Part one of two of four stories from Somerset's Quartet film. Childhood and education. Most viewed. William Somerset Maugham[a]CH (/mm/ MAWM; 25 January 1874 - 16 December 1965) was an English playwright, novelist, and short-story writer. [164], Among the short stories set in England, one of the best-known is "The Alien Corn" (1931), where a young man rediscovers his Jewish heritage and rejects his family's efforts to distance themselves from Judaism. [154] He observed, "I am willing enough to agree with common opinion that Of Human Bondage is my best work. The play was first presented in New York in 1917, running for 112 performances. Maka. [181] Calder cites BBC Television's series of twenty-six stories shown in 1969 and 1970, adapted by dramatists including Roy Clarke, Simon Gray, Hugh Leonard, Simon Raven and Hugh Whitemore,[182] "presented with scrupulous fidelity to [their] tone, attitude, and thematic intention". While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. [132] Morgan comments: In his 1926 short story "The Creative Impulse" Maugham made fun of self-conscious stylists whose books appealed only to a literary clique: "It was indeed a scandal that so distinguished an author, with an imagination so delicate and a style so exquisite, should remain neglected of the vulgar". Maugham believed that "it is the impressions of a man's first twenty years which form him", and at the age of 53 - and extracted from his turbulent marriage to Syrie Wellcome - he had chosen to look back at his boyhood on the Kentish coast and at his early adulthood as a medical student in London. Used; Condition Used - Good ISBN 13 9780140185232 [13] Two and a half years after his mother's death his father died, and Maugham was sent to England to live with his paternal uncle Henry MacDonald Maugham, the vicar of Whitstable in Kent. The lifelong ban followed his arrest and trial over a homosexual incident in 1915. When W. SOMERSET MAUGH AM was asked to select and edit the ten best novels in world literature, he thought at once of Balzac. [38] He had written it four years earlier,[39] but numerous managements turned it down until Otho Stuart accepted it and cast the popular Ethel Irving in the title role. His work was popular for his simple style of writing, as well as his sharp and accurate understanding and judgment of human nature. He wrote near the opening of the novel: "it is impossible always to give the exact unexpurgated words of Liza and the other personages of the story; the reader is therefore entreated with his thoughts to piece out the necessary imperfections of the dialogue". Raphael comments that there is no firm evidence for this,[5][53] and Meyers suggests that she is based on Harry Phillips, a young man whom Maugham had taken to Paris as, nominally, his secretary for a prolonged stay in 1905. His daily routine was to write between an early breakfast and lunchtime, after which he entertained himself. [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. Her concentration on her work briefly lessened the domestic tensions at the couple's house when Maugham was in residence. He found Mediterranean lands much to his liking, for what his biographer Frederic Raphael calls their "douceur de vivre missing under grim English skies". In the US they spent time in Hollywood, which Maugham despised from the first, but found highly remunerative. He thinks he's Somerset Maugham." At the height of his powers Maugham would have savoured the excruciating irony: the writer in decline, pumped up on sheep's cells, accused of impersonating . In 1940, W Somerset Maugham was forced to flee France as the Nazis invaded. He told Nol Coward in 1933: Maugham's thirty-second and last play was Sheppey (1933). [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. [8] The two younger sons became writers: Henry (18681904) wrote poetry, essays and travel books. "Mr. Maugham Himself". [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. Sources differ (see footnote 1) on whether Maugham died on 15 or 16 December, but it is generally agreed that to circumvent a law requiring autopsies in cases of death in hospital, he was taken by ambulance, shortly before or shortly after his death, to La Mauresque and it was announced that he had died there on 16 December. 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. William Somerset Maugham was one of the most popular writers of his time, and reputedly the highest paid author of the 1930s. [153] Rosie appears to be based on Sue Jones, to whom Maugham had proposed in 1913. [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". [27] In 1897 he published his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, a tale of working-class adultery and its consequences. The hero survives, and by the end of the book he is evidently set for a happy ending. Most viewed. [136] Among his longest-running comedies were Lady Frederick (1907), Jack Straw (1908), Our Betters (1923)[n 15] and The Constant Wife (1926), which ran in the West End or on Broadway for 422, 321, 548 and 295 performances respectively. Last edit on Apr 05, 2021. Alternate titles: William Somerset Maugham. He entered the marriage from a sense of duty rather than from personal inclination, and the two quickly began to grow apart. