[138] Raphael remarks about Maugham as a playwright, "His wit was sharp but rarely distressing; his plots abounded in amusing situations, his characters were usually drawn from the same class as his audiences and managed at once to satirize and delight their originals". He later said, "I took to it as a duck takes to water. "[155], The Moon and Sixpence is the story of a man rejecting a conventional lifestyle, family obligations and social responsibility to indulge his ambition to be a painter. Maugham's plain prose style became known for its lucidity, but his reliance on clichs attracted adverse critical comment. [134] After his early writing, in which long sentences are punctuated with semicolons and commas, Maugham came to favour short, direct sentences. 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. [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. Actually it has extremely complicated things to say about them, but its most important message may be that actions have real consequences, no matter how casually those actions may be taken". Gamer who has gained fame for her Sommerset Twitch channel. Somerset Maugham (1874 -- 1965) grew to fit Brady's bill as a writer. By Jeffrey Meyers. I did so with relief. [73] He saw little of Haxton, who undertook war work in Washington DC. [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. William Somerset Maugham was an English author and playwright. William Somerset Maugham Theatre I THE door opened and Michael Gosselyn looked up. Maugham wrote of Haxton: After the South Seas trip Maugham visited the US and was joined by Syrie. [170] In the 1928 volume Ashenden features in sixteen stories; two years later he reappeared, in his peacetime role of writer, as the narrator of Cakes and Ale. E.M. Forster. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Plays; Volume 1 by W Somerset 1874-1965 Maugham at the best online prices at eBay! His fellow author Cyril Connolly wrote, "there will remain a story-teller's world from Singapore to the Marquesas that is exclusively and forever Maugham". Connon writes, "He was seen by some as a near saint and by others, particularly the Maugham family, as a villain";[5] Hastings labels him "a podgy Iago constantly briefing against [Syrie and Liza]", and quotes Alan Pryce-Jones's summary: "an intriguer, a schemer with a keen eye to his own advantage, a troublemaker". He was the son of a British diplomat. Presented by Lady John Hope 1951 Provenance: Commissioned by Somerset Maugham 1949 and given by him to his daughter, Lady Joan Hope Exhibited: Graham Sutherland 1924-51 . 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. [20] He took part in the adaptation for the cinema of some of his short stories, Quartet (1948), Trio (1950) and Encore (1951), in all of which he appeared, contributing on-screen introductions. During World War I he worked as a secret agent. Sisllys 1 Henkilhistoria 2 Kirjallinen tuotanto 2.1 Suomennetut teokset Although primarily homosexual, he attempted to conform to some extent with the norms of his day. His American publishers estimated that four and a half million copies of his books were bought in the US during his lifetime.[127]. [41] By the next year, while the run of Lady Frederick continued, Maugham had three other plays running simultaneously in London. 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. [24] His uncle ruled out the civil service, believing that it was no longer a career for gentlemen after reforms requiring applicants to pass an entrance examination. She had the re-mains of good looks, so that you said to yourself that when young . [187] Maugham outsold, and outlived, contemporaries such as James Joyce, Virginia Woolf and D. H. Lawrence, but, in Holden's view, "he could not match them in terms of stylistic innovation or thematic complexity". 22. 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. [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. She began posting to Twitch in June 2019. The play was first presented in New York in 1917, running for 112 performances. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. 25 and 68, Sternlicht, p. 72; Innes p. 254; Rogal, p. 247 and Curtis, p. 398, Last edited on 22 February 2023, at 08:19, The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, W. Somerset Maugham on stage and screen Plays, List of works by W. Somerset Maugham Novels and story collections, W. Somerset Maugham on stage and screen Film adaptations, " In Fine Society, Infidelity and Its Consequences", "The 100 best novels: No 44 Of Human Bondage by W Somerset Maugham (1915)", "Somerset Maugham's Ethically Earnest Fiction", "W. Somerset Maugham's apocryphal second-rate status: setting the record straight", "W. Somerset Maugham: Theme and Variations", Works by W. Somerset Maugham in eBook form, Works by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham, National Theatre, Maugham's Theatrical Collection, National Theatre, Shakespearean Characters, William Somerset Maugham's stories on Malaya, Borneo and Singapore, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=W._Somerset_Maugham&oldid=1140893483, This page was last edited on 22 February 2023, at 08:19. His daily routine was to write between an early breakfast and lunchtime, after which he entertained himself. The lifelong ban followed his arrest and trial over a homosexual incident in 1915. Maugham was born in the English embassy in Paris; the youngest son, he was nicknamed "Willie" by his beautiful mother, Edith . As a result, he developed a talent for applying a wounding remark to those who displeased him. Who Is W. Somerset Maugham's Wife? [28], The book received mixed reviews. During the First World War Maugham worked for the British Secret Service, later drawing on his experiences for stories published in the 1920s. In his teens he became a lifelong non-believer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest-paid author during the 1930s. William Somerset Maugham[n 2] CH (/mm/ MAWM; 25 January 1874 16 December 1965)[n 1] was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. He was one of the most popular authors of his era, and reputedly the highest paid of his profession during the 1930s. [26] In maturity, he recalled the value of his experiences: "I saw how men died. Tuning: E A D G B E. Capo: no capo. William ('W.') Somerset Maugham. [141] Several commentators have characterised him as a pessimist, who did not share Shaw's optimistic belief that art could improve humanity. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German university. Looking back, he described his early attempts to be heterosexual as the greatest mistake in his life. After Haxton's death in 1944, Alan Searle became Maugham's secretary-companion for the rest of the author's life. [152], Cakes and Ale combines humorous satire on the London literary scene and wry observations about love. And in one way or another however indirectly all I've written during the last twenty years has something to do with him".[109]. (g. 1917-1929) Barn. Add a one-line explanation of what this file represents. 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. More recent assessments generally rank Of Human Bondage a book with a large autobiographical element as a masterpiece, and his short stories are widely held in high critical regard. [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. [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". [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. 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. What are synonyms for Somerset Maugham? 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. [187] Nonetheless, Maugham is recognised as an influence on Coward, Lawrence, Kingsley Amis, Graham Greene, Christopher Isherwood, V. S. Naipaul and George Orwell. He was the highest paid author of the 1930s. 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. I saw what hope looked like, fear and relief; I saw the dark lines that despair drew on a face. During his time in Heidelberg he had his first sexual affair; it was with John Ellingham Brooks, an Englishman ten years his senior. 191, 205 and 210, Mander and Mitchenson, pp. [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. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. "[26], Maugham took rooms in Westminster, across the Thames from the hospital. Like Of Human Bondage it has a strong female character at its centre, but the two are polar opposites: the malign Mildred in the earlier novel contrasts with the lovable, and much loved, Rosie in Cakes and Ale. [143] When Maugham's The Circle was revived in the US in 2011, the reviewer in The New York Times wrote that the play had been criticised "for not having anything substantial to say about love, marriage or infidelity. [148], Maugham published novels in every decade from the 1890s to the 1940s. 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. The protagonist of the story is Roger Charing, a tall, handsome, rich, experienced middle-aged man. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Somerset Maugham ? [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". Many would say that his short stories embody his best work, and he remains a substantial figure in the early-20th-century literary landscape. [150] Unlike many of Maugham's later novels it has an unequivocally tragic ending. Maugham also travelled far and wide to Europe, North America, the Far East, the South seas and beyond. 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