[178], Radio and television adaptations have, in general, been more faithful to Maugham's original stories. [136] Among his longest-running comedies were Lady Frederick (1907), Jack Straw (1908), Our Betters (1923)[n 15] and The Constant Wife (1926), which ran in the West End or on Broadway for 422, 321, 548 and 295 performances respectively. Love, Life, Change. Although he was an important influence on many well-known writers, "Maugham's critical stock has remained low". [91] Hastings quotes a contemporary's view that Kear was Maugham's revenge on Walpole for "a stolen boyfriend, an unrequited love and an old canker of jealousy".[90]. Born in the British Embassy in Paris, where his father worked, Maugham was an orphan by the age of ten. 1 Childhood and education; 2 Career. W. Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965) was a British playwright, novelist and short story writer. Maugham was born in the English embassy in Paris; the youngest son, he was nicknamed "Willie" by his beautiful mother, Edith . He never practised medicine, and became a full-time writer. 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. Looking back, he described his early attempts to be heterosexual as the greatest mistake in his life. Gosselyn was a tall, stoutish, elderly woman, much taller than her husband, who gave you the impression that she was always trying to diminish her height. The Razor's Edge by W Somerset Maugham (Bill Murray Cover) (Paperback, Fiction) 1984. [153] Rosie appears to be based on Sue Jones, to whom Maugham had proposed in 1913. [112] Raphael calls him "a man of more reliable stamp" than Haxton;[73] Meyers describes him as "sober, efficient, honest and gentle". Under 1. verdenskrig var han hemmelig agent i Rusland; hans spionroman Ashenden: Or the British Agent (1928; "Ashenden: Den hemmelige agent") bygger p denne erfaring. Authors. [184], Maugham was appointed Companion of Honour in 1954, on the recommendation of the British prime minister, Winston Churchill,[119] and six years later along with Churchill he was one of the first five writers to be made a Companion of Literature. [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. Together they made extended visits to Asia, the South Seas and other destinations; Maugham gathered material for his fiction wherever they went. [188], In The Summing Up (1938), Maugham wrote of his non-dramatic work, "I have no illusions about my literary position. He lived from 1874-1965. The length of his literary career alone makes him a special case. [5][57] Bryan Connon comments in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, "After this it seemed that Maugham could not fail, and the public eagerly bought his novels [and] volumes of his carefully crafted short stories". He moved to the United States where he led a very quiet life and went back after the war in 1944. [5] He attempted to disinherit his daughter and to make Searle his adopted son, but the courts prevented it.[124]. Maugham usually published his works under the name of W. Somerset Maugham. Crowley took offence and wrote a critique of the novel in Vanity Fair, charging Maugham with "varied, shameless and extensive" plagiarism. [28], The book received mixed reviews. [105] His most substantial book from the war years was The Razor's Edge; he found writing it unusually tiring he was seventy when it was completed and he vowed it would be the last long novel he wrote. [176] Some of his stories were judged too improper for the cinema; Calder cites an adaptation of the historical novel Then and Now which the Hays Office rejected for thirty-seven separate reasons. [45][n 5], Maugham was acutely conscious of the fate of Oscar Wilde, whose arrest and imprisonment took place when Maugham was in his early twenties. The adaptation was by John Colton and Clemence Randolph. [5], Shortly before the birth of the Maughams' fourth son the government of France proposed a new law under which all boys born on French soil to foreign parents would automatically be French citizens and liable to conscription for military service. 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. [150] Unlike many of Maugham's later novels it has an unequivocally tragic ending. 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. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. [62] In his overt capacity as an author he wrote Caroline, a three-act comedy, which opened in February 1916 at the New Theatre, London, with Irene Vanbrugh in the title role.[64]. [1] E.M. Forster. (293) $6.19. [177] In the first screen version of Rain (1928) expurgations fundamentally altered the characters;[178] an adaptation of "The Facts of Life" in the 1948 omnibus film Quartet omitted the key plot point that the scheming young woman on whom the young hero turns the tables is a prostitute with whom he has just spent a night;[179] in "The Ant and the Grasshopper" a young adventurer marries not a rich old woman who dies soon afterwards but a rich young one who remains very much alive. He became a medical student in London and . He was plump rather than stout. William ('W.') Somerset Maugham. William Somerset Maugham, British playwright and novelist, was one of the most reputed and well-known writers of his era, and one of the highest-paid authors of his time. "Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division", Coward, p. 226; and Mander and Mitchenson, pp. Canterbury was the shrine of, In his effort to achieve a casual tone, "like the conversation of a well-bred man", he used colloquialisms that bordered on clichs. [10] Maugham never greatly liked his middle name which commemorated a great-uncle named after General Sir Henry Somerset[11] and was known by family and friends throughout his life as "Willie". [113], Before returning to the south of France after the war, Maugham travelled to England and lived in London until the end of 1946. [108] Maugham was distraught; he told his nephew, Robin, "You'll never know how great a grief this has been to me. Maugham's alienation started in childhood. He said that lacking any great powers of imagination he wrote about what he saw, and that although he could see more than most people could, "the greatest writers can see through a brick wall my vision is not so penetrating".