Somerset maugham full biography and works

William Somerset Maugham was an English prose writer, playwright, and novelist known for his insightful portrayal of the human soul and character, expressed with rare stylistic precision. Although he created 25 plays, 21 novels, and over short stories, Maugham was not an innovator in any literary genre. His renowned comedies, such as "The Circle" and "The Constant Wife"adhered to the conventions of English "well-made plays.

Maugham was born on January 25,in Paris, France. His mother, a renowned beauty, held a salon that attracted many celebrities from the worlds of art and politics. At the age of ten, Maugham became an orphan, and he was sent to live with his uncle, who was a clergyman, in England. As an eighteen-year-old, Maugham spent a year in Germany and, upon his return, enrolled in the medical institute at St.

Maugham would go on from this humble beginning to stake a claim for himself as one of the most commercial popular writers of 20th century. Though never exactly a darling of the The Magician by W. Somerset Maugham is a novel detailing a narrative about an English surgeon, Arthur Burdon. The characters and settings of the story are based on real people and scenes.

The story begins with Arthur traveling to Paris to visit Somerset Maugham found in the collection The Trembling of a Leaf. The Moon and Sixpence is a novel by critically celebrated British writer W. Somerset Maugham. The novel follows the life of Charles Strickland, a businessman who devotes the remainder of his life to painting in an effort to become a great artist As a result, he developed a talent for applying a wounding remark to those who displeased him.

This ability is sometimes reflected in the characters that populate his writings. At 16, Maugham refused to continue at The King's School and his uncle allowed him to travel to Germany, where he studied literature, philosophy and German at Heidelberg University.

Somerset maugham full biography and works: William Somerset Maugham CH was

It was during his year in Heidelberg that he met John Ellingham Brooks, an Englishman ten years his senior, and with whom he had his first sexual experience [7]. On his return to England his uncle found Maugham a position in an accountant's office, but after a month Maugham gave it up and returned to Whitstable. His uncle was not pleased, and set about finding Maugham a new profession.

Maugham's father and three older brothers were all distinguished lawyers and Maugham asked to be excused from the duty of following in their footsteps. A career in the church was rejected because a stammering minister might make the family seem ridiculous. Likewise, the civil service was rejected—not out of consideration for Maugham's own feelings or interests, but because the recent law requiring civil servants to qualify by passing an examination made Maugham's uncle conclude that the civil service was no longer a career for gentlemen.

Somerset maugham full biography and works: Born 25 January in Paris.

The local doctor suggested the profession of medicine and Maugham's uncle reluctantly approved this. Maugham had been writing steadily since the age of 15 and fervently intended to become an author, but because Maugham was not of age, he could not confess this to his guardian. So he spent the next five years as a medical student in London [2].

Many readers and some critics have assumed that the years Maugham spent studying medicine were a creative dead end, but Maugham himself felt quite the contrary. He was able to live in the lively city of London, to meet people of a "low" sort that he would never have met in one of the other professions, and to see them in a time of heightened anxiety and meaning in their lives.

In maturity, he recalled the literary value of what he saw as a medical student: "I saw how men died. I saw how they bore pain. I saw what hope looked like, fear and relief…" Maugham saw how corrosive to human values suffering was, how bitter and hostile sickness made people, and never forgot it. Maugham kept his own lodgings, took pleasure in furnishing them, filled many notebooks with literary ideas, and continued writing nightly while at the same time studying for his degree in medicine.

Inhe presented his second book for consideration. The first was a biography of Meyerbeer written by the year-old Maugham in Heidelberg. Liza of Lambeth, a tale of working-class adultery and its consequences, drew its details from Maugham's experiences as a medical student doing midwifery work in the London slum of Lambeth. The novel is of the school of social-realist "slum writers" such as George Gissing and Arthur Morrison.

Frank as it is, Maugham still felt obliged to write 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. Liza of Lambeth proved popular with both reviewers and the public, and the first print run sold out in a matter of weeks.

This was enough to convince Maugham, who had qualified as a doctor, to drop medicine and embark on his sixty-five year career as a man of letters. Of his entry into the profession of writing he later said, "I took to it as a duck takes to water.

Somerset maugham full biography and works: Popular British novelist, playwright, short-story writer

The writer's life allowed Maugham to travel and live in places such as Spain and Capri for the next decade, but his next ten works never came close to rivalling the success of Liza. This changed dramatically in with the phenomenal success of his play Lady Frederick ; by the next year he had four plays running simultaneously in Londonand Punch magazine published a cartoon of William Shakespeare biting his fingernails nervously as he looked at the billboards.

By Maugham was famous, with ten plays produced and ten published novels. Throughout this period Maugham continued to write; indeed, he proof-read Of Human Bondage at a location near Dunkirk during a lull in his ambulance duties [8]. Of Human Bondage initially received adverse criticism both in England and America, with the New York World describing the subject of the main protagonist Philip Carey as the sentimental servitude of a poor fool.

However the influential critic, and novelist, Theodore Dreiser rescued the novel referring to it as a work of genius, and comparing it to a Beethoven symphony.

Somerset maugham full biography and works: W. Somerset Maugham (born

This criticism gave the book the lift it needed and it has since never been out of print. The book appeared to be closely autobiographical Maugham's stammer is transformed into Philip Carey's club foot, the vicar of Whitstable becomes the vicar of Blackstable, and Philip Carey is a doctor although Maugham himself insisted it was more invention than fact.

Oxford University Press. Subscription or UK public library membership required. Occhiogrosso, Frank In Benstock, Bernard ; Staley, Thomas eds. British Mystery Writers, — Raphael, Frederic Somerset Maugham and His World. Sanders, Charles In Weintraub, Stanley ed. Modern British Dramatists, — Simpkins, Scott In Staley, Thomas F. British Novelists, — Stott, Raymond Toole A Bibliography of the Works of W.

Thomas, Lew June Diamond Publishing Group. External links [ edit ]. Wikisource has original works by or about: W. Works by W. Somerset Maugham Award. Categories : Bibliographies by writer Bibliographies of British writers Dramatist and playwright bibliographies Works by W. Toggle the table of contents. List of works by W. References and footnotes.

George H. Doran CompanyNew York. Oxford University PressOxford. Short story collection by Maugham, screen adaptation by Maugham, R. Sherriff and Noel Langley. Short story collection by Maugham, screen adaptation by Maugham, T. Cosmopolis: A Literary Review. The Pall Mall Magazine. The Fortnightly Review. The Strand Magazine. September The Sketch.

The Illustrated London News. The Lady's Realm. Windsor Magazine.