[71], By that time Maugham was ill with tuberculosis. Maugham considered himself a better writer than. [143] When Maugham's The Circle was revived in the US in 2011, the reviewer in The New York Times wrote that the play had been criticised "for not having anything substantial to say about love, marriage or infidelity. Maugham was orphaned at the age of 10; he was brought up by an uncle and educated at Kings School, Canterbury. [135], The biggest theatrical success of Maugham's career was an adaptation by others[n 14] of his short story "Rain", which opened on Broadway in 1921 and ran for 648 performances. Canterbury was the shrine of, In his effort to achieve a casual tone, "like the conversation of a well-bred man", he used colloquialisms that bordered on clichs. [129] Maugham's literary style was plain and functional; he disclaimed any pretence of being a prose stylist. [110] He came from Bermondsey, a poor district of London. Maugham's first successful novel was the semi-autobiographical Of Human Bondage (1915). 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). [134] After his early writing, in which long sentences are punctuated with semicolons and commas, Maugham came to favour short, direct sentences. [66] In addition to his intelligence work, Maugham gathered material for his fiction wherever he went. [170] In the 1928 volume Ashenden features in sixteen stories; two years later he reappeared, in his peacetime role of writer, as the narrator of Cakes and Ale. William Somerset Maugham ( 25. ledna 1874, Pa - 16. prosince 1965, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat pobl Nice) byl anglick spisovatel a dramatik . [157], For many readers and critics, the best of Maugham is in his short stories. [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. 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. The Maharshi was of average height for an Indian, of a dark honey colour with close-cropped white hair and a close-cropped white beard. [79], In late 1920 Maugham and Haxton set out on a trip that lasted more than a year. [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. 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. [80] They then visited San Francisco and sailed to Honolulu and Australia before the final leg of their voyage, to Singapore and the Malay Peninsula, where they remained for six months. His lifestyle was modest: he felt that despite his considerable wealth he should not live luxuriously while Britain was enduring wartime privations. For the next year and a half he studied literature, philosophy and German. The early death of his parents and his consequent exile from home and country gave Somerset Maugham a wretched start in life. View interactive tab. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest paid author during the 1930s. 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". [25] From 1892 until he qualified in 1897, he studied medicine at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School in Lambeth. 191, 205 and 210, Mander and Mitchenson, pp. [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". [20] A modest legacy from his father enabled him to go to Heidelberg University to study. [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. Crowley took offence and wrote a critique of the novel in Vanity Fair, charging Maugham with "varied, shameless and extensive" plagiarism. [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". [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. [187] Nonetheless, Maugham is recognised as an influence on Coward, Lawrence, Kingsley Amis, Graham Greene, Christopher Isherwood, V. S. Naipaul and George Orwell. Dickens . His supernatural thriller The Magician (1908) had a principal character modelled on Aleister Crowley, a well-known occultist. I saw how they bore pain. It drew its details from his obstetric duties in South London slums. [8] The two younger sons became writers: Henry (18681904) wrote poetry, essays and travel books. [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. He successfully sued for divorce in 1916, citing Maugham as co-respondent. But at first glance, Maugham's progression to worldwide fame and great wealth seems relatively straightforward. His American publishers estimated that four and a half million copies of his books were bought in the US during his lifetime.[127]. It is the kind of book that an author can only write once. 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. He was raised by his aunt and uncle, and bullied by children at school. [117], Maugham made many subsequent visits to London, including one for his daughter's second marriage in July 1948, where, in Hastings's words, "with professional ease he acted the part of proud father, managed to be civil to Syrie, and made a creditable speech at the reception at Claridge's afterwards". He was born at the British Embassy in Paris. William Somerset Maugham Theatre I THE door opened and Michael Gosselyn looked up. "Mr Somerset Maugham's Library for School", Lyttelton and Hart-Davis (1984), pp. [5] The Painted Veil is a story of marital strife and adultery against the background of a cholera epidemic in Hong Kong. He made himself comfortable there, filled many notebooks with literary ideas, and continued writing nightly, while studying for his medical degree. [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. The story is penned by one of my favorite short story writers, William Somerset Maugham. March 14, 2004. He remained covert in his life and in his writings. Maugham's plain prose style became known for its lucidity, but his reliance on clichs attracted adverse critical comment. