Books by W Somerset Maugham

Book SynopsisWilliam Somerset Maugham was born in 1874 and lived in Paris until he was ten. He was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and at Heidelberg University. He spent some time at St. Thomas' Hospital with the idea of practising medicine, but the success of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, published in 1897, won him over to literature. Of Human Bondage, the first of his masterpieces, came out in 1915, and with the publication in 1919 of The Moon and Sixpence his reputation as a novelist was established. At the same time his fame as a successful playwright and writer was being consolidated with acclaimed productions of various plays and the publication of several short story collections. His other works include travel books, essays, criticism and the autobiographical The Summing Up and A Writer's Notebook.In 1927 Somerset Maugham settled in the South of France and lived there until his death in 1965Trade ReviewA superb storyteller - one of the very best in our language * Daily Mail *The modern writer who has influenced me most -- George OrwellMaugham has given infinite pleasure and left us a splendour of writing which will remain for as long as the written English word is permitted to exist * Daily Telegraph *This semi-autobiographical novel, set at the end of the 19th century, gripped me from the start with its tale of the life of Philip Carey. Its depiction of how a man can become enslaved by an unsuitable love is unsparing -- Christopher Simon Sykes * The Week *

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Book SynopsisWilliam Somerset Maugham was born in 1874 and lived in Paris until he was ten. He was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and at Heidelberg University. He spent some time at St. Thomas' Hospital with the idea of practising medicine, but the success of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, published in 1897, won him over to literature. Of Human Bondage, the first of his masterpieces, came out in 1915, and with the publication in 1919 of The Moon and Sixpence his reputation as a novelist was established. At the same time his fame as a successful playwright and writer was being consolidated with acclaimed productions of various plays and the publication of several short story collections. His other works include travel books, essays, criticism and the autobiographical The Summing Up and A Writer's Notebook. In 1927 Somerset Maugham settled in the South of France and lived there until his death in 1965Trade ReviewThe most persuasive espionage fiction * New York Times *The first spy story written by someone who had been there and done that. A humane and compassionate antidote to two-fisted, square-jawed heroes battling dastardly foreigners. The head of British Intelligence is known only as "R", anticipating James Bond's "M" by a quarter of a century * The Times *Thoughtful spy novels began with Somerset Maugham's Ashenden, featuring a detached hero on a journey to disillusion, a process brought to its apotheosis by le Carre via Greene * Daily Telegraph *A collection of stories so accurate that Churchill ordered the destruction of 14 of them, while Russian intelligence immediately set up a special unit to read British spy novels for clues * New Statesman *

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Book SynopsisWilliam Somerset Maugham was born in 1874 and lived in Paris until he was ten. He was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and at Heidelberg University. He spent some time at St. Thomas' Hospital with the idea of practising medicine, but the success of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, published in 1897, won him over to literature. Of Human Bondage, the first of his masterpieces, came out in 1915, and with the publication in 1919 of The Moon and Sixpence his reputation as a novelist was established. At the same time his fame as a successful playwright and writer was being consolidated with acclaimed productions of various plays and the publication of several short story collections. His other works include travel books, essays, criticism and the autobiographical The Summing Up and A Writer's Notebook.In 1927 Somerset Maugham settled in the South of France and lived there until his death in 1965Trade ReviewI picked it up and couldn't put it down. -- Alexander McCall Smith * Mail on Sunday *Magnificent * Express *From an era that produced George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells and John Galsworthy, Maugham is the great survivor * Economist *If anyone deserves resuscitation, he does... As a teenager, I read and reread my sister's long shelf of Maughams. What I enjoyed was their atmosphere: the brooding, sensual, sinister mood of exotic locations, where his characters seemed always on the verge of mania and where no-one behaved nearly so well as they were expected to -- Rosemary Goring * Herald *

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Book SynopsisThough W. Somerset Maugham was also famous for his novels and plays, it has been argued that in thethe short story he reached the pinnacle of his artwas his true métier. These expertly told tales, with their addictive plot twists and vividly drawn characters, are both galvanizing as literature and wonderfully entertaining. In the adventures of his alter ego Ashenden, a writer who (like Maugham himself) turned secret agent in World War I, as well as in stories set in such far-flung locales as South Pacific islands and colonial outposts in Southeast Asia, Maugham brings his characters vividly to life, and their humanity is more convincing for the author's merciless exposure of their flaws and failures. Whether the chasms of misunderstanding he plumbs are those between colonizers and natives, between a missionary and a prostitute, or between a poetry-writing woman and her uncomprehending husband, Maugham brilliantly displays his irony, his wit, and his genius in the art of storytelling.

