Description
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 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
