Book description
Eclectic and illuminating, these essays are the last that Maugham
published. Ranging from an appreciation of Goethe's novels, to an
encounter with an Indian holy man, with a considered analysis of the
form at which Maugham himself excelled - the short story - they present
the enduring views and opinions of this eminent writer. 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