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Book SynopsisReading 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.

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Book SynopsisThis final classic collection of stories reveals Somerset Maugham''s unique talent for exposing and exploring the bitter realities of human relationships. Brilliant tales of love, infidelity, passion and prejudice, the stories range from ''The Lotus Eater'' in which a man has a vision of a life of bliss in the Mediterranean, to the astringent tales of ''The Outstation'' and ''The Back of Beyond'' in Malaya and South East Asia. Largely set in favourite Maugham country, this colourful collection brilliantly evokes the numbered days of the British Empire.Trade ReviewThe short story was Maugham's true métier, and some of the stories he wrote are among the best in the language -- Anthony BurgessOne of my favourite writers -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez

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Book SynopsisThe stories in this collection move from Malaya to America and England, and include some of Maugham''s most famous tales; ''Flotsam and Jetsam'', the story of an old woman trapped for years in a loveless marriage in the remote rubber plantations; ''The Man with the Scar'', and notably the opening story ''The Vessel of Wrath'', a tale of the unexpected love that grows between a devout missionary nurse and a drunken reprobate. In this second volume of his collected stories, Maugham illustrates his characteristic wry perception of human foibles and his genius for evoking compelling drama from an acute sense of time and place.Trade ReviewA brilliant entertainer * New York Times *A formidable talent, a formidable sum of talents * Spectator *As clever a craftsman as the cleverest * Observer *

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Book SynopsisWilliam Somerset Maugham was born in 1874 and lived in Paris until he was ten. He was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and at Heidelberg University. He spent some time at St. Thomas' Hospital with the idea of practising medicine, but the success of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, published in 1897, won him over to literature. Of Human Bondage, the first of his masterpieces, came out in 1915, and with the publication in 1919 of The Moon and Sixpence his reputation as a novelist was established. At the same time his fame as a successful playwright and writer was being consolidated with acclaimed productions of various plays and the publication of several short story collections. His other works include travel books, essays, criticism and the autobiographical The Summing Up and A Writer's Notebook. In 1927 Somerset Maugham settled in the South of France and lived there until his death in 1965.Trade ReviewIf all else perish, there will remain a storyteller's world...that is exclusively and forever Maugham, a world of verandah and prahu which we enter as well as we do that of Conan Doyle's Baker Street, and with a happy and eternal homecoming * The Times *Maugham teases out buried secrets as mesmerising as the heat and as menacing as the surrounding jungle * Observer *Ideally you should listen to these stories lying in a long cane chair on the veranda of a dark bungalow sipping a gin and bitters - not that Maugham's writing needs any further atmospheric embellishment. Like Kipling and Conrad, Maugham transports us to a long-since-vanished and distinctly non-PC world of hard-drinking colonial planters and traders and their frosty memsahibs * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisMary Panton walls up her desires in a beautiful villa high up in the hills above Florence, as she calmly contemplates her disastrous marriage. She turns for help to the notorious Rowley Flint, and through him comes to realise that to deny love, with all its passions and risks, is to deny life itself.Trade ReviewA writer of great dedication * Graham Greene *One of my favourite writers * Gabriel Garcia Marquez *

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Book SynopsisSomerset Maugham is the acknowledged master of the short story, and his full range is represented in this collection.Trade ReviewHis plots are cool and deadly, and his timing is absolutely flawless -- Raymond ChanderThe short story was Maugham's true metier, and the stories he wrote are among the best in the language -- Anthony BurgessOne of our great story-tellers * Independent *At his best he can tell a story as well as any man alive or dead -- Desmond McCarthy

