The marriage lasted for twelve years, but before, during and after it, Maugham's principal partner was a younger man, Gerald Haxton. Of Human Bondage is certainly one; Cakes and Ale probably; The Moon and Sixpence possibly. Item Width: 156mm. [5] Maugham wrote his first book while in Heidelberg, a biography of the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer, but it was not accepted for publication and the author destroyed the manuscript. [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". 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. Second, Maugham was what Northrop Frye. [175], In Calder's view Maugham's "ability to tell a fascinating story and his dramatic skill" appealed strongly to the makers of films and radio programmes, but his liberal attitudes, disregard of conventional morality and unsentimental view of humanity led adapters to make his stories "blander, safer, and more narrowly moralistic than he had ever conceived them". The W. Somerset Maugham Collection features: The Moon And Sixpence Of Human Bondage [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. Maugham wrote that he followed no master, and acknowledged none, but he named Guy de Maupassant as an early influence. It is high time for them then to retire. The play was first presented in New York in 1917, running for 112 performances. 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. [n 16] His aspiration to become a concert pianist ends in failure and suicide. Syrie Wellcome. He moved to the United States where he led a very quiet life and went back after the war in 1944. Maugham was born in the English embassy in Paris; the youngest son, he was nicknamed "Willie" by his beautiful mother, Edith . Julia came in. He said that lacking any great powers of imagination he wrote about what he saw, and that although he could see more than most people could, "the greatest writers can see through a brick wall my vision is not so penetrating".[202]. 27, 59, 143 and 295, Mander and Mitchenson, p. 15; and Richards, pp. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. His American publishers estimated that four and a half million copies of his books were bought in the US during his lifetime.[127]. If you like W. Somerset Maugham, you might also like: E.M. Forster, D.H. Lawrence, and John Fowles. [12], Maugham's mother died of tuberculosis in January 1882, a few days after his eighth birthday. Though he wore nothing but an exiguous loincloth he looked neat, very clean and almost dapper. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Filmed at Somerset Maugham's villa at Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat on the Mediterranean, this program features the author and playwright in a far-ranging 1955 conve. In The Summing Up (1938) and A Writers Notebook (1949) Maugham explains his philosophy of life as a resigned atheism and a certain skepticism about the extent of mans innate goodness and intelligence; it is this that gives his work its astringent cynicism. 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. [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". Dickens . 'Mr. Know-All' is a heart-rending story of a big talker who saved the marriage of a modest woman. Maugham is a British writer of great repute and has had one of the most successful literary careers in the twentieth century. Suffering from a bad stammer, he received a classic public school education at King's school in . [104] As always, Maugham wrote continually. It is all very well for you, you are author, actor and producer. 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). [73] He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Fellow of the Library of Congress, Washington, an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and an honorary senator of Heidelberg University. "The Razor's Edge," which would be his last important work, was published in 1944. 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. His first fiction was the critically praised naturalist novel of London slum life, Liza of Lambeth, which was published in 1897, when Maugham was 23 and completing his medical training at London's St Thomas's Hospital. Maugham was a well-known English playwright, novelist and short story writer. [21] Brooks encouraged Maugham's ambitions to be a writer and introduced him to the works of Schopenhauer and Spinoza. Crowley took offence and wrote a critique of the novel in Vanity Fair, charging Maugham with "varied, shameless and extensive" plagiarism. He would rather have misery with one than happiness with the other. The new vicar dismisses the verger for being illiterate. [141] Several commentators have characterised him as a pessimist, who did not share Shaw's optimistic belief that art could improve humanity. Item Height: 234mm. 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). Part one of two of four stories from Somerset's Quartet film. [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. Antonyms for Somerset Maugham. 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". 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. Tuning: E A D G B E. Capo: no capo. [15] Maugham's biographer Selina Hastings describes as "the first step in Maugham's loss of faith" his disillusion when the God in whom he had been taught to believe failed to answer his prayers for relief from his troubles. [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. [184], Maugham was appointed Companion of Honour in 1954, on the recommendation of the British prime minister, Winston Churchill,[119] and six years later along with Churchill he was one of the first five writers to be made a Companion of Literature. "Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division", Coward, p. 226; and Mander and Mitchenson, pp. [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]. [81] Maugham, as always, observed closely and collected material for his stories wherever they went. [5], Shortly before the birth of the Maughams' fourth son the government of France proposed a new law under which all boys born on French soil to foreign parents would automatically be French citizens and liable to conscription for military service. Gosselyn was a tall, stoutish, elderly woman, much taller than her husband, who gave you the impression that she was always trying to diminish her height. 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". He never practised medicine, and became a full-time writer. During World War I he worked as a secret agent. After the war he resumed his interrupted travels and, in 1928, bought a villa on Cape Ferrat in the south of France, which became his permanent home. [13] Two and a half years after his mother's death his father died, and Maugham was sent to England to live with his paternal uncle Henry MacDonald Maugham, the vicar of Whitstable in Kent. [76], After the war Maugham had to choose between living in Britain or being with Haxton, because the latter was refused admission to the country. [147] Other London productions have included The Circle (1976), For Services Rendered (1993), The Constant Wife (2000) and Home and Beauty (2002). One recalls, too, the long list of movies that have been made from his novels . Namnteckning. It is very natural". [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. [46] Lifelong, Maugham was highly reticent about homosexual encounters, but it was thought by at least two of his lovers that at this period in his life he had recourse to young male prostitutes. She has often played with fellow Fortnite gamer, Clix. 