, staged plays in New York, and traveled throughout Europe, Asia, India, and the United States, chronicling his travels, wherever he went, with exceptional insight. Beginning with “In the Land of the Blessed Virgin” and culminating in “A Partial View,” Iyer selects vignettes of Maugham’s razor-sharp prose that track his transformation from a boyish traveler in Spain to a worldly man of letters.
This is Maugham at his most keenly observant, direct, and powerful.
Maugham worked as a secret agent in Russia, published novels in London, staged plays in New York, and traveled throughout Europe, Asia, India, and the United States, chronicling his travels, wherever he went, with exceptional insight. Beginning with “In the Land of the Blessed Virgin” and culminating in “A Partial View,” Iyer selects vignettes of Maugham’s razor-sharp prose that track his transformation from a boyish traveler in Spain to a worldly man of letters.
This is Maugham at his most keenly observant, direct, and powerful.
248 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
17 people are currently reading
281 people want to read
About the author
W. Somerset Maugham
2,115 books6,065 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 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 3, 2016
I love travel writing, and The Skeptical Romancer belongs at the top of the list. Here are two short paragraphs, which I especially liked.
"I admire the strenuous tourist who sets out in the morning with his well-thumbed Baedeker to examine the curiosities of a foreign town, but I do not follow in his steps; his eagerness after knowledge, his devotion to duty, compel my respect, but excite me to no imitation. I prefer to wander in old streets without a guidebook, trusting that fortune will bring me across things worth seeing; and if occasionally I miss some monument that is world-famous, more often I discover some little dainty piece of architecture, some scrap of decoration, that repays me for all I lose."
"No one moved expect to roll himself a cigarette. The sky was blue and the air warm and comforting. Life seemed good enough, and above all things easy. There was no particular cause to trouble. What is the use of hurrying to pile up money when one can live on so little? What is the use of reading these endless books? Why not let things slide a little, and just take what comes our way? It is only for a little while, and then the great antique mother receives us one more in her bosom. And there are so many people in the world. Think again of all the countless hordes who have and gone, and who will come and go; the immense sea of Time covers them, and what matters the life they led? What odds is that they ever existed at all? Let us do our best to be happy; the earth is good and sweet-smelling, there is sunshine and colour and youth and loveliness, and afterwards, well, let us shrug our shoulders and not think of it."
"I admire the strenuous tourist who sets out in the morning with his well-thumbed Baedeker to examine the curiosities of a foreign town, but I do not follow in his steps; his eagerness after knowledge, his devotion to duty, compel my respect, but excite me to no imitation. I prefer to wander in old streets without a guidebook, trusting that fortune will bring me across things worth seeing; and if occasionally I miss some monument that is world-famous, more often I discover some little dainty piece of architecture, some scrap of decoration, that repays me for all I lose."
"No one moved expect to roll himself a cigarette. The sky was blue and the air warm and comforting. Life seemed good enough, and above all things easy. There was no particular cause to trouble. What is the use of hurrying to pile up money when one can live on so little? What is the use of reading these endless books? Why not let things slide a little, and just take what comes our way? It is only for a little while, and then the great antique mother receives us one more in her bosom. And there are so many people in the world. Think again of all the countless hordes who have and gone, and who will come and go; the immense sea of Time covers them, and what matters the life they led? What odds is that they ever existed at all? Let us do our best to be happy; the earth is good and sweet-smelling, there is sunshine and colour and youth and loveliness, and afterwards, well, let us shrug our shoulders and not think of it."
August 24, 2016
A collection of writings of an author as he travels across the world at different stages of life, The Skeptical Romancer exposes a man in search of romance - not love, but something more akin to meaning and adventure.
Only on occasion does the author describe in detail the places he journeys to, and focuses more on the peculiar characters he meets and his sentiments which are normally dripped in irony and link to the skeptical portion of the title. As the book is covers the majority of his life, it offers a fascinating insight into a deeply ponderous writer who is unsatisfied with the deep contradictions in the world, the pretence, the poverty and the arrogance.
Highly recommended for anyone who travels around and thinks about life!
Only on occasion does the author describe in detail the places he journeys to, and focuses more on the peculiar characters he meets and his sentiments which are normally dripped in irony and link to the skeptical portion of the title. As the book is covers the majority of his life, it offers a fascinating insight into a deeply ponderous writer who is unsatisfied with the deep contradictions in the world, the pretence, the poverty and the arrogance.
Highly recommended for anyone who travels around and thinks about life!