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Book SynopsisWilliam Somerset Maugham was born in 1874 and lived in Paris until he was ten. He was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and at Heidelberg University. He spent some time at St. Thomas' Hospital with the idea of practising medicine, but the success of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, published in 1897, won him over to literature. Of Human Bondage, the first of his masterpieces, came out in 1915, and with the publication in 1919 of The Moon and Sixpence his reputation as a novelist was established. At the same time his fame as a successful playwright and writer was being consolidated with acclaimed productions of various plays and the publication of several short story collections. His other works include travel books, essays, criticism and the autobiographical The Summing Up and A Writer's Notebook. In 1927 Somerset Maugham settled in the South of France and lived there until his death in 1965Trade ReviewThe modern writer who has influenced me most -- George OrwellA brilliant entertainer * New York Times *

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Book SynopsisAutobiographical without being an autobiography, confessional without disclosing his private self, The Summing Up, written when Maugham was sixty-four, is an inimitable expression of a personal credo.Trade ReviewIn what Somerset Maugham has written readers have found fascinating tales, sharply revealed characters, a fine narrative craft, and an author who has always been completely, honestly himself -- J.B. PriestleyOne of the finest short-story stylists Britain has ever produced * Economist *One of the most cosmopolitan English writers * Washington Post *

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Book SynopsisDown among the drab slums of Lambeth, eighteen-year-old Liza is the darling of Vere Street. Vibrant and bewitching, she is adored by the steady, loyal Tom. But then Liza meets Jim Blakeston, charming and worldy, new to the area, and married. Soon the streets are wise to their passionate affair and Liza''s fall from grace is fast and fatal. Written while Maugham was a medical student, and his first published novel, Liza of Lambeth is a vividly realistic portrayal of working-class London life.Trade ReviewOne of the most interesting and least patronising accounts of cockney life in the late 19th century * The Times *A picture of such squalor and deprivation that it caused an uproar and made Maugham famous * Sunday Times *He evolved a quality possessed only by master story-tellers - that of making the reader greedy for more * Economist *He shrewdly spun the raw material of human suffering into a brutal tale. Maugham pushed the limits of acceptability and gained a following for it * Washington Times *

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Book SynopsisWilliam Somerset Maugham was born in 1874 and lived in Paris until he was ten. He was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and at Heidelberg University. He spent some time at St. Thomas' Hospital with the idea of practising medicine, but the success of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, published in 1897, won him over to literature. Of Human Bondage, the first of his masterpieces, came out in 1915, and with the publication in 1919 of The Moon and Sixpence his reputation as a novelist was established. At the same time his fame as a successful playwright and writer was being consolidated with acclaimed productions of various plays and the publication of several short story collections. His other works include travel books, essays, criticism and the autobiographical The Summing Up and A Writer's Notebook. In 1927 Somerset Maugham settled in the South of France and lived there until his death in 1965Trade ReviewOne of my favourite writers * Gabriel Garcia Marquez *Cakes and Ale is a delightfully tart, meandering meditation on what it means to be an author, and its comments on the fickleness of literary celebrity are prescient and amusing. Maugham sees clearly that books are famous because of who tells you to like them, and that authors are 'good' because they are said to be. * Time Out *A formidable talent, a formidable sum of talents...precision, tact, irony and total absence of pomposity * Spectator *[A] witty Thirties novel… Great fun -- Val Hennessy * Daily Mail *

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Book SynopsisWilliam Somerset Maugham was born in 1874 and lived in Paris until he was ten. He was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and at Heidelberg University. He spent some time at St. Thomas' Hospital with the idea of practising medicine, but the success of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, published in 1897, won him over to letters. Of Human Bondage, the first of his masterpieces, came out in 1915, and with the publication in 1919 of The Moon and Sixpence his reputation as a novelist was established. At the same time his fame as a successful playwright and short story writer was being consolidated with acclaimed productions of various plays and the publication of The Trembling of a Leaf, subtitled Little Stories of the South Sea Islands, in 1921, which was followed by seven more collections. His other works include travel books, essays, criticism and the autobiographical The Summing Up and A Writer's Notebook.In 1927 Somerset MaTrade ReviewOne of my favourite writers -- Gabriel Garcia MarquezA formidable talent, a formidable sum of talents...precision, tact, irony and total absence of pomposity * Spectator *