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest paid author during the 1930s.After losing both his parents by the age of 10, Maugham was raised by a paternal uncle who was emotionally cold. In the weeks before the war began, Maugham had been completing his novel Of Human Bondage, a Bildungsroman with substantial autobiographical elements. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest-paid author during the 1930s. [n 13] He was cremated in Marseille on 20 December. Maugham's novels after Liza of Lambeth include Of Human Bondage (1915), The Moon and Sixpence (1919), The Painted Veil (1925), Cakes and Ale (1930) and The Razor's Edge (1944). Born in Paris, of Irish ancestry, Somerset Maugham was to lead a fascinating life and would become famous for his mastery of short evocative stories that were often set in the more obscure and remote areas of the British Empire. She began posting to Twitch in June 2019. "Mr Somerset Maugham's Library for School", Lyttelton and Hart-Davis (1984), pp. [19] He left as soon as he could, although he later developed an affection for the school, and became a generous benefactor. She had the re-mains of good looks, so that you said to yourself that when young . [146] In London, the National Theatre has presented two Maugham plays since its inception in 1963: Home and Beauty in 1968 and For Services Rendered in 1979. Somerset Maugham ? [158] The tribute continued, "Best sellers that appeal to the mass reader are seldom good literature, but there are exceptions. His stories the first in the genre of spy fiction continued by Ian Fleming, John le Carr and many others[169] are based so closely on Maugham's experiences that it was not until ten years after the war ended that the security services permitted their publication. William Somerset Maugham, bedst kendt som bare W. Somerset Maugham, (fdt 25. januar 1874 i Paris, dd 16. december 1965 i Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat nr Nice) var en betydningsfuld engelsk forfatter.. [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. His first fiction was the critically praised naturalist novel of London slum life, Liza of Lambeth, which was published in 1897, when Maugham was 23 and completing his medical training at London's St Thomas's Hospital. [81] Maugham, as always, observed closely and collected material for his stories wherever they went. [65] Samoa was regarded as crucial to Britain's strategic interests, and Maugham's task was to gather information about the island's powerful radio transmitter and the threat from German military and naval forces in the region. They visited the Far East together in 191920, keeping Maugham away from home for six months. He wrote his 32nd and last play in 1933, after which he abandoned the theatre and concentrated on novels and short stories. [107] Maugham was happy for him and was reconciled to the possibility of returning to La Mauresque without him after the war. At the start of the same war William Somerset Maugham, who chronicled my mentor's life, joined a Red Cross unit in France and served as an ambulance driver, becoming one of what later became to be known as the Literary Ambulance Drivers. He never practised medicine, and became a full-time writer. His short stories were published in collections such as The Casuarina Tree (1926) and The Mixture as Before (1940); many of them have been adapted for radio, cinema and television. William Somerset Maugham [n 2] CH ( / mm / MAWM; 25 January 1874 - 16 December 1965) [n 1] was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. His fluency in French and German was an advantage, and for a year he worked in Geneva at his own expense as an agent for the British Secret Service. [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". 1965. [32] Maugham qualified as a physician the month after the publication of Liza of Lambeth but he immediately abandoned medicine and embarked on his 65-year career as a writer. [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. [71], By that time Maugham was ill with tuberculosis. (1874-1965), Novelist, playwright and spy. Under 1. verdenskrig var han hemmelig agent i Rusland; hans spionroman Ashenden: Or the British Agent (1928; "Ashenden: Den hemmelige agent") bygger p denne erfaring. In Somerset Maugham's novel "The Moon and Sixpence," there is a scene in which Dirk Stroeve, a painter, visits an art dealer to inquire after the work of . W. Somerset Maugham Height, Weight & Measurements At 91 years old, W. Somerset Maugham height not available right now. Topics. Maugham's first successful novel was the semi-autobiographical Of Human Bondage (1915). He lived from 1874-1965. [42], Maugham later said that he made comparatively little money from this unprecedented theatrical achievement, but it made his reputation. [5] Maugham's father, Robert Ormond Maugham (18231884), was a prosperous solicitor, based in Paris;[6] his wife, Edith Mary, ne Snell, lived most of her life in France, where all the couple's children were born. Actually it has extremely complicated things to say about them, but its most important message may be that actions have real consequences, no matter how casually those actions may be taken". 