February 10, 2013
In addition to writing fiction with great emotional power, Maugham was also an enthusiastic traveler who spoke several languages, spied for the Brits, and zipped around the globe. Skeptical Romancer is a series of vignettes from Maugham’s travels to Spain, China, Russia, America, the South Sea Islands, and a few other places. The writing is lovely.
February 14, 2020
I read this immediately after Maugham's On a Chinese Screen, the book documenting his travels in China; a good quarter of The Skeptical Romancer is an excerpt from On a Chinese Screen. Having read both books in two weeks made me realize I like Maugham best when he writes fiction, short stories in particular. But it was interesting to note where he got his inspiration for his writing, his introspection in depicting his characters, and his you-gotta-be-there descriptions of his scenery. Because he. Was. There. He was extremely well-traveled, and like most of us, found travel liberating. But unlike most of us, he was able to mine all those travels, travails, and characters he met along the way for his fiction (I recognized familiar settings and situations, but in this book, he only specifies where he got his inspiration for Rain, one of his most popular short stories).
This is a compilation of selected travel essays from Maugham's other books, as curated and edited by Pico Iyer. The early part is about Spain, and it harks back to a life before World War I, when one could go around Seville on horseback, a thought impossible even just to conjure now. A selected essay from Maugham's A Life in Retrospect (a book I'm relieved I haven't read yet, meaning I still have the pleasure of looking forward to it) mentions his lionizing the Russian fictionists: Tolstoy, Turgenev, and Dostoyevsky. I share his awe at Tolstoy, but I've never read Turgenev, and Dostoyevsky is one way off-tangent dude, but he has his moments. Agree with Maugham though, how Russian writers are a cut above the Western writers (and to this I personally add Nabokov and Chekhov) we're more familiar with (must be those long cold winters). Maugham takes the distinction a notch higher with his take on "Modern Poets: I should be content with less cleverness if only they had more feeling. They make little songs not from great sorrows but from the sober pleasures of a good education." I can think of a few names, but I wish I knew exactly whom Maugham was writing about here!
This is a compilation of selected travel essays from Maugham's other books, as curated and edited by Pico Iyer. The early part is about Spain, and it harks back to a life before World War I, when one could go around Seville on horseback, a thought impossible even just to conjure now. A selected essay from Maugham's A Life in Retrospect (a book I'm relieved I haven't read yet, meaning I still have the pleasure of looking forward to it) mentions his lionizing the Russian fictionists: Tolstoy, Turgenev, and Dostoyevsky. I share his awe at Tolstoy, but I've never read Turgenev, and Dostoyevsky is one way off-tangent dude, but he has his moments. Agree with Maugham though, how Russian writers are a cut above the Western writers (and to this I personally add Nabokov and Chekhov) we're more familiar with (must be those long cold winters). Maugham takes the distinction a notch higher with his take on "Modern Poets: I should be content with less cleverness if only they had more feeling. They make little songs not from great sorrows but from the sober pleasures of a good education." I can think of a few names, but I wish I knew exactly whom Maugham was writing about here!
March 5, 2024
Witty & wise Maugham. There’s a great generosity in his writing, that of attention. A certain detachment in this attention – Pico Iyer called it “feline” – but never a coldness. He’s very interested in people’s lives, in the extraordinary variety of human experience. Perhaps for his own amusement, or for material (everything is copy*). But never in a callous way. Maugham’s compassion, though reserved, is apparent. The Skeptical Romancer, besides having an excellent title, is a pleasure to read. Glorious descriptions of sights the world over, fascinating portraits of strangers he encountered, even his digressions into this or that.
*A elderly Maugham, when asked his advice to young writers, said, “Throw yourself into the hurly-burly of life. It doesn’t matter how many mistakes you make, what unhappiness you undergo – it’s all your material.” The interviewer then asked, “Would you advise something like joining a school of creative writing?” The reply: “Oh, nooo! That’s the farthest thing you should do. His [the aspiring writer] school is Life. Don’t wait for experience to come to you. Go after experience.”
Not “experience” via images captured on a nice quality camera, enhanced with photo editing, all with the goal of sharing on social media to prove the experience of the experience. Not all the experiences will be good. Not all of them will be photogenic. You’ll have to go without luxuries You need to gain the jagged edges, as he put it, that form character & “slough the arrogance of culture.”
July 12, 2023
As with most collections, a mixture of ok, good, and outstanding pieces, drawn here from Maugham's life of travel around the world. His stories of younger travels in Spain are good; those in China and Southeast Asia interesting, although they sometime drag a bit too slowly.