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Book SynopsisWITH AN INTRODUCTION BY PAUL THEROUXSomerset Maugham's success as a writer enabled him to indulge his adventurous love of travel, and he recorded the sights and sounds of his wide-ranging journeys with an urbane, wry style all his own.Trade ReviewThere enough raw material to sate his imagination and the journey itself takes on the contours of a story worth recording. Among the coolly-observed descriptions of ruined pagodas there's the added treat of Maugham's catty thoughts on his craft * Sunday Herald (Glasgow) *Maugham's finest travel book...As the urbane novelist wends his way through tropic climes, he reads Proust under the mosquito netting, listens to stories of passion and madness from British colonials gone to seed, and bears up under the merciless sun, sipping at a gin and bitters and laying out a hand of solitaire * Washington Post *An elegant writer's notebook, imaginative, crammed with impressions and ideas received simply and directly, without the filtering screens of literariness or Englishness... he writes with majestic plainness * The Times *A delightful book - It contains vivid travel impressions, some autobiographical confidences, and the plots for a dozen novels * Spectator *

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Book SynopsisJulia Lambert is in her prime, the greatest actress in England. Off stage, however, she is bored with her handsome husband, coquettish and undisciplined. She is at first flattered and amused by the attentions of a shy and eager young fan, but before long Julia is amazed to find herself falling wildly, dangerously, in love.Trade ReviewBrilliant. Sheer, unmatched skill which would fill any novelist with envy * Chicago Tribune *Theatre is a brilliantly executed novel * New York Times *

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Book SynopsisCrippled sixteen-year-old Catalina is the one person unable to join in the festivities of the Feast of the Assumption. But then she has a vision of the Virgin, and is miraculously cured. In the dark days of the Spanish Inquisition, such a claim to blessedness has serious consequences, especially when Catalina seems more inclined to obey her heart than the demands of the Church.The last of Maugham''s novels, Catalina is a romantic celebration of Spain and a delightfully mischievous satire on absolutism.Trade ReviewOne of my favourite writers -- Gabriel Garcia MarquezThe modern writer who has influenced me the most -- George OrwellIn his prime, he evolved a clear and effective prose style that achieved a quality possessed only by master story-tellers, making the reader greedy for more....From an era that produced George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells and John Galsworthy, Maugham is the great survivor * Economist *

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Book SynopsisWilliam Somerset Maugham was born in 1874 and lived in Paris until he was ten. He was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and at Heidelberg University. He spent some time at St. Thomas' Hospital with the idea of practising medicine, but the success of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, published in 1897, won him over to literature. Of Human Bondage, the first of his masterpieces, came out in 1915, and with the publication in 1919 of The Moon and Sixpence his reputation as a novelist was established. At the same time his fame as a successful playwright and writer was being consolidated with acclaimed productions of various plays and the publication of several short story collections. His other works include travel books, essays, criticism and the autobiographical The Summing Up and A Writer's Notebook.In 1927 Somerset Maugham settled in the South of France and lived there until his death in 1965.Trade ReviewThe modern writer who has influenced me the most -- George OrwellBrilliant dialogue writing...as exciting as any gangster story of modern politics * Spectator *

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Book SynopsisWilliam Somerset Maugham was born in 1874 and lived in Paris until he was ten. He was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and at Heidelberg University. He spent some time at St. Thomas' Hospital with the idea of practising medicine, but the success of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, published in 1897, won him over to literature. Of Human Bondage, the first of his masterpieces, came out in 1915, and with the publication in 1919 of The Moon and Sixpence his reputation as a novelist was established. At the same time his fame as a successful playwright and writer was being consolidated with acclaimed productions of various plays and the publication of several short story collections. His other works include travel books, essays, criticism and the autobiographical The Summing Up and A Writer's Notebook. In 1927 Somerset Maugham settled in the South of France and lived there until his death in 1965Trade ReviewReveals many of Maugham's strengths: an understanding of women, meticulous craftsmanship and raw emotion' * Daily Mail *A work of art * Spectator *An expert craftsman... His style is sharp, quick, subdued, casual * New York Times *

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Book SynopsisWilliam Somerset Maugham was born in 1874 and lived in Paris until he was ten. He was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and at Heidelberg University. He spent some time at St. Thomas' Hospital with the idea of practising medicine, but the success of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, published in 1897, won him over to literature. Of Human Bondage, the first of his masterpieces, came out in 1915, and with the publication in 1919 of The Moon and Sixpence his reputation as a novelist was established. At the same time his fame as a successful playwright and writer was being consolidated with acclaimed productions of various plays and the publication of several short story collections. His other works include travel books, essays, criticism and the autobiographical The Summing Up and A Writer's Notebook. In 1927 Somerset Maugham settled in the South of France and lived there until his death in 1965.Trade ReviewMaugham had a narrow but profound gift for domesticating the strange and making the exotic appear reassuringly familiar -- Nicholas Shakespeare * Daily Telegraph *The fictional summa of everything Maugham had seen and learned about the East * Washington Post *The modern writer who has influenced me the most -- George OrwellHe puts most 21st-century novelists to shame -- Rachel Cooke * Observer *

