[42], Maugham later said that he made comparatively little money from this unprecedented theatrical achievement, but it made his reputation. [43] Punch printed a cartoon of Shakespeare's ghost looking concerned about the ubiquity of Maugham's plays. MR. KNOW-ALL / Somerset Maugham () Bridging Text and Context: Write 80 - 100 words. [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. Competence is the word. [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. William Somerset Maugham came from a family of lawyers. W. Somerset Maugham (1954). What you give an audience is all your own; the rest of us have to content ourselves with at the best an approximation of what we see in the minds eye. After a year at Heidelberg, he entered St. Thomas medical school, London, and qualified as a doctor in 1897. The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham. William Somerset Maugham[a]CH (/mm/ MAWM; 25 January 1874 - 16 December 1965) was an English playwright, novelist, and short-story writer. Author dvdnt [pro] 132. Maka. As a result, he developed a talent for applying a wounding remark to those who displeased him. After all, he has only one life. His fellow author Cyril Connolly wrote, "there will remain a story-teller's world from Singapore to the Marquesas that is exclusively and forever Maugham". We will try to find the right answer to this particular crossword clue. [n 13] He was cremated in Marseille on 20 December. He was raised by his aunt and uncle, and bullied by children at school. Somerset Maugham (1874 -- 1965) grew to fit Brady's bill as a writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest-paid author during the 1930s. He achieved fame initially as a dramatist with plays such as Lady Frederick (1912) and The Circle (1921). [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". Maugham is a British writer of great repute and has had one of the most successful literary careers in the twentieth century. His reputation as a novelist rests primarily on four books: Of Human Bondage (1915), a semi-autobiographical account of a young medical students painful progress toward maturity; The Moon and Sixpence (1919), an account of an unconventional artist, suggested by the life of Paul Gauguin; Cakes and Ale (1930), the story of a famous novelist, which is thought to contain caricatures of Thomas Hardy and Hugh Walpole; and The Razors Edge (1944), the story of a young American war veterans quest for a satisfying way of life. Omissions? [187] Maugham outsold, and outlived, contemporaries such as James Joyce, Virginia Woolf and D. H. Lawrence, but, in Holden's view, "he could not match them in terms of stylistic innovation or thematic complexity". [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. 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. He later said that for him her loss was "a wound that never entirely healed" and even in old age he kept her photograph at his bedside. [85] They divorced in 1929. 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. [145], A few of Maugham's plays have been revived occasionally. Namnteckning. [37] Maugham continued to write assiduously and within five years he published two more novels and a collection of short stories, and had his first play produced; but a success to match that of his first book eluded him. [158] In 2014 Robert McCrum concluded an article about Of Human Bondage which he said "shows the author's savage honesty and gift for storytelling at their best": The hero, Philip Carey, suffers the same childhood misfortunes as Maugham himself: the loss of his mother, the breakup of his family home, and his emotionally straitened upbringing by elderly relatives. Again, despite the suffering of the main characters, there is a reasonably happy ending for the central figure, Kitty. William Somerset Maugham (25 January 1874- 16 December 1965) was an English novelist, short story writer and playwright. Download Pdf. Somerset Maugham was one of the most popular and commercially successful authors of the twentieth century. [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's short story "The Verger" is a tale about a simple man Albert Edward Foreman. It is high time for them then to retire. Illustration by Edward Sorel. [62] In his overt capacity as an author he wrote Caroline, a three-act comedy, which opened in February 1916 at the New Theatre, London, with Irene Vanbrugh in the title role.[64]. 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. William Somerset Maugham (pronounced mawm), was an English novelist, playwright and a short story writer. Morgan describes him: Maugham's biographers have differed considerably about Searle's character and his influence for better or worse on his employer. Authors. In the weeks before the war began, Maugham had been completing his novel Of Human Bondage, a Bildungsroman with substantial autobiographical elements. The lifelong ban followed his arrest and trial over a homosexual incident in 1915. 'Mr. Know-All' is a heart-rending story of a big talker who saved the marriage of a modest woman. He would rather have misery with one than happiness with the other. Among his colleagues was Frederick Gerald Haxton, a young San Franciscan, who became his lover and companion for the next thirty years, but the affair between Maugham and Syrie Wellcome continued.[51]. [78] He spent much time travelling with Haxton. This website uses cookies. 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. [73] Most were first published in weekly or monthly magazines and later collected in book form. 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. The Internet Broadway Database in 2022 records three productions since the author's death: The Constant Wife directed by Gielgud and starring Ingrid Bergman in 1975; The Circle, starring Rex Harrison, Stewart Granger and Glynis Johns in 198990; and another production of The Constant Wife, with Kate Burton in the title role. [177] In the first screen version of Rain (1928) expurgations fundamentally altered the characters;[178] an adaptation of "The Facts of Life" in the 1948 omnibus film Quartet omitted the key plot point that the scheming young woman on whom the young hero turns the tables is a prostitute with whom he has just spent a night;[179] in "The Ant and the Grasshopper" a young adventurer marries not a rich old woman who dies soon afterwards but a rich young one who remains very much alive. His grandfather, Robert Maugham (17881862), was a prominent solicitor and co-founder of the Law Society of England and Wales. 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. Connon writes, "He was seen by some as a near saint and by others, particularly the Maugham family, as a villain";[5] Hastings labels him "a podgy Iago constantly briefing against [Syrie and Liza]", and quotes Alan Pryce-Jones's summary: "an intriguer, a schemer with a keen eye to his own advantage, a troublemaker". He later said, "I took to it as a duck takes to water. He was the highest paid author of the 1930s. His American publishers estimated that four and a half million copies of his books were bought in the US during his lifetime.[127]. [193] Lee Wilson Dodd wrote, "Mr Maugham knows how to plan a story and carry it through. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Size 8vo - over 7 - 9" tall; Keywords Limited edition; Size 8vo - over 7 - 9\" tall; Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different. [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. [56] The New York World described the romantic obsession of the protagonist as "the sentimental servitude of a poor fool". Although Maugham's former reputation has become somewhat eclipsed. [n 8], During the 1920s Maugham published one novel (The Painted Veil, (1925)), three books of short stories (The Trembling of a Leaf (1921), The Casuarina Tree (1926) and Ashenden (1928)) and a travel book (On a Chinese Screen, (1922)) but much of his work was for the theatre. 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. Postscript on 5/13 : I thought the name Joo Cezar de Castro Rocha sounded familiar - he's one of Ren Girard . [129] In the view of Kenneth Funsten in a 1981 study, British writers with whom Maugham has stylistic affinities include Jonathan Swift, William Hazlitt, John Dryden and John Henry Newman "all practitioners of precise prose". Although primarily homosexual, he attempted to conform to some extent with the norms of his day. Between 1903 and 1906 he wrote two more plays, a travel book and two novels, but his next big commercial and critical success did not come until October 1907, when his comedy Lady Frederick opened at the Court Theatre in London. [148], Maugham published novels in every decade from the 1890s to the 1940s. 00:00. [62] His covert job, which was in violation of Switzerland's neutrality laws,[n 7] was to coordinate the work of British agents in enemy territory and dispatch their information to London. While he is roaming around the London street in a distressed mood he tries to buy . 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). [77] When in Britain, Maugham lived with his wife at their house in Marylebone, but the couple were temperamentally incompatible, and their relationship grew increasingly fractious. Before Fame. I am done with playwriting. "[33], Before the publication of his next novel, The Making of a Saint (1898), Maugham travelled to Spain. 6 and 9798, Mander and Mitchenson, pp. He told Nol Coward in 1933: Maugham's thirty-second and last play was Sheppey (1933). William Somerset Maugham was an English author and playwright. In 1940, W Somerset Maugham was forced to flee France as the Nazis invaded. His style is without a trace of imaginative beauty. [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. Description: Portrait of William Somerset Maugham: Date: 26 May 1934: Source [5] Nevertheless he had a wish to marry, which he later greatly regretted. ENVOI William Somerset Maugham 25 January 1874 - 16 December 1965) was a British playwright, novelist and short story writer. And in one way or another however indirectly all I've written during the last twenty years has something to do with him".[109]. The best years of my life those we spent wandering about the world are inextricably connected with him. He became a medical student in London and . Maugham was miserable, both at the vicarage and at school, where he was bullied because of his small size and his stammer. "Mr. Maugham Himself". [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". While there, he established and endowed the Somerset Maugham Award, to be administered by the Society of Authors and given annually for a work of fiction, non-fiction, or poetry written by a British subject under the age of thirty-five. [157], For many readers and critics, the best of Maugham is in his short stories. 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. The great tragedy of life is not that men perish, but that they cease to love. 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. [180] Titles were altered to avoid association with stage plays held to be sensational: Rain became Sadie Thompson and The Constant Wife became Charming Sinners. His work was popular for his simple style of writing, as well as his sharp and accurate understanding and judgment of human nature. [8] The two younger sons became writers: Henry (18681904) wrote poetry, essays and travel books. Maugham, who had been writing steadily since he was 15, intended to make his career as an author, but he dared not tell his guardian. 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. [25] From 1892 until he qualified in 1897, he studied medicine at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School in Lambeth. (1874-1965), Novelist, playwright and spy. 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. [27] In 1897 he published his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, a tale of working-class adultery and its consequences. The critic John Sutherland says of it: According to some of Maugham's intimates, the main female character, the manipulative Mildred, was based on "a youth, probably a rent boy, with whom he became infatuated". [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. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German university. [82] In 192223 Maugham's next extended trip was in south and east Asia, with stops at Colombo, Rangoon, Mandalay, Bangkok and Hanoi. Leonard Nimoy has said that when he was creating a voice for Star Trek's Mr. Spock, he listened to hours of recordings of the English writer reading his works. Scott thought the style more effective in narrative than in suggestion and nuance. [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. Used; Condition Used - Good ISBN 13 9780140185232 [72] In the same year Maugham published one of his best-known novels,[73] The Moon and Sixpence, about a respectable stockbroker who rebels against conformity, abandons his wife and children, flees to Tahiti and becomes a painter. [67] He was helped in this by Haxton extrovert and gregarious in contrast with Maugham's shyness who became what Morgan terms an "intermediary with the outside world". He has been a verger in St. Peter's Neville Square Church, doing his duties with great enjoyment and dedication. 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). He became a father and husband, marrying Syrie Wellcome in 1917, three years into an affair that produced their daughter, Liza. [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. [20] A modest legacy from his father enabled him to go to Heidelberg University to study. He did not wish to follow his brothers to Cambridge University,[23] and his stammer precluded a career in the church or the law even if either had attracted him. [190] L. A. G. Strong acknowledged his craftsmanship, but described his writing as having an effect like "that of music expertly played in an expensive restaurant at dinner". Rain by W. Somerset Maugham Analysis. 1 Childhood and education; 2 Career. Both Maugham's parents died before he was 10, and the orphaned boy was raised by a paternal uncle who was emotionally cold. [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). Find The Judgment Seat by W. Somerset Maugham - 1934. [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. There are but two important critics in my own country who have troubled to take me seriously and when clever young men write essays about contemporary fiction they never think of considering me. Together they made extended visits to Asia, the South Seas and other destinations; Maugham gathered material for his fiction wherever they went. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest English writers ever. 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