William Somerset Maugham was an English author and playwright.
Born in the British Embassy in Paris, France (legally considered British soil), Maugham endured a traumatic childhood, orphaned at ten when his mother died from tuberculosis and his father died from cancer. He was raised by his aunt and uncle, and bullied by children at school.
Maugham studied medicine at St. Thomas' Hospital, and apprenticed as a midwife in London's Lambeth slum area. He published his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, in 1897; the book depicted the life and death of Liza Kent, a working-class woman. The popular and controversial novel launched Maugham's impressive writing career.
One of the highest-paid writers of the early to mid-twentieth century, Maugham wrote fiction, memoir, travelogues, and plays. His best-known works are Of Human Bondage (1915) and The Moon and Sixpence (1919).
During World War I, Maugham assisted in the ambulance corps and in intelligence work. He was stationed in Russia shortly before the Bolshevik revolution; later, he said that if he had only been sent there six months before, he might have succeeded in his aim of keeping the provisional government in power.
Though he was unhappily married to Syrie Wellcome (a liaison which began when she was still married to her first husband, Henry Wellcome), Maugham's sexual orientation appears to have been primarily homosexual, and he had several male lovers throughout his life. Frederick Gerald Haxton was Maugham's constant companion for nearly thirty years, and he proofread many of Maugham's manuscripts, including Of Human Bondage.
Maugham died on December 16, 1965, in Nice, France.
“The Fall of Edward Bernard” by William Somerset Maugham is a story based on the differences between Eastern and Western cultures. The story involves two childhood friends who fall in love with the same girl. Edward Bernard and Bateman Hunter are...
The short story “Footprints in the Jungle” is one of six that comprises Somerset Maugham’s 1933 collection titled Ah King. The unifying theme that connects all six stories is the psychological effect of Britons in living in the far flung distant...
“The Letter” is a short story published as part of Somerset Maugham’s 1926 collection, The Casuarina Tree. Like many of Maugham’s tales, this fictional story was inspired by a rea life event. Maugham came to know the details of the murder that...
Liza of Lambeth is the first novel published by Somerset Maugham. Maugham would go on from this humble beginning to stake a claim for himself as one of the most commercial popular writers of 20th century. Though never exactly a darling of the...
The Magician by W. Somerset Maugham is a novel detailing a narrative about an English surgeon, Arthur Burdon. The characters and settings of the story are based on real people and scenes. The story begins with Arthur traveling to Paris to visit...
“Mackintosh” is a nearly 14,000-word short story by W. Somerset Maugham found in the 1921 collection The Trembling of a Leaf. That collection is most notable for the inclusion of what is almost certainly Maugham’s most famous work of short...
The Moon and Sixpence is a novel by critically celebrated British writer W. Somerset Maugham. The novel follows the life of Charles Strickland, a businessman who devotes the remainder of his life to painting in an effort to become a great artist....
Of Human Bondage is one of the most famous novels of English writer William Somerset Maugham. The novel was written in 1915. The protagonist – Philip Carey, is an orphan and is born with a lame leg, which makes his life very difficult.
The novel...
“The Outstation” is a short story published by Somerset Maugham as part of his 1926 collection The Casuarina Tree. “The Outstation” is, like the others, a self-contained narrative that unifies the book by virtue of presenting a narrative of what...
Maugham's story of an unfaithful woman who follows her husband into a cholera epidemic and ultimately earns redemption was inspired by a story in Dante’s The Divine Comedy. The Purgatorio section of the Comedy contains the lines "Pray, when you...
“The Pool” is a short story by W. Somerset Maugham which was published in a 1921 short story collection titled The Trembling of a Leaf. That collection is notable for also featuring what is arguably Maugham’s most famous work of short fiction. “...
Published in 1921, W. Somerset Maugham's "Rain" is a short story about a fanatical Christian missionary who commits suicide after trying to save the soul of a defiant sex worker.
Set in Pago Pago Harbor in American Samoa, the story is told from...
“Red” is a short story which appears in Somerset Maugham’s 1921 collection titled The Trembling of a Leaf. The unifying element of that collection—aside from the usual suspects about which Maugham writes—is the setting. All of the stories feature...
W. Somerset Maugham's "Salvatore" is a short story about an Italian fisherman who conducts himself with kindness and humility despite dealing with economic hardship, heartbreak, and rheumatoid arthritis. Although Maugham begins and ends the story...
Published in 1944 when Somerset Maugham was 70 years old, The Razor’s Edge would come to be considered the last of his major works of fiction. The philosophical awareness that any man naturally arrives at by the advanced age at which Maugham...