[202]. [22] A family friend found Maugham a position in an accountant's office in London, which he endured for a month before resigning. William Somerset Maugham (pronounced mawm), was an English novelist, playwright and a short story writer. Tuning: E A D G B E. Capo: no capo. This happens in the end to most dramatists, and they are wise to accept the warning. Many portray the conflict of Europeans in alien surroundings that provoke strong emotions, and Maughams skill in handling plot, in the manner of Guy de Maupassant, is distinguished by economy and suspense. As a result, he developed a talent for applying a wounding remark to those who displeased him. [104] As always, Maugham wrote continually. He qualified as a doctor in 1897, but pursued his passion for writing following the publication of his . [20] A modest legacy from his father enabled him to go to Heidelberg University to study. [56] The New York World described the romantic obsession of the protagonist as "the sentimental servitude of a poor fool". In May 1917 they married at a ceremony in New Jersey. W. Somerset Maugham was a British playwright, novelist and short story writer. Maugham gave up writing novels shortly after the Second World War, and his last years were marred by senility. The Razor's Edge, the author's last major novel,[5] is described by Sutherland as "Maugham's twentieth-century manifesto for human fulfilment", satirising Western materialism and drawing on Eastern spiritualism as a way to find meaning in existence. [21] Brooks encouraged Maugham's ambitions to be a writer and introduced him to the works of Schopenhauer and Spinoza. [5], In 1915 Syrie Wellcome became pregnant, and in September, while Maugham was on leave to be with her, she gave birth to their only child, Mary Elizabeth, known as Liza. Although Maugham's former reputation has become somewhat eclipsed. [73], As in his novels and short stories, Maugham's plots are clear and his dialogue naturalistic. [69] She returned to England and he continued with his work as a secret agent. [34] He based himself in Seville, where he grew a moustache, smoked cigars, took lessons in the guitar,[34] and developed a passion for "a young thing with green eyes and a gay smile"[35] (gender carefully unspecified, as Hastings comments). 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. [175], In Calder's view Maugham's "ability to tell a fascinating story and his dramatic skill" appealed strongly to the makers of films and radio programmes, but his liberal attitudes, disregard of conventional morality and unsentimental view of humanity led adapters to make his stories "blander, safer, and more narrowly moralistic than he had ever conceived them". Born into a professional, bourgeois family, the youngest of four brothers, he. But the book I like best is Cakes and Ale. His grandfather, Robert Maugham (17881862), was a prominent solicitor and co-founder of the Law Society of England and Wales. The new vicar dismisses the verger for being illiterate. This was Alan Searle, whom Maugham had known since 1928, when Searle was twenty-three. While there he wrote a farce, Home and Beauty, which was presented at the Playhouse Theatre in August 1919 starring Gladys Cooper and Charles Hawtrey. It was an amusing book to write. [189] Some biographers have doubted Maugham's claim to be unresentful at being overlooked or dismissed by literary critics, but there is little doubt that he was right about it. [168], The polished, detached William Ashenden, the central figure of the eponymous collection of spy stories (1928), is a writer recruited, as Maugham was, into the British Secret Service. [123] Nonetheless, his final years, according to Connon, were marred by increasing senility, misguided legal disputes and a memoir, published in 1962, Looking Back, in which "he denigrated his late former wife, was dismissive of Haxton, and made a clumsy attempt to deny his homosexuality by claiming he was a red-blooded heterosexual". He has been a verger in St. Peter's Neville Square Church, doing his duties with great enjoyment and dedication. [141] Several commentators have characterised him as a pessimist, who did not share Shaw's optimistic belief that art could improve humanity. [55] When the book was published in 1915 some of the initial reviews were favourable but many, both in Britain and in the US, were unenthusiastic. Before Fame. W. Somerset Maugham. [158] The tribute continued, "Best sellers that appeal to the mass reader are seldom good literature, but there are exceptions. Even before Haxton's mortal illness, Maugham had already chosen a replacement as secretary-companion, in anticipation that Haxton would not return to live at La Mauresque. ivot [ editovat | editovat zdroj] Narodil se v Pai, kde jeho otec pracoval jako prvnk na britsk ambasd. After all, he has only one life. While there, he established and endowed the Somerset Maugham Award, to be administered by the Society of Authors and given annually for a work of fiction, non-fiction, or poetry written by a British subject under the age of thirty-five. Author dvdnt [pro] 132. Description: Portrait of William Somerset Maugham: Date: 26 May 1934: Source The lifelong ban followed his arrest and trial over a homosexual incident in 1915. Add a one-line explanation of what this file represents. He traveled in Spain and Italy and in 1908 achieved a theatrical triumphfour plays running in London at oncethat brought him financial security. [196][n 