Book description
Larry Darrell is a young American in search of the absolute. The
progress of this spiritual odyssey involves him with some of Maugham's
most brillant characters - his fiancee Isabel, whose choice between love
and wealth have lifelong repercussions, and Elliot Templeton, her uncle,
a classic expatriate American snob. The most ambitious of Maugham's
novels, this is also one in which Maugham himself plays a considerable
part as he wanders in and out of the story, to observe his characters
struggling with their fates.
William Somerset Maugham was born in 1874 and lived in Paris until he
was ten. He was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and at
Heidelberg University. He spent some time at St. Thomas' Hospital with
the idea of practising medicine, but the success of his first novel,
Liza of Lambeth, published in 1897, won him over to letters.
Of Human Bondage, the first of his masterpieces, came out in
1915, and with the publication in 1919 of The Moon and Sixpence
his reputation as a novelist was established. At the same time his
fame as a successful playwright and short story writer was being
consolidated with acclaimed productions of various plays and the
publication of The Trembling of a Leaf, subtitled Little
Stories of the South Sea Islands, in 1921, which was followed by
seven more collections. His other works include travel books, essays,
criticism and the autobiographical The Summing Up and A
Writer's Notebook.
In 1927 Somerset Maugham settled in the South of France and lived
there until his death in 1965.
