[122] He kept himself fit, and further attempted to fend off the encroachments of age with supposedly rejuvenating injections at the clinic of Paul Niehans. His lifestyle was modest: he felt that despite his considerable wealth he should not live luxuriously while Britain was enduring wartime privations. Maugham, who had been writing steadily since he was 15, intended to make his career as an author, but he dared not tell his guardian. HONOLULU VII. While we were waiting for the coffee, the head waiter, with a smile on his false face, came up to us bearing a large basket full of huge peaches. William Somerset Maugham, better known as W. Somerset Maugham, was born on January 25, 1874, Paris, France. It was written in 1915 and staged in New York in 1917, for a satisfactory but not unusual 112 performances, but when produced in the West End in 1923 it was played 548 times. He was the highest paid author of the 1930s. He was not known as a phrase-maker; the 2014 edition of The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations cites him ten times, compared with nearly a hundred quotations from his contemporary Bernard Shaw. As a result, they undergo many trials and change as a result or they don't, if it's a tragedy. What makes old age hard to bear is not the failing of one's faculties, mental and physical, but the burden of one's memories. On his eightieth birthday the Garrick Club gave a dinner in his honour: only Dickens, Thackeray and Trollope had been similarly honoured. [22], After Maugham's return to Britain in 1892, he and his uncle had to decide on his future. It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it . He was one of the most reputed and well-known . First, Maugham died two years before Britain's decriminalization in 1967 of same-gender sex behavior. [183] On radio, the BBC's connection with Maugham goes back to 1930, when Hermione Gingold and Richard Goolden starred in an adaptation of "Before the Party" from his 1922 volume The Casuarina Tree. Marking Maugham's eightieth birthday The New York Times commented that he had not only outlived his contemporaries including Shaw, Joseph Conrad, H. G. Wells, Henry James, Arnold Bennett and John Galsworthy but was now seen to rank with them in excellence, after years in which his popularity had caused critics to depreciate his work. W. Somerset Maugham, in full William Somerset Maugham, (born Jan. 25, 1874, Paris, Francedied Dec. 16, 1965, Nice), English novelist, playwright, and short-story writer whose work is characterized by a clear unadorned style, cosmopolitan settings, and a shrewd understanding of human nature. His style is without a trace of imaginative beauty. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German university. Last edit on Apr 05, 2021. [99], Throughout the decade Maugham, with Haxton in attendance, lived and entertained lavishly at his house on Cap Ferrat, the Villa La Mauresque. "Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division", Coward, p. 226; and Mander and Mitchenson, pp. He studied in Dune and qualified as a doctor, but found his calling in writing. Used; Condition Used - Good ISBN 13 9780140185232 Died. S omerset M augham is a singular figure in twentieth-century English literature. His daily routine was to write between an early breakfast and lunchtime, after which he entertained himself. Maugham was a well-known English playwright, novelist and short story writer. . He moved to the United States where he led a very quiet life and went back after the war in 1944. It drew its details from his obstetric duties in South London slums. William Somerset Maugham ( 25. ledna 1874, Pa - 16. prosince 1965, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat pobl Nice) byl anglick spisovatel a dramatik . [65] He was reunited with Haxton, who joined him as secretary-companion. [73] He saw little of Haxton, who undertook war work in Washington DC. He had an amiability of disposition that enabled him in a very short time to make friends with people in ships, clubs, bar-rooms, and hotels, so that through him I was able to get into easy contact with an immense number of persons whom otherwise I should have known only from a distance. [73] There was hostile comment in the press that the central figure seemed to be a tasteless parody of Thomas Hardy, who had died in 1928. Maugham wrote that he followed no master, and acknowledged none, but he named Guy de Maupassant as an early influence. [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". 6 and 9798, Mander and Mitchenson, pp. During the First World War Maugham worked for the British Secret Service, later drawing on his experiences for stories published in the 1920s. Although he was an important influence on many well-known writers, "Maugham's critical stock has remained low". Maugham wrote of Haxton: After the South Seas trip Maugham visited the US and was joined by Syrie. After a year at Heidelberg, he entered St. Thomas medical school, London, and qualified as a doctor in 1897. His work was popular for his simple style of writing, as well as his sharp and accurate understanding and judgment of human nature. Maugham gave up writing novels shortly after the Second World War, and his last years were marred by senility. After all, he has only one life. [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. In addition, Carey has a. Who Is W. Somerset Maugham's Wife? [191] Virginia Woolf was friendly though a little patronising;[192] Lytton Strachey disparaged one of his books as "Class II, Division I". This was Maugham's longest-running original play, but a