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/W-Somerset-Maugham, Spartacus Educational - Biography of William Somerset Maugham, W. Somerset Maugham - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). In The Spectator the critic J. D. Scott wrote of "The Maugham Effect": "This quality is one of force, of swiftness, of the dramatic leap". [116] He did the same on American television, introducing the Somerset Maugham Theater series, which a reviewer said enjoyed "tremendous popularity and has won for him an audience of millions of enthusiastic fans". Size 8vo - over 7 - 9" tall; Keywords Limited edition; Size 8vo - over 7 - 9\" tall; Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different. Maugham was a well-known English playwright, novelist and short story writer. "[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. [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. He moved to the United States where he led a very quiet life and went back after the war in 1944. William Somerset Maugham was an English author and playwright. Item Width: 156mm. Maugham was miserable, both at the vicarage and at school, where he was bullied because of his small size and his stammer. [n 16] His aspiration to become a concert pianist ends in failure and suicide. William Somerset Maugham came from a family of lawyers. After losing both his parents by the age of 10, Maugham. . W. Somerset Maugham (25 January 1874 - 16 December 1965) first claimed fame as a playwright and novelist, but he became best known in the 1920's and 1930's the world over as an international traveler and short-story writer. [54], Maugham proofread Of Human Bondage at Malo-les-Bains, near Dunkirk, during a lull in his ambulance duties. The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham. He would rather have misery with one than happiness with the other. Maugham's job was to counter German propaganda, and to encourage the moderate republican Russian government under Alexander Kerensky to continue fighting. Topics. He was not known as a phrase-maker; the 2014 edition of The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations cites him ten times, compared with nearly a hundred quotations from his contemporary Bernard Shaw. Maugham further damaged his own reputation by denying that another character, Alroy Kear a superficial novelist of more pushy ambition than literary talent was a caricature of Hugh Walpole. I saw what hope looked like, fear and relief; I saw the dark lines that despair drew on a face. [130] H.E.Bates, praising many of Maugham's attributes as a writer, objected to his frequent reliance on clichd phrases,[131] and George Lyttelton commented that Maugham "purchases a beautiful lucidity at the cost of numberless clichs", but rated the lucidity second only to that of Shaw. W. Somerset Maugham (1954). He was acquitted, but was nonetheless registered as an "undesirable alien". RAIN VIII. In November 1916 Maugham was asked by the intelligence service to go to the South Seas. By 1908 he had four plays running at once in the West End of London. He shared . William Somerset Maugham[a]CH (/mm/ MAWM; 25 January 1874 - 16 December 1965) was an English playwright, novelist, and short-story writer. [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. William Somerset Maugham [mm] ( 25. tammikuuta 1874 Pariisi, Ranska - 16. joulukuuta 1965 Nizza, Ranska) oli englantilainen nytelmkirjailija, kirjailija ja novellisti, 1930-luvun tunnetuimpia lnsimaisia kirjailijoita ja tiettvsti mys suurituloisimpia. [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". First published in 1989, Mr Calder's attempt to encompass Maugham's life and work in one volume fits nicely between Ted Morgan's Maugham: A Biography (1980) and Jeffrey Meyers' Somerset Maugham: A Life (2004); as far as I know the only other detailed biography is the very recently (2009) published The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham by Selina . Before Fame. Author: w Somerset 1874-1965 Maugham. Gamer who has gained fame for her Sommerset Twitch channel. He achieved fame initially as a dramatist with plays such as Lady Frederick (1912) and The Circle (1921). Maugham's alienation started in childhood. "[194] In a 2016 survey Don Adams remarks, "The gist of the criticism of Maugham's fiction, that it lacks psychological and emotional profundity, is remarkably consistent throughout the decades."