Book description
Far Eastern Tales
is a collection of short stories born of Maugham's experiences in
Malaya, Singapore and other outposts of the former British Empire.
Whether portraying a ship-borne flight from a lover's curse, murder in
the jungle, or a marriage shattered by a past indiscretion, they all
reveal Maugham at his best - sometimes caustic, sometimes gently comic,
but always the shrewd and human judge of character and soul. 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 literature. 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 writer was being consolidated with
acclaimed productions of various plays and the publication of several
short story 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