dramatisation of his short story. The protagonist of the story, Salvatore who is a usual fisherman's son, is intensely in love with a beautiful girl who lives on the Grande Marina. Maugham's job was to counter German propaganda, and to encourage the moderate republican Russian government under Alexander Kerensky to continue fighting. [12], Maugham's mother died of tuberculosis in January 1882, a few days after his eighth birthday. Between 1908 and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Maugham wrote a further eight plays,[44] but his stage successes did not completely distract him from writing novels. [144] Trewin singles out The Circle, calling it one of the great comedies of the 20th century, and comparing it with Congreve's The Way of the World, to the disadvantage of the latter: "He can put Congreve to shame in the task of telling a theatrical story telling it clearly and without inessentials". [104] As always, Maugham wrote continually. I saw what hope looked like, fear and relief; I saw the dark lines that despair drew on a face. Maugham said, "Sometimes it fills me with uneasiness that no less than thirteen persons should spend their lives administering to the comfort of one old party". 3 synonyms for Somerset Maugham: Maugham, W. Somerset Maugham, William Somerset Maugham. The Evening Standard commented that there had not been so powerful a story of slum life since Rudyard Kipling's The Record of Badalia Herodsfoot (1890), and praised the author's "vividness and knowledge extraordinary gift of directness and concentration His characters have an astounding amount of vitality". William Somerset Maugham [mm] ( 25. tammikuuta 1874 Pariisi, Ranska - 16. joulukuuta 1965 Nizza, Ranska) oli englantilainen nytelmkirjailija, kirjailija ja novellisti, 1930-luvun tunnetuimpia lnsimaisia kirjailijoita ja tiettvsti mys suurituloisimpia. William Somerset Maugham is one of the best known English writers of the 20th century. The protagonist of the story is Roger Charing, a tall, handsome, rich, experienced middle-aged man. [73] Most were first published in weekly or monthly magazines and later collected in book form. 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". This was Alan Searle, whom Maugham had known since 1928, when Searle was twenty-three. [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". 1965. This happens in the end to most dramatists, and they are wise to accept the warning. In August of 1917 the U. S. Army absorbed the ambulance units. W. Somerset Maugham. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Both Maugham's parents died before he was 10, and the orphaned boy was raised by a paternal uncle who was emotionally cold. What you give an audience is all your own; the rest of us have to content ourselves with at the best an approximation of what we see in the minds eye. Maugham further damaged his own reputation by denying that another character, Alroy Kear a superficial novelist of more pushy ambition than literary talent was a caricature of Hugh Walpole. Her concentration on her work briefly lessened the domestic tensions at the couple's house when Maugham was in residence. [n 8], During the 1920s Maugham published one novel (The Painted Veil, (1925)), three books of short stories (The Trembling of a Leaf (1921), The Casuarina Tree (1926) and Ashenden (1928)) and a travel book (On a Chinese Screen, (1922)) but much of his work was for the theatre. William Somerset Maugham. W. Somerset Maugham. Illustration by Edward Sorel. [21] Brooks encouraged Maugham's ambitions to be a writer and introduced him to the works of Schopenhauer and Spinoza. [96], Maugham's days of lengthy trips to distant places were mostly behind him, but at Kipling's suggestion he sailed to the West Indies in 1936. To order The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham for 23 with free UK p&p call Guardian book service on 0330 333 6846. Synonyms for Somerset Maugham in Free Thesaurus. [178], Radio and television adaptations have, in general, been more faithful to Maugham's original stories. [61] He was recruited by Sir John Wallinger, a friend of Syrie, portrayed as the spymaster "R" in the Ashenden stories Maugham wrote after the war. Size 8vo - over 7 - 9" tall; Keywords Limited edition; Size 8vo - over 7 - 9\" tall; Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different. [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. [5][n 6], After the birth of his daughter, Maugham moved to Switzerland. Competence is the word. The new vicar dismisses the verger for being illiterate. Maugham, (William) Somerset (1874-1965) British novelist, short-story writer, and dramatist, b. France. His aunt, who was German, arranged accommodation for him, and aged sixteen he travelled to Germany. Born in the British Embassy in Paris, France (legally considered British soil), Maugham endured a traumatic childhood, orphaned at ten when his mother died from tuberculosis and his father died from cancer. He is never boring or clumsy, he never gives a false impression; he is never shocking; but this very diplomatic polish makes impossible for him any of those sudden transcendent flashes of passion and beauty which less competent novelists occasionally attain. [89] The majority of his original plays were comedies, but of his serious dramas East of Suez (1922), The Letter (1927) and The Sacred Flame (1929) ran for more than 200 performances. 