He was an English novelist, playwright, and short-story writer whose work is characterized by a clear unadorned style, cosmopolitan settings, and a shrewd understanding of human nature. When W. SOMERSET MAUGH AM was asked to select and edit the ten best novels in world literature, he thought at once of Balzac. Maugham wrote of Haxton: After the South Seas trip Maugham visited the US and was joined by Syrie. Maugham's British and American publishers issued and reissued various, sometimes overlapping, permutations during his lifetime and subsequently. [1] Maugham trained as a medical doctor at St. Thomas's hospital's medical school, London, but then decided to become a full-time writer. [138] Raphael remarks about Maugham as a playwright, "His wit was sharp but rarely distressing; his plots abounded in amusing situations, his characters were usually drawn from the same class as his audiences and managed at once to satirize and delight their originals". [108] Maugham was distraught; he told his nephew, Robin, "You'll never know how great a grief this has been to me. The story is penned by one of my favorite short story writers, William Somerset Maugham. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest paid author during the 1930s. [8][9] The second son, Frederic, became a barrister, and had a distinguished legal career in Britain The Times described him as "a great legal figure" serving as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary (19351938) and Lord Chancellor (19381939). 27, 59, 143 and 295, Mander and Mitchenson, p. 15; and Richards, pp. [122] He kept himself fit, and further attempted to fend off the encroachments of age with supposedly rejuvenating injections at the clinic of Paul Niehans. 227228; Mander and Mitchenson, p. 204; and Lyttelton and Hart-Davis (1978), p. 195. 245246. Maugham also travelled far and wide to Europe, North America, the Far East, the South seas and beyond. [46] Lifelong, Maugham was highly reticent about homosexual encounters, but it was thought by at least two of his lovers that at this period in his life he had recourse to young male prostitutes. Mary Elizabeth Maugham. [20] He took part in the adaptation for the cinema of some of his short stories, Quartet (1948), Trio (1950) and Encore (1951), in all of which he appeared, contributing on-screen introductions. Although primarily homosexual, he attempted to conform to some extent with the norms of his day. [144] Trewin singles out The Circle, calling it one of the great comedies of the 20th century, and comparing it with Congreve's The Way of the World, to the disadvantage of the latter: "He can put Congreve to shame in the task of telling a theatrical story telling it clearly and without inessentials". The protagonist of the story is Roger Charing, a tall, handsome, rich, experienced middle-aged man. [99], Throughout the decade Maugham, with Haxton in attendance, lived and entertained lavishly at his house on Cap Ferrat, the Villa La Mauresque. Her concentration on her work briefly lessened the domestic tensions at the couple's house when Maugham was in residence. Died: December 16, 1965, in Nice, France. [71], By that time Maugham was ill with tuberculosis. [190] A rising critic of a younger generation, Cyril Connolly, praised Maugham for his lucidity and called him "the last of the great professional writers",[190] but Connolly's contemporary Edmund Wilson insisted that Maugham was second-rate and "disappointing". [40] It ran for 422 performances at five different West End theatres. He has been a verger in St. Peter's Neville Square Church, doing his duties with great enjoyment and dedication. William Somerset Maugham is one of the best known English writers of the 20th century. W. Somerset Maugham was a British playwright, novelist and short story writer. [56] The tide of opinion was turned by the influential American novelist and critic Theodore Dreiser, who called Maugham a great artist and the book a work of genius, of the utmost importance, comparable to a Beethoven symphony. W. Somerset Maugham. The play was first presented in New York in 1917, running for 112 performances. [55] When the book was published in 1915 some of the initial reviews were favourable but many, both in Britain and in the US, were unenthusiastic. After another long trip to the Far East, he agreed with Syrie that they would live separately, she in London and he at Cap Ferrat in the south of France. The Razor's Edge by W Somerset Maugham (Bill Murray Cover) (Paperback, Fiction) 1984. By the early 1930s Maugham had grown tired of the theatre. Nice. [70] He arrived in Petrograd in August, too late to influence the outcome: in November, Kerensky was supplanted by Lenin and the Bolsheviks, who took Russia out of the war. Summary []. [73], As in his novels and short stories, Maugham's