But the last part of the book, a series of random stories from around the world, are simply terrific, filled with deep and thoughtful insights into the places and people that helped create the brilliant writer that Maugham became. For example: Russia: he admits to being drawn there (he was a secret service agent) by Russian 19th century literature, which, like me, he finds far more interesting than that of England or France ("They made the greatest novels of Western Europe look artificial.") India: what moved him most was not the Taj Mahal, or Benares, or the temple at Madura or the mountains of Travancore; "it was the peasant, terribly emaciated . . . toiling as he had toiled from father to son back, back for three thousand years . . . his only hope to keep body and soul together." Tahiti: where he discovered, in a shabby frame house, a Gauguin painted on a door, decaying like the two other painted doors, all gifts from the painter to the man's father who had looked after him in a time of illness (he bought the door and brought it back with him).
But the last part of the book, a series of random stories from around the world, are simply terrific, filled with deep and thoughtful insights into the places and people that helped create the brilliant writer that Maugham became. For example: Russia: he admits to being drawn there (he was a secret service agent) by Russian 19th century literature, which, like me, he finds far more interesting than that of England or France ("They made the greatest novels of Western Europe look artificial.") India: what moved him most was not the Taj Mahal, or Benares, or the temple at Madura or the mountains of Travancore; "it was the peasant, terribly emaciated . . . toiling as he had toiled from father to son back, back for three thousand years . . . his only hope to keep body and soul together." Tahiti: where he discovered, in a shabby frame house, a Gauguin painted on a door, decaying like the two other painted doors, all gifts from the painter to the man's father who had looked after him in a time of illness (he bought the door and brought it back with him).
August 15, 2025
"The spot was so lovely, and the bungalow with its lawns and trees so homelike and peaceful, that for a moment I toyed with the notion of staying there not a day but a year, not a year but all my life. Ten days from a railhead and my only communication with the outside world the trains of mules that passed occasion-ally between Taunggyi and Keng Tung, my only intercourse the villagers from the bedraggled village on the other side of the river, and so to spend the years away from the turmoil, the envy and bitterness and malice of the world, with my thoughts, my books, my dog and my gun and all about me the vast, mysterious, and luxuriant jungle."
May 28, 2024
In a strange twist of fate, I've encountered Maugham and his works thrice over the past three days: once with this book, once in finding another book of his on a friend's bedside table, and once mentioned in Margaret Mead's Blackberry Winter. Something about coming in threes, eh?
Anyway, anyone interested even remotely in travel writing will enjoy this book: it has just enough of the balance between philanthrope and misanthrope, xenophile and ethnocentrist, that keeps one on one's toes. It's good writing, through and through.
Anyway, anyone interested even remotely in travel writing will enjoy this book: it has just enough of the balance between philanthrope and misanthrope, xenophile and ethnocentrist, that keeps one on one's toes. It's good writing, through and through.
June 27, 2019
I love Somerset Maugham's stories, which are all so different from each other, and so well-written. But this volume is just a collection of impressions, written during his travels. Some made it into stories later, but they are brief and unfinished as is.
June 25, 2018
Interesting to read a collection of travel writing from such a long time ago, especially set in countries I have recently visited. However, I was not a fan of his writing style.
December 24, 2023
Some very interesting scenes from times gone by, but with characters persisting today.
May 16, 2024
My first W. Somerset Maugham book. Amazing. Superb. Wow. I usually don't read travel writing but he definitely made me feel transported through his words. I liked seeing all of these different places through his eyes. Definitely recommend to anyone who wants to feel like an adventurer without getting out of bed. I'm so upset because I got it as a library book so I couldn't annotate. There are numerous beautiful quotes throughout this book.
July 10, 2016
After an insightful intro by Pico Iyer come beautifully written excerpts of Maugham's extensive travel writings, in which he describes the character and personality of places just as well as he is known to describe people. These excerpts allow us to see Maugham's introspective musings about himself in a way that his other writings do not. We see how he became such a master at character development, as he collected and archived the personalities of the locals, expats, and fellow travelers he met for use in later writings. He explains the joys and trials of travel in a bygone era with a light-hearted gravity that is still relevant for travelers today. When I started reading this book, it gave me romantic ideas and inspirations for my own travel sabbatical. While I was traveling, it served as my faithful companion who understood the journey I was on and the highs and lows that came with it. At the end of my sabbatical, it comforted me with the camaraderie of one who had also reached the satisfying conclusion of his journey and longed once again for home. A must-read for actual travelers and armchair travelers alike.
June 2, 2012
just read NYTimes review noting paperback version now out. I must read this!
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews