W. Somerset Maugham

Liza of Lambeth (1897) is a novel by W. Somerset Maugham. Written while the author was living as a medical student in London, the Maugham's debut marked an electrifying start to an illustrious career in literature. Controversial for its portrayal of infidelity, domestic violence, and women's reproductive health, Liza of Lambeth is a gritty realist tale that takes an honest look at, the everyday struggles of actual Londoners in a time of celebration...

Mrs. Craddock (1902) is a novel by W. Somerset Maugham. Controversial for its portrayal of infidelity and marriage across social classes, Mrs. Craddock was instrumental in establishing Maugham's reputation as a leading author of the late Victorian era. Due to its content, the novel appeared exclusively in Bowdlerized form until Maugham saw it republished in 1938. Bertha Ley has always been independent. Orphaned at a young age, she comes into a sizable...

On a Chinese Screen, also known as On a Chinese Screen: Sketches of Life in China, is a travel book by W. Somerset Maugham, first published in 1922. It is a series of short sketches Maugham made during a trip along the Yangtze River in 1919-1920. And although ostensibly about China the book is equally focused on the various westerners he met during the trip and their struggles to accept or adapt to the cultural differences they encounter, which are...

Five years change a man, and when they have been spent in the bush fighting Boers, the changes are profound. So when Jamie Parson comes home with captain's pips and a Victoria Cross, he is no longer the boy he was. But not to his parents and Mary, his sweetheart...they expect him to fit in. Jamie can't, and shortly breaks off with Mary. Happiness remains a shadow, illusive as the Boers, and Jamie finds the moral struggle as relentless as the military....

THE Pacific is inconstant and uncertain like the soul of man. Sometimes it is grey like the English Channel off Beachy Head, with a heavy swell, and sometimes it is rough, capped with white crests, and boisterous. It is not so often that it is calm and blue. Then, indeed, the blue is arrogant. The sun shines fiercely from an unclouded sky. The trade wind gets into your blood and you are filled with an impatience for the unknown. The billows, magnificently...

William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) was an English playwright, novelist, and short story writer. He was one of the most popular authors of his era, and reputedly the highest paid of his profession during the 1930s. By 1914 he was famous, with 10 plays produced and 10 published novels. His masterpiece is generally agreed to be Of Human Bondage (1915), a semi-autobiographical novel that deals with the life of the main character Philip Carey, who like...

On his way home from a remote Pacific island, Dr Saunders travels with two strangers: the treacherous Captain Nichols, and Fred, a handsome Australian with a shadowy past. Driven to shelter from a storm on the island of Kanda, the trio meet good-natured Erik Christessen and his fiance, the cool and beautiful Louise. A tense, exotic tale of love, jealousy, murder and suicide...

A collection of six stories-including the acclaimed "The Outstation"-by the renowned twentieth-century author of the classic Of Human Bondage. Set in the Federated Malay States during the 1920s, these stories portray the lives of the English living abroad and the clashes that occur with the native Malaysians-and among themselves. In "Before the Party," a widow who lies about the cause of her husband's death in Borneo is confronted by her family...

DeAmicitia is about an American art student and English poet living in Paris, and what transpires during their summer trip to Holland. The Punctiliousness of Don Sebastian tells the story behind the alabaster monument of Don Sebastian and his wife. Art Fiction is a literary genre in which art is not solely an object, but is a reflection of what is human in all of us. Other examples are: Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier Glimpses of...

Arthur Burdon är en framgångsrik läkare i sina bästa år och bor med sina vackra fästmö Margaret i Paris. En kväll på restaurangen Chien Noir blir de presenterade för en man vid namn Oliver Haddo. Han sägs vara magiker och gör starkt intryck på alla närvarande – inte bara på grund av sitt frånstötande yttre utan även för de krafter han påstår sig besitta. Han säger sig till exempel vara immun mot varje plåga och varje fruktan,...