| |
More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
|
Somerset Maugham
|
|
|
(1874–1965)
Novelist and playwright whose first book, Liza of Lambeth (1897), was a fictional account of the working-class London life which he had seen as a medical student at St Thomas's Hospital. His first real successes came in the theatre, beginning with Lady Frederick in 1907. His light witty comedies were so appealing that by the next year he had four plays running in the West End. He returned to fiction with his most important book, Of Human Bondage (1915), an autobiographical novel in which Maugham's own handicap, a severe stammer, is reflected in the club foot of the hero, Philip Carey.
|
|
|
|
|
He published several volumes of short stories, starting with Orientations (1899), and this was perhaps where his greatest skill lay. One story in particular, 'Rain' (in The Trembling of a Leaf 1921), has become a classic; set in steamy tropical Samoa, it recounts the relationship between a Scottish missionary and a lively American prostitute, Sadie Thompson. From 1928 he lived in the south of France, and in 1947 he established the Somerset Maugham Awards, providing funds to enable young writers to travel. The painting of him by Graham *Sutherland is one of the most striking of modern portraits.
|
|
|
|