00:00. [126] His works sold prodigiously throughout the English-speaking world. [96], Maugham's days of lengthy trips to distant places were mostly behind him, but at Kipling's suggestion he sailed to the West Indies in 1936. [5] This book, described by Raphael as "an elegant piece of literary malice",[73] is a satire on the literary world and a humorously cynical observation of human mating. He has been a verger in St. Peter's Neville Square Church, doing his duties with great enjoyment and dedication. These often convey the emotional toll that isolation exacts from the characters. [149], Liza of Lambeth caused outrage in some quarters, not only because its heroine sleeps with a married man, but also for its graphic depiction of the deprivation and squalor of the London slums, of which most people from Maugham's social class preferred to remain ignorant. Sitter associated with 115 portraits. 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]. It drew its details from his obstetric duties in South London slums. [73] There was hostile comment in the press that the central figure seemed to be a tasteless parody of Thomas Hardy, who had died in 1928. This happens in the end to most dramatists, and they are wise to accept the warning. Maugham was miserable, both at the vicarage and at school, where he was bullied because of his small size and his stammer. [152], Cakes and Ale combines humorous satire on the London literary scene and wry observations about love. But at first glance, Maugham's progression to worldwide fame and great wealth seems relatively straightforward. Author: w Somerset 1874-1965 Maugham. [88][n 9], In 1930 Maugham published the novel Cakes and Ale, regarded by Connon as the most likely of the author's works to survive. Synonyms for Somerset Maugham in Free Thesaurus. [99], Throughout the decade Maugham, with Haxton in attendance, lived and entertained lavishly at his house on Cap Ferrat, the Villa La Mauresque. Maugham usually published his works under the name of W. Somerset Maugham. [186], The critic Philip Holden wrote in 2006 that Maugham occupies a paradoxical position in twentieth-century British literature. He was one of the most reputed and well-known . [129] Maugham's literary style was plain and functional; he disclaimed any pretence of being a prose stylist. The possibility became a certainty when in November 1944, after a six-month illness initially diagnosed as pleurisy, Haxton died of tuberculosis. [188], In The Summing Up (1938), Maugham wrote of his non-dramatic work, "I have no illusions about my literary position. [50], By 1914 Maugham was famous, with thirteen plays and eight novels completed. [5][n 6], After the birth of his daughter, Maugham moved to Switzerland. 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. Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 - 7 June 1970) was an English author, best known for his novels, particularly A Room with a View (1908), How. (g. 1917-1929) Barn. Maugham based his characters upon people whom he had known or whose lives he had somehow come to know; their actions are presented with consummate realism. [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). RAIN VIII. He later said, "I took to it as a duck takes to water. [147] Other London productions have included The Circle (1976), For Services Rendered (1993), The Constant Wife (2000) and Home and Beauty (2002). [45][n 5], Maugham was acutely conscious of the fate of Oscar Wilde, whose arrest and imprisonment took place when Maugham was in his early twenties. [142] Christopher Innes has observed that, like Chekhov, Maugham qualified as a doctor, and their medical training gave them "a materialistic determinism that discounted any possibility of changing the human condition". Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. If you like W. Somerset Maugham, you might also like: E.M. Forster, D.H. Lawrence, and John Fowles. This is a social-psychological novel that reveals the problem of relations between men and women in bourgeois society, depicts the psychological portraits of characters, and describes their feelings, emotions and thoughts as well. Morgan describes him: Maugham's biographers have differed considerably about Searle's character and his influence for better or worse on his employer. [178], Radio and television adaptations have, in general, been more faithful to Maugham's original stories. He was the highest paid author of the 1930s. [1] [73] He was a prolific writer: between 1902 and 1933 he had 32 plays staged, and between 1897 and 1962 he published 19 novels, nine volumes of short stories, and non-fiction books covering travel, reminiscences, essays and extracts from his notebooks. During the First World War Maugham worked for the British Secret Service, later drawing on his experiences for stories published in the 1920s. Somerset Maugham. His domestic staff there comprised thirteen servants. Authors. IndigoMistBooks. During his time in Heidelberg he had his first sexual affair; it was with John Ellingham Brooks, an Englishman ten years his senior. Maugham gave up writing novels shortly after the Second World War, and his last years were marred by senility. William Somerset Maugham ( 25. ledna 1874, Pa - 16. prosince 1965, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat pobl Nice) byl anglick spisovatel a dramatik . 6 and 9798, Mander and Mitchenson, pp. I knew too a little later, for my guest, going on with her conversation, absent-mindedly took one. [187] Nonetheless, Maugham is recognised as an influence on Coward, Lawrence, Kingsley Amis, Graham Greene, Christopher Isherwood, V. S. Naipaul and George Orwell. I did so with relief. 27, 59, 143 and 295, Mander and Mitchenson, p. 15; and Richards, pp. Maugham's short story "The Verger" is a tale about a simple man Albert Edward Foreman. 'Mr. Know-All' is a heart-rending story of a big talker who saved the marriage of a modest woman. After all, he has only one life. W. Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965) was a British playwright, novelist and short story writer. 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. Like Of Human Bondage it has a strong female character at its centre, but the two are polar opposites: the malign Mildred in the earlier novel contrasts with the lovable, and much loved, Rosie in Cakes and Ale. "[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. The first volume, Orientations, came out in 1898 and his last, Creatures of Circumstance, in 1947, with seven others between the two. I am done with playwriting. [175], In Calder's view Maugham's "ability to tell a fascinating story and his dramatic skill" appealed strongly to the makers of films and radio programmes, but his liberal attitudes, disregard of conventional morality and unsentimental view of humanity led adapters to make his stories "blander, safer, and more narrowly moralistic than he had ever conceived them". I saw what hope looked like, fear and relief; I saw the dark lines that despair drew on a face. Even before Haxton's mortal illness, Maugham had already chosen a replacement as secretary-companion, in anticipation that Haxton would not return to live at La Mauresque. Incidentally, W. Somerset Maugham inspired some mimesis of his own. 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. One recalls, too, the long list of movies that have been made from his novels . He is widely considered to be one of the greatest English writers ever. Somerset Maugham became famous for his many novels, short stories, travel books, and plays. [193] Lee Wilson Dodd wrote, "Mr Maugham knows how to plan a story and carry it through. [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. Illustration by Edward Sorel. W. Somerset Maugham (1954). He had an amiability of disposition that enabled him in a very short time to make friends with people in ships, clubs, bar-rooms, and hotels, so that through him I was able to get into easy contact with an immense number of persons whom otherwise I should have known only from a distance. During World War I he worked as a secret agent. 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. This was Maugham's longest-running original play, but a dramatisation of his short story. [73] It was well received: reviewers called it "extraordinarily powerful and interesting",[74] and "a triumph [that] has given me such pleasure and entertainment as rarely comes my way";[75] one described it as "an exhibition of the beast in man, done with such perfect art that it is beyond praise". An instinctive and magnificent storyteller, Somerset Maugham was one of the most popular and successful writers of his time. [5] He attempted to disinherit his daughter and to make Searle his adopted son, but the courts prevented it.[124]. The marriage lasted for twelve years, but before, during and after it, Maugham's principal partner was a younger man, Gerald Haxton. [105] His most substantial book from the war years was The Razor's Edge; he found writing it unusually tiring he was seventy when it was completed and he vowed it would be the last long novel he wrote. 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