18] Even an admirer such as Evelyn Waugh felt that Maugham's disciplined writing with its "brilliant technical dexterity" was not without disadvantages: Maugham himself, although he never used the terms "second rate" or "mediocre" about his work,[199][n 19] was modest about his status. [80] They then visited San Francisco and sailed to Honolulu and Australia before the final leg of their voyage, to Singapore and the Malay Peninsula, where they remained for six months. During the First World War Maugham worked for the British Secret Service, later drawing on his experiences for stories published in the 1920s. Story Salvatore by W. Somerset MaughamIntroduction, Theme and Summary The story deals with love of a couple never going to be united. March 14, 2004. The best years of my life those we spent wandering about the world are inextricably connected with him. His stories the first in the genre of spy fiction continued by Ian Fleming, John le Carr and many others[169] are based so closely on Maugham's experiences that it was not until ten years after the war ended that the security services permitted their publication. During World War I he worked as a secret agent. [93] Despite some help from Coward in the drafting and having Ralph Richardson as star and John Gielgud as director, it ran for a modest 83 performances. Illustration by Edward Sorel. [n 12] There is some suggestion that his known homosexuality may have militated against his receiving the higher honour.[119]. In August of 1917 the U. S. Army absorbed the ambulance units. The critic John Sutherland says of it: According to some of Maugham's intimates, the main female character, the manipulative Mildred, was based on "a youth, probably a rent boy, with whom he became infatuated". They lived together in the French Riviera, where Maugham entertained lavishly. 227228; Mander and Mitchenson, p. 204; and Lyttelton and Hart-Davis (1978), p. 195. 191, 205 and 210, Mander and Mitchenson, pp. [1] Maugham trained as a medical doctor at St. Thomas's hospital's medical school, London, but then decided to become a full-time writer. "[33], Before the publication of his next novel, The Making of a Saint (1898), Maugham travelled to Spain. Died. Many of his works were highly praised: the novels Of Human Bondage , Cakes and Ale , The Razor's Edge , and The Moon and Sixpence ; short stories such as "Rain" and "The Outstation"; and his plays Lady . [13] Two and a half years after his mother's death his father died, and Maugham was sent to England to live with his paternal uncle Henry MacDonald Maugham, the vicar of Whitstable in Kent. He later said, "I took to it as a duck takes to water. In The Summing Up (1938) and A Writers Notebook (1949) Maugham explains his philosophy of life as a resigned atheism and a certain skepticism about the extent of mans innate goodness and intelligence; it is this that gives his work its astringent cynicism. He died at the age of 91. Alternate titles: William Somerset Maugham. He successfully sued for divorce in 1916, citing Maugham as co-respondent. After Haxton's death in 1944, Alan Searle became Maugham's secretary-companion for the rest of the author's life. [106], Haxton was holding down a responsible job in Washington and enjoying his new independence and self-reliance. Scott thought the style more effective in narrative than in suggestion and nuance. [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. "The Razor's Edge," which would be his last important work, was published in 1944. [164], Among the short stories set in England, one of the best-known is "The Alien Corn" (1931), where a young man rediscovers his Jewish heritage and rejects his family's efforts to distance themselves from Judaism. His first novel, Liza of Lambeth (1897), a study of life in the slums, attracted attention, but it was as a playwright that he first achieved national celebrity. [90] Few believed Maugham's denial and he eventually admitted it was a lie. Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 - 7 June 1970) was an English author, best known for his novels, particularly A Room with a View (1908), How. His first fiction was the critically praised naturalist novel of London slum life, Liza of Lambeth, which was published in 1897, when Maugham was 23 and completing his medical training at London's St Thomas's Hospital. 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. [103], Maugham spent most of the war years in the US, based for much of the time at a comfortable house on the estate of his American publisher, Nelson Doubleday. Somerset Maugham ? 27, 59, 143 and 295, Mander and Mitchenson, p. 15; and Richards, pp. Again, despite the suffering of the main characters, there is a reasonably happy ending for the central figure, Kitty. [190] L. A. G. Strong acknowledged his craftsmanship, but described his writing as having an effect like "that of music expertly played in an expensive restaurant at dinner". [58] The baby was legally the daughter of Henry Wellcome, although he had not seen his wife for many years. [71], By that time Maugham was ill with tuberculosis. We will update W. Somerset Maugham's Height, weight, Body Measurements, Eye Color, Hair Color, Shoe & Dress size soon as possible. Culture; Somerset Maugham; Reuse this content. [85] They divorced in 1929. Maugham based his characters upon people whom he had known or whose lives he had somehow come to know; their actions are presented with consummate realism. 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. ]' t.r. 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. This ability is sometimes reflected in the characters that populate his writings. [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". IndigoMistBooks. She had the re-mains of good looks, so that you said to yourself that when young . 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