plots are clear and his dialogue naturalistic. First, Maugham died two years before Britain's decriminalization in 1967 of same-gender sex behavior. [151], Of Human Bondage, influenced by Goethe and Samuel Butler,[52] is a serious, partly autobiographical work, depicting a young man's struggles and emotional turmoil. In August of 1917 the U. S. Army absorbed the ambulance units. I do not resent it. He was, by his own account, not a particularly imaginative or inventive person, but he studied people and places and used them, sometimes with minimal alteration or disguise, in his stories. [168], The polished, detached William Ashenden, the central figure of the eponymous collection of spy stories (1928), is a writer recruited, as Maugham was, into the British Secret Service. [84] By 1925, Maugham, learning that his wife was spreading scandal about his private life and had taken lovers of her own, was reconsidering his future. Second, Maugham was what Northrop Frye. His first novel, Liza of Lambeth (1897), a study of life in the slums, attracted attention, but it was as a playwright that he first achieved national celebrity. There are nineteen in all, of which those most often mentioned by critics are Liza of Lambeth, Of Human Bondage, The Painted Veil, Cakes and Ale, The Moon and Sixpence and The Razor's Edge. Two days later his ashes were interred in the grounds of The King's School, Canterbury, beside the wall of the Maugham Library, which he had endowed in 1961. Filmed at Somerset Maugham's villa at Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat on the Mediterranean, this program features the author and playwright in a far-ranging 1955 conve. [187] Nonetheless, Maugham is recognised as an influence on Coward, Lawrence, Kingsley Amis, Graham Greene, Christopher Isherwood, V. S. Naipaul and George Orwell. [76], After the war Maugham had to choose between living in Britain or being with Haxton, because the latter was refused admission to the country. He wrote his 32nd and last play in 1933, after which he abandoned the theatre and concentrated on novels and short stories. This website uses cookies. [34] He based himself in Seville, where he grew a moustache, smoked cigars, took lessons in the guitar,[34] and developed a passion for "a young thing with green eyes and a gay smile"[35] (gender carefully unspecified, as Hastings comments). "Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division", Coward, p. 226; and Mander and Mitchenson, pp. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. [29] The Westminster Gazette praised the writing but deplored the subject matter,[30] and The Times also conceded the author's skill "Mr Maugham seems to aspire, and not unsuccessfully, to be the Zola of the New Cut" but thought him "capable of better things [than] this singularly unpleasant novel". E.M. Forster. In the US they spent time in Hollywood, which Maugham despised from the first, but found highly remunerative. "[98] He visited the Hindu sage Ramana Maharishi at his ashram, and later used him as the model for the spiritual guru of his 1944 novel The Razor's Edge. He achieved fame initially as a dramatist with plays such as Lady Frederick (1912) and The Circle (1921). "[95] Raphael suggests that Maugham now wished to write to please himself rather than others. Part 2 also available on my channel as well as all parts from his other films Trio and Encore. [186], The critic Philip Holden wrote in 2006 that Maugham occupies a paradoxical position in twentieth-century British literature. [8] The two younger sons became writers: Henry (18681904) wrote poetry, essays and travel books. [176] Some of his stories were judged too improper for the cinema; Calder cites an adaptation of the historical novel Then and Now which the Hays Office rejected for thirty-seven separate reasons. William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965), English playwright and author wrote Of Human Bondage (1915); He did not know how wide a country, arid and precipitous, must be crossed before the traveller through life comes to an acceptance of reality. About. More recent assessments generally rank Of Human Bondage a book with a large autobiographical element as a masterpiece, and his short stories are widely held in high critical regard. Dickens . She has often played with fellow Fortnite gamer, Clix. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German university. Among the best-known examples are "Rain" (1921), charting the moral disintegration of a missionary attempting to convert the sexual sinner Sadie Thompson;[161] "The Letter" (1924), dealing with domestic murder and its implications;[162] "The Book Bag" (1932), a story of the tragic result of an incestuous relationship;[163] and "Flotsam and Jetsam" (1947), set in a rubber plantation in Borneo, where a dreadful shared secret binds a husband and wife to a mutually abhorrent relationship. His aunt, who was German, arranged accommodation for him, and aged sixteen he travelled to Germany. It was a departure from his previous style; its moral ambiguity and equivocal ending puzzled the critics and the public. [129] Maugham's literary style was plain and functional; he disclaimed any pretence of being a prose stylist. RAIN VIII. Love, Life, Change. Sisllys 1 Henkilhistoria 2 Kirjallinen tuotanto 2.1 Suomennetut teokset William Somerset Maugham ( 25. ledna 1874, Pa - 16. prosince 1965, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat pobl Nice) byl anglick spisovatel a dramatik . He made himself comfortable there, filled many notebooks with literary ideas, and continued writing nightly, while studying for his medical degree. He said that lacking any great powers of imagination he wrote about what he saw, and that although he could see more than most people could, "the greatest writers can see through a brick wall my vision is not so penetrating".[202]. He did not use them, like, There are times when one thinks that British television and radio would have to shut up shop if there were not an apparently inexhaustible supply of stories by Maugham to turn into 30-minute plays. . Add a one-line explanation of what this file represents. [106], Haxton was holding down a responsible job in Washington and enjoying his new independence and self-reliance. Gamer who has gained fame for her Sommerset Twitch channel. [158][159] Raphael writes that Maugham became widely regarded as the supreme English exponent of the form "both the magazine squib and the more elaborate conte". [103], Maugham spent most of the war years in the US, based for much of the time at a comfortable house on the estate of his American publisher, Nelson Doubleday. Culture; Somerset Maugham; Reuse this content. "[33], Before the publication of his next novel, The Making of a Saint (1898), Maugham travelled to Spain. Peaches were not in season then. [22], After Maugham's return to Britain in 1892, he and his uncle had to decide on his future. [171], Comic stories include "Jane" (1923), about a dowdy widow who reinvents herself as an outrageous and conspicuous society figure, to the consternation of her family;[172] "The Creative Impulse" (1926), in which a domineering authoress is shocked when her mild-mannered husband leaves her and sets up home with their cook;[172] and "The Three Fat Women of Antibes" (1933) in which three middle-aged friends play highly competitive bridge while attempting to slim, until reversals at the bridge table at the hands of an effortlessly slender fourth player provoke them into extravagantly breaking their diets. His grandfather, Robert Maugham (17881862), was a prominent solicitor and co-founder of the Law Society of England and Wales. After losing both his parents by the age of 10, Maugham. [n 13] He was cremated in Marseille on 20 December. William Somerset Maugham. [156] The structure of the book is unusual in that the protagonist is already dead before the novel opens, and the narrator attempts to piece together his story, and particularly his final years in Tahitian exile. Explain how this statement is relevant to "Mr. Know-All". Maugham was orphaned at the age of 10; he was brought up by an uncle and educated at Kings School, Canterbury. It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it . [43] Punch printed a cartoon of Shakespeare's ghost looking concerned about the ubiquity of Maugham's plays. 75 Copy quote. [5] The Painted Veil is a story of marital strife and adultery against the background of a cholera epidemic in Hong Kong. After all, he has only one life. [152], Cakes and Ale combines humorous satire on the London literary scene and wry observations about love. [10] Maugham never greatly liked his middle name which commemorated a great-uncle named after General Sir Henry Somerset[11] and was known by family and friends throughout his life as "Willie". [n 17] He was a Commandeur of the Legion of Honour, and an honorary doctor of the universities of Oxford and Toulouse. Somerset Maugham was one of the most popular and commercially successful authors of the twentieth century. [5][57] Bryan Connon comments in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, "After this it seemed that Maugham could not fail, and the public eagerly bought his novels [and] volumes of his carefully crafted short stories". He wrote seven plays during the decade: The Unknown (1920), The Circle (1921), East of Suez (1922), The Camel's Back (1923), The Constant Wife (1926), The Letter (1927) and The Sacred Flame (1928). Scene and wry observations about love suggests that Maugham now wished to write to himself! 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