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Book SynopsisThis classic collection of stories moves from England, France and Spain to the silver sands of the South Pacific. It includes the famous story ''Rain'', the tragedy of a narrow-minded and overzealous missionary and a prostitute, and ''The Three Fat Women of Antibes,'' an extravagantly sardonic tale of abstention and greed, as well as a host of other brilliant tales.Trade ReviewFascinating tales, sharply revealed characters, a fine narrative craft -- J.B. PriestleyHe was a superb storyteller - one of the very best in our language - who wrote with a wordly, sardonic understanding of the human condition. Writing was his life; everything else was secondary to it * Daily Mail *

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Book SynopsisWilliam Somerset Maugham was born in 1874 and lived in Paris until he was ten. He was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and at Heidelberg University. He spent some time at St. Thomas' Hospital with the idea of practising medicine, but the success of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, published in 1897, won him over to literature. Of Human Bondage, the first of his masterpieces, came out in 1915, and with the publication in 1919 of The Moon and Sixpence his reputation as a novelist was established. At the same time his fame as a successful playwright and writer was being consolidated with acclaimed productions of various plays and the publication of several short story collections. His other works include travel books, essays, criticism and the autobiographical The Summing Up and A Writer's Notebook. In 1927 Somerset Maugham settled in the South of France and lived there until his death in 1965Trade ReviewMaugham was one of the great masters of clever narrative and construction -- Allan Massie * Sunday Herald *A formidable talent, a formidable sum of talents * Spectator *It is very difficult for a writer of my generation, if he is honest, to pretend indifference to the work of Somerset Maugham. . . . He was always so entirely there -- Gore Vidal

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Book SynopsisBertha Ley comes of age, inherits her father''s money and promptly marries a handsome, calm and unimaginative man. Bertha is wildly in love with Edward and believes she can be happy playing the role of a dutiful wife in their country home. But, intelligent and sensual, she quickly becomes bored by her oppressively conventional life, and finds her love for her husband slipping away.Originally rejected by publishers, Mrs Craddock was first published only on condition that certain ''shocking'' passages were removed. It was thirty years before the full text could be published.Trade ReviewHe is a decade ahead of D.H. Lawrence in his portrayal of a woman with a passionate sexual attraction * Washington Post *Maugham's best work as a novelist...ahead of its time * New York Times *

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Book SynopsisEclectic and illuminating, these essays are the last that Maugham published. Ranging from an appreciation of Goethe''s novels, to an encounter with an Indian holy man, with a considered analysis of the form at which Maugham himself excelled - the short story - they present the enduring views and opinions of this eminent writer.Trade ReviewOne of the greatest yet least fashionable of all British writers * Mirror *One of the finest (though now frequently overlooked) novelists and dramatists of the 20th century * Glasgow Herald *One of my favourite writers -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez

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Book SynopsisSet in the bohemian café society of Paris at the turn of the nineteenth century, Maugham''s exploration of hypnotism and the occult was inspired by the sinister black magician Aleister Crowley. At the start of this compulsive gothic horror story, Arthur and his beautiful, innocent fiancée Margaret look forward to an idyllic life together, until they encounter the mesmerising and repulsive Oliver Haddo...Trade ReviewYou will acknowledge Maugham as the Master * New Statesman *[Maugham is] a great artist . . . a genius -- Theodore Dreiser

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Book SynopsisConsidered by Graham Greene to be Maugham''s best work, Don Fernando is a paean to a golden age of enormous creative energy. It discusses the writings of St. Teresa and the paintings of El Greco, and comments with sagacity and wit on such illustrious figures as Cervantes, Velazquez and the creator of Don Juan. This vibrant assessment of a great people at their greatest hour is full of happy surprises, curious facts and stimulating opinions that reflect Maugham''s lifelong enchantment with the landscape and people of Spain.Trade ReviewMaugham's best travel book * Washington Post *One of the most under-rated writers of last century * Glasgow Herald *Maugham was one of the great masters of clever narrative and construction -- Allan MassieHe was a superb storyteller - one of the very best in our language - who wrote with a wordly, sardonic understanding of the human condition. * Daily Mail *