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. He died at the age of 91. He remained covert in his life and in his writings. [41] By the next year, while the run of Lady Frederick continued, Maugham had three other plays running simultaneously in London. Of Human Bondage is certainly one; Cakes and Ale probably; The Moon and Sixpence possibly. Explain how this statement is relevant to "Mr. Know-All". [81] Maugham, as always, observed closely and collected material for his stories wherever they went. He was educated at King`s school in Canterbury, studied painting in Paris, went to Heidelberg University in Germany and studied to be a doctor at St. Don't waste time Get Your Custom Essay on "The Escape Maugham Analysis" [102] Haxton, as a citizen of neutral America, was not in immediate peril from the Germans and remained at the villa, securing it and its contents as far as possible, before making his way via Lisbon to New York. He was an English novelist, playwright, and short-story writer whose work is characterized by a clear unadorned style, cosmopolitan settings, and a shrewd understanding of human nature. His domestic staff there comprised thirteen servants. [42], Maugham later said that he made comparatively little money from this unprecedented theatrical achievement, but it made his reputation. Dickens . "Mr. Maugham Himself". I saw how they bore pain. Sitter associated with 115 portraits. He was raised by his aunt and uncle, and bullied by children at school. [25] From 1892 until he qualified in 1897, he studied medicine at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School in Lambeth. [5] Maugham's father, Robert Ormond Maugham (18231884), was a prosperous solicitor, based in Paris;[6] his wife, Edith Mary, ne Snell, lived most of her life in France, where all the couple's children were born. 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. Updates? Some of the short stories will undoubtedly prove immortal". [66] In addition to his intelligence work, Maugham gathered material for his fiction wherever he went. Maugham also travelled far and wide to Europe, North America, the Far East, the South seas and beyond. [186], The critic Philip Holden wrote in 2006 that Maugham occupies a paradoxical position in twentieth-century British literature. 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". They visited the Far East together in 191920, keeping Maugham away from home for six months. 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. [65] Samoa was regarded as crucial to Britain's strategic interests, and Maugham's task was to gather information about the island's powerful radio transmitter and the threat from German military and naval forces in the region. "Rain" (1921) by W. Somerset Maugham is a fish-out-of-water story, in which characters wholly unsuited to their environment become marooned somewhere due to external circumstances. [167] Another English story is "Lord Mountdrago" (1939), depicting the psychological collapse of a pompous cabinet minister. [25] The local physician in Whitstable suggested the medical profession, and Maugham's uncle agreed. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. The possibility became a certainty when in November 1944, after a six-month illness initially diagnosed as pleurisy, Haxton died of tuberculosis. Rodie ale brzy zemeli, take se vrtil do Anglie k pbuznm. William Somerset Maugham CH was an English playwright, novelist, and short story writer. I did so with relief. [110] He came from Bermondsey, a poor district of London. 00:00. For the next year and a half he studied literature, philosophy and German. He told his nephew Robin, "I tried to persuade myself that I was three-quarters normal and that only a quarter of me was queer whereas really it was the other way round". [n 10] When the Second World War began in 1939 he stayed in his home as long as he could, but in June 1940 France surrendered; knowing himself to be proscribed by the Nazis (Goebbels denounced him personally) Maugham made his way to England in uncomfortable conditions on a coal freighter from Nice. [5] He attempted to disinherit his daughter and to make Searle his adopted son, but the courts prevented it.[124]. In Somerset Maugham's novel "The Moon and Sixpence," there is a scene in which Dirk Stroeve, a painter, visits an art dealer to inquire after the work of . Graham Sutherland 1903-80 Portrait of Somerset Maugham 1949 N06034 Oil on canvas 1373 x 637 (54 1/16 x 25 1/16) Inscribed in black paint with pale highlights 'Sutherland 1949'over another inscription 'Suther[. He did not wish to follow his brothers to Cambridge University,[23] and his stammer precluded a career in the church or the law even if either had attracted him. Sources differ (see footnote 1) on whether Maugham died on 15 or 16 December, but it is generally agreed that to circumvent a law requiring autopsies in cases of death in hospital, he was taken by ambulance, shortly before or shortly after his death, to La Mauresque and it was announced that he had died there on 16 December. [126] His works sold prodigiously throughout the English-speaking world. [67] He was helped in this by Haxton extrovert and gregarious in contrast with Maugham's shyness who became what Morgan terms an "intermediary with the outside world". William Somerset Maugham was an English author and playwright. Last years were marred by senility the ambulance units war Maugham worked for next. 1917 the U. S. Army absorbed the ambulance units early breakfast and lunchtime, after the World! Content and verify and edit content received from contributors house when Maugham was in residence to... Most dramatists, and qualified as a doctor in 1897, he studied medicine at St 's. 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