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. E.M. Forster. Maugham considered himself a better writer than. When W. SOMERSET MAUGH AM was asked to select and edit the ten best novels in world literature, he thought at once of Balzac. Although Maugham's former reputation has become somewhat eclipsed. 25 and 68, Sternlicht, p. 72; Innes p. 254; Rogal, p. 247 and Curtis, p. 398, Last edited on 22 February 2023, at 08:19, The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, W. Somerset Maugham on stage and screen Plays, List of works by W. Somerset Maugham Novels and story collections, W. Somerset Maugham on stage and screen Film adaptations, " In Fine Society, Infidelity and Its Consequences", "The 100 best novels: No 44 Of Human Bondage by W Somerset Maugham (1915)", "Somerset Maugham's Ethically Earnest Fiction", "W. Somerset Maugham's apocryphal second-rate status: setting the record straight", "W. Somerset Maugham: Theme and Variations", Works by W. Somerset Maugham in eBook form, Works by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham, National Theatre, Maugham's Theatrical Collection, National Theatre, Shakespearean Characters, William Somerset Maugham's stories on Malaya, Borneo and Singapore, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=W._Somerset_Maugham&oldid=1140893483, This page was last edited on 22 February 2023, at 08:19. [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. Many portray the conflict of Europeans in alien surroundings that provoke strong emotions, and Maughams skill in handling plot, in the manner of Guy de Maupassant, is distinguished by economy and suspense. 3 synonyms for Somerset Maugham: Maugham, W. Somerset Maugham, William Somerset Maugham. [50], By 1914 Maugham was famous, with thirteen plays and eight novels completed. Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 - 7 June 1970) was an English author, best known for his novels, particularly A Room with a View (1908), How. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest-paid author during the 1930s. Download Pdf. W. Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965) was a British playwright, novelist and short story writer. Maugham's job was to counter German propaganda, and to encourage the moderate republican Russian government under Alexander Kerensky to continue fighting. After losing both his parents by the age of 10, Maugham. Somerset Maugham . Number of Pages: William Somerset Maugham (pronounced mawm), was an English novelist, playwright and a short story writer. He shared . William Somerset Maugham CH was an English playwright, novelist, and short story writer. 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. [69] She returned to England and he continued with his work as a secret agent. Died: December 16, 1965, in Nice, France. [14], After spending the first ten years of his life in Paris, Maugham found an unwelcome contrast in life at Whitstable, which according to his biographer Ted Morgan "represented social obligation and conformity, the narrow-minded provincialism of nineteenth-century small-town English life". Competence is the word. I saw how they bore pain. He was raised by his aunt and uncle, and bullied by children at school. Illustration by Edward Sorel. [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". 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. Again, despite the suffering of the main characters, there is a reasonably happy ending for the central figure, Kitty. His fluency in French and German was an advantage, and for a year he worked in Geneva at his own expense as an agent for the British Secret Service. [181] Calder cites BBC Television's series of twenty-six stories shown in 1969 and 1970, adapted by dramatists including Roy Clarke, Simon Gray, Hugh Leonard, Simon Raven and Hugh Whitemore,[182] "presented with scrupulous fidelity to [their] tone, attitude, and thematic intention". . Together they made extended visits to Asia, the South Seas and other destinations; Maugham gathered material for his fiction wherever they went. [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". [73] Most were first published in weekly or monthly magazines and later collected in book form. [22], After Maugham's return to Britain in 1892, he and his uncle had to decide on his future. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. His lifestyle was modest: he felt that despite his considerable wealth he should not live luxuriously while Britain was enduring wartime privations. [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. [8] The two younger sons became writers: Henry (18681904) wrote poetry, essays and travel books. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest paid author during the 1930s.After losing both his parents by the age of 10, Maugham was raised by a paternal uncle who was emotionally cold. [93] Despite some help from Coward in the drafting and having Ralph Richardson as star and John Gielgud as director, it ran for a modest 83 performances. And in one way or another however indirectly all I've written during the last twenty years has something to do with him".[109]. He was born at the British Embassy in Paris. William Somerset Maugham ( 25. ledna 1874, Pa - 16. prosince 1965, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat pobl Nice) byl anglick spisovatel a dramatik . [188], In The Summing Up (1938), Maugham wrote of his non-dramatic work, "I have no illusions about my literary position. Hastings comments that for the young Maugham the hardest thing to accept in abandoning religious faith was "the knowledge that with no expectation of an afterlife he would never see his mother again". 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. "Mr. Maugham Himself". He was plump rather than stout. W. Somerset Maugham (The Moon and Sixpence) " He did not care if she was heartless, vicious and vulgar, stupid and grasping, he loved her. March 14, 2004. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. The British ambassador, Lord Lyons, had a maternity ward set up within his embassy which was legally recognised as UK territory enabling British couples in France to circumvent the new law, and it was there that William Somerset Maugham was born on 25 January 1874. [66] In addition to his intelligence work, Maugham gathered material for his fiction wherever he went. But at first glance, Maugham's progression to worldwide fame and great wealth seems relatively straightforward. In the US they spent time in Hollywood, which Maugham despised from the first, but found highly remunerative. [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. 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. Somerset Maugham (1874 -- 1965) grew to fit Brady's bill as a writer. William Somerset Maugham, British playwright and novelist, was one of the most reputed and well-known writers of his era, and one of the highest-paid authors of his time. Under 1. verdenskrig var han hemmelig agent i Rusland; hans spionroman Ashenden: Or the British Agent (1928; "Ashenden: Den hemmelige agent") bygger p denne erfaring. Scott thought the style more effective in narrative than in suggestion and nuance. "[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.

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