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Book SynopsisFrom the love affair between a missionary and a drunkard to the mystery surrounding a death at sea, this collection gives a warm and humourous insight into life and history of life in the colonies and stands as a superbly entertaining and compelling testament to Maugham''s skill and power as a short story writer.Trade ReviewMaugham teases out buried secrets as mesmerising as the heat and as menacing as the surrounding jungle * Observer *If all else perish, there will remain a storyteller's world...that is exclusively and forever Maugham, a world of verandah and prahu which we enter as well as we do that of Conan Doyle's Baker Street, and with a happy and eternal homecoming * The Times *Ideally you should listen to these stories lying in a long cane chair on the veranda of a dark bungalow sipping a gin and bitters - not that Maugham's writing needs any further atmospheric embellishment * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisWilliam Somerset Maugham was born in 1874 and lived in Paris until he was ten. He spent some time at St. Thomas's Hospital with the idea of practising medicine, but the success of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, published in 1897, won him over to letters. Of Human Bondage, the first of his masterpieces, came out in 1915 and with the publication in 1919 of The Moon and Sixpence his reputation as a novelist was established. His fame as a short story writer began with The Trembling of a Leaf, subtitled Little Stories of the South Sea Islands, in 1921, after which he published more than ten collections. In 1927 Somerset Maugham settled in the South of France and lived there until his death in 1965.Trade ReviewA brilliant entertainer * New York Times *A formidable talent, a formidable sum of talents * Spectator *As clever a craftsman as the cleverest * Observer *

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Book SynopsisThe second of four volumes of short stories which reflect Somerset Maugham's wry perception of human foibles and gift for evoking drama from a sense of time and place. Set in Malaya, America and England, they include Flotsam and Jetsam, The Man With the Sca,r and The Vessel of Wrath.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

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Book SynopsisNow a major motion picture from USA Films starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Sean Penn, and director Philip Haas (director of Angels and Insects).In Up at the Villa, W. Somerset Maugham portrays a wealthy young English woman who finds herself confronted rather brutally by the repercussions of whimsy.On the day her older and prosperous friend asks her to marry him, Mary Leonard demurs and decides to postpone her reply a few days.  But driving into the hills above Florence alone that evening, Mary offers a ride to a handsome stranger.  And suddenly, her life is utterly, irrevocably altered.For this stranger is a refugee of war, and he harbors more than one form of passion.  Before morning, Mary will witness bloodshed, she will be forced to seek advice and assistance from an unsavory man, and she will have to face the truth about her own yearnings.  Erotic, haunting, and maddeningly suspenseful, Up at the Villa is a masterful tale of temptation and the capricious nature of fate.

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Book SynopsisCakes and Ale is a delicious satire of London literary society between the Wars. Social climber Alroy Kear is flattered when he is selected by Edward Driffield''s wife to pen the official biography of her lionized novelist husband, and determined to write a bestseller. But then Kear discovers the great novelist''s voluptuous muse (and unlikely first wife), Rosie. The lively, loving heroine once gave Driffield enough material to last a lifetime, but now her memory casts an embarrissing shadow over his career and respectable image.  Wise, witty, deeply satisfying, Cakes and Ale is Maugham at his best.

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Book SynopsisA masterpiece of modern literature that mirrors Maugham’s own career.Of Human Bondage is the first and most autobiographical of Maugham's novels. It is the story of Philip Carey, an orphan eager for life, love and adventure. After a few months studying in Heidelberg, and a brief spell in Paris as a would-be artist, Philip settles in London to train as a doctor. And that is where he meets Mildred, the loud but irresistible waitress with whom he plunges into a formative, tortured and masochistic affair which very nearly ruins him.

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Book SynopsisMaugham''s popular comedy of modern manners espouses that so long as a wife is supported by her husband she must remain faithful, but when the tables are turned freedom becomes the currency with which both must pay. Revived by New York''s Roundabout Theatre Company...-5 women, 4 men

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