Consisting of a preface and 30 tales, this is the longest of the four volumes of Somerset Maugham’s collected short stories, made up of 461 densely-printed pages. Preface Maugham says these stories were set early in the twenties, long before aviation became common. The British people who staffed remote outposts in Malaysia were very isolated and […]
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The Magician by William Somerset Maugham (1908)
‘It was the face of a fiend of wickedness.’ (Susie describing Oliver Haddo) This is, surprisingly for Maugham, a full-blown, hair-raising horror story. The set-up The book begins as a fairly run-of-the-mill love story. Young English surgeon Arthur Burdon knew Margaret Dauncey’s parents. When they died he was named the girl’s executor and guardian, a duty […]
Posted by Simon on October 14, 2018
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2018/10/14/the-magician-somerset-maugham/
Liza of Lambeth by Somerset Maugham (1897)
This is Somerset Maugham’s first novel, the first publication in a writing career which went on to last over 60 years. Maugham trained as a doctor for five year at St Thomas’s Hospital in Lambeth and saw at first hand the terrible poverty in the slums of the area, the drunkenness and the narrowness of […]
Posted by Simon on October 5, 2018
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2018/10/05/liza-of-lambeth-somerset-maugham/
Up at the Villa by Somerset Maugham (1941)
‘Don’t be afraid. The devil’s a sportsman and he looks after his own.’ Rowley Flint This is a ripping little novella, gripping and compelling, slightly ludicrous and strangely affecting, which I read from cover to cover in a single two-hour sitting. Maybe it would be the perfect introduction to Maugham for someone who’s never read […]
Posted by Simon on April 21, 2018
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2018/04/21/up-at-the-villa-somerset-maugham/
Christmas Holiday by Somerset Maugham (1939)
It was all very strange and complicated. It looked as though nothing were quite so simple as it seemed; it looked as though the people we thought we knew best carried secrets that they didn’t even know themselves. Charley had a sudden inkling that human beings were infinitely mysterious. The fact was that you knew […]
Posted by Simon on April 20, 2018
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2018/04/20/christmas-holiday-somerset-maugham/
Books & Boots 