The Round Dozen

by W. Somerset Maugham

Abjection is contained behind lofty appearance, finding virtue in vicious environment, experiencing life frustrations in slumdog, and satirizing the lost human nature in stories. The book selects the great England literature master Maugham's four short stories. With objective calm attitude, unique style, artful plots and unexpected ending, Maugham describes incisively and vividly the complexity of human nature and its contradictions. The stories express concerns on human nature and society, which makes the novel more wonderful.

Genres: Short Stories, Classics

634 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1939

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

[Emad · Rating 3 out of 5]

As always, nothing about Maugham's prose surprises you. His idea may be profound though.


PS The rating is only for The Round Dozen story.

[Vaishali · Rating 4 out of 5]

“For no day is so dead as the day before yesterday.”


Ha ! Pretty much the only book I’ve ever read about a polygamist :) Hehehe… quite unexpected from Mr. Maugham.

What I’m enjoying tremendously about these short stories, is the growing understanding that the British aristocracy took it upon themselves to make good of England’s vast empire by traveling the length and breadth of it. It wasn’t all guns and colonialism… there was a great deal of adventure travel that spawned a new awakening, especially amongst the well-educated, well-heeled literati.

However in this short story he focuses on the travelers at home: the numerous English seaside getaways the Brits were always on. The following quote I’m recording here for my own knowledge only, as I find it quite interesting :

“Indian civilians and retired soldiers… they looked forward with little shudders of dismay to August and September, which would bring holiday makers, but did not disdain to let them their houses, and on te proceeds spend a few worldly weeks on a Swiss pension.”

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5IvA...

Description: The Round Dozen by W Somerset Maugham was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 FM on 20 March 1996
The third of six of W Somerset Maugham's short stories dramatised by Neville Teller and narrated by Dirk Bogarde.
With 11 wives behind him, the celebrated bigamist Mortimer Ellis is looking to complete the dozen.

Sorry this recording has a few wobbles - my early internet connection days!

Mortimer Eliis: Michael Williams
Miss Porchester: Joanna David
Mr StClair: Denys Hawthorne
Mrs StClair: Zulema Dene
with Jane Whittenshaw, Paul Jenkins and Stephen Critchlow.
Directed by Janet Whitaker

[Colin Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not generally a fan of short stories. but this collection of twelve stories held my imagination more than most. In the end, I liked it well enough as many are set in the east around Malaya and Borneo, an area that I had spent some time in although many years ago, a period more like that portrayed.

The prose is old fashioned by today's standards and at times is difficult to follow. Many of the women have lustrous hair and brown eyes. The men all dress for dinner and drink too much. Some things have not changed!

Judge on the standard of its time, this is a good three stars.

[Robert Whelan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love reading Maughan, he really does see quite deeply into people. His characters seem very real, and this collection of short stories is no exception. I enjoyed the titular 'The round dozen' it was a short, fun, story.