[195]. Maugham also travelled far and wide to Europe, North America, the Far East, the South seas and beyond. I cannot tell you how I loathe the theatre. Somerset Maugham was one of the most popular and commercially successful authors of the twentieth century. [16][n 4], From 1885 to 1890 Maugham attended The King's School, Canterbury, where he was regarded as an outsider and teased for his poor English (French had been his first language), his short stature, his stammer, and his lack of interest in sport. I did so with relief. Here are the possible solutions for "W Somerset Maugham's 1915 novel; the subject of several films" clue. Incidentally, W. Somerset Maugham inspired some mimesis of his own. [184] Since then BBC radio has broadcast numerous adaptations of his plays, novels and short stories ranging from one-off presentations to 12-part serialisations including six productions of The Circle and two adaptations apiece of The Razor's Edge, Of Human Bondage and Cakes and Ale. [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". Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Some of the short stories will undoubtedly prove immortal". the son of a tailor, he dropped his aitches like one of the characters in, Winter and spring at the Mauresque, a few weeks of foreign travel (Austria, Italy, Spain) with a stay at a spa (, Maugham, the disbeliever in ecclesiastical ritual, was buried without ritual but on hallowed ground. W. Somerset Maugham (Of Human Bondage) " If a man hasn't what's necessary to make a woman love him, it's his fault, not hers. W. Somerset Maugham; April 1948 Issue; The Brothers Karamazov. 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 . He drew upon his experiences as an obstetrician in his first novel, Liza of Lambeth (1897), and its success, though small, encouraged him to abandon medicine. Maugham wrote that he followed no master, and acknowledged none, but he named Guy de Maupassant as an early influence. She was married to the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome, but the couple had formally separated in 1909, after which she had a succession of partners, including the retailer Harry Gordon Selfridge. 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. While we were waiting for the coffee, the head waiter, with a smile on his false face, came up to us bearing a large basket full of huge peaches. The possibility became a certainty when in November 1944, after a six-month illness initially diagnosed as pleurisy, Haxton died of tuberculosis. 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. But the book I like best is Cakes and Ale. It was written in 1915 and staged in New York in 1917, for a satisfactory but not unusual 112 performances, but when produced in the West End in 1923 it was played 548 times. Looking back, he described his early attempts to be heterosexual as the greatest mistake in his life. He was the son of a British diplomat. After a year at Heidelberg, he entered St. Thomas medical school, London, and qualified as a doctor in 1897. He told his nephew Robin, "I tried to persuade myself that I was three-quarters normal and that only a quarter of me was queer whereas really it was the other way round". W. Somerset Maugham Height, Weight & Measurements At 91 years old, W. Somerset Maugham height not available right now. [91] Hastings quotes a contemporary's view that Kear was Maugham's revenge on Walpole for "a stolen boyfriend, an unrequited love and an old canker of jealousy".[90]. After one has got over the glamour of the stage and the excitement, I do not myself think the theatre has much to offer the writer compared with the other mediums in which he has complete independence and need consider no one. [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. Maugham's British and American publishers issued and reissued various, sometimes overlapping, permutations during his lifetime and subsequently. He had a slight limp, and he walked slowly, leant on a stick. It was an amusing book to write. W. Somerset Maugham. [n 13] He was cremated in Marseille on 20 December. Sisllys 1 Henkilhistoria 2 Kirjallinen tuotanto 2.1 Suomennetut teokset In the weeks before the war began, Maugham had been completing his novel Of Human Bondage, a Bildungsroman with substantial autobiographical elements. 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". "Mr. Maugham Himself". 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. [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. 1 Childhood and education; 2 Career. The British colonies there failed to provide him with anything like the material he had gathered in the Asian outposts in the 1920s, but the French penal settlement on Devil's Island furnished him with some stories. - Nizza, 1965. december 16.) [12], Maugham's mother died of tuberculosis in January 1882, a few days after his eighth birthday. [173], In a study published thirteen years after Maugham's death, Robert L. Calder notes that the writer's works had been made into forty films and hundreds of radio and television plays, and he suggests "it would be fair to say that no other serious writer's work has been so often presented in other media". Work, Maugham gathered material for his medical degree 1874, Pa - 16. prosince 1965, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat pobl ). Is in his life and in his life was to counter German propaganda, and acknowledged none, he. Wretched start in life ledna 1874, Pa - 16. prosince 1965 Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat! 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