But when I'm bad I'm better. Short Biography of William Somerset Maugham The British novelist William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965), one of the most popular writers in English in the 20th century, is noted for his clarity of style and skill in storytelling. In The Summing Up (1938) and A Writer’s Notebook (1949) Maugham explains his philosophy of life as a resigned atheism and a certain skepticism about the extent of man’s innate goodness and intelligence; it is this that gives his work its astringent cynicism. [47][48], Commercial success with high book sales, successful theatre productions and a string of film adaptations, backed by astute stock market investments, allowed Maugham to live a very comfortable life. 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. In his 1962 volume of memoirs, Looking Back, he attacked the late Syrie Maugham and wrote that Liza had been born before they married. Maugham subsequently said that if he had been able to get there six months earlier, he might have succeeded. I never heard of his plays before and … The Razor's Edge is a 1944 novel by W. Somerset Maugham. During the First World War, he served with the Red Cross and in the ambulance corps before being recruited in 1916 into the British Secret Intelligence Service. Many of Maugham’s plays, novels, and short stories have been adapted into films. Somerset Maugham spent a year in Heidelberg, Germany, where he studied literature, philosophy. I find the notion of future punishment outrageous and of future reward extravagant. [44] After the war, in 1946 Maugham returned to his villa in France. Among her grandchildren is Derek Paravicini, who is a musical prodigy and autistic savant. [46] Liza Maugham, Lady Glendevon, died aged 83 in 1998, survived by her four children (a son and a daughter by her first marriage to Vincent Paravicini, and two more sons to Lord Glendevon). After his companion Gerald Haxton died in 1944, Maugham returned to England. Mivel a francia törvény szerint mindenkit, aki Franciaországban született, besorolhattak katonai szolgálatra, elrendezte, hogy Somerset a követségen lásson napvilágot, tehát technikailag brit talajon. [6] She had Maugham several years after the last of his three elder brothers was born. Their father, Robert Ormond Maugham, was a lawyer who handled the legal affairs of the British Embassy in Paris. In Don Fernando, a non-fiction book about his years living in Spain, Maugham pondered a (perhaps fanciful) suggestion that the painter El Greco was homosexual: It cannot be denied that the homosexual has a narrower outlook on the world than the normal man. [28][29] He considered that the misery and bitterness of the world suggested that God did not exist. Of Human Bondage is a 1915 novel by W. Somerset Maugham. W. Somerset Maugham was a prolific and popular writer of plays, novels and short stories during the first six decades of the 20th century. The Moon and Sixpence, novel by W. Somerset Maugham, published in 1919. In this context, his plain prose style was criticised as "such a tissue of clichés that one's wonder is finally aroused at the writer's ability to assemble so many and at his unfailing inability to put anything in an individual way".[50]. [15] Maugham survived the criticism without much damage to his reputation. He was teased for his bad English (French had been his first language) and his short stature, which he inherited from his father. Maugham was painfully shy, and Haxton the extrovert gathered human material which the author drew from for his fiction. He was born at the British Embassy in Paris.He was the highest paid author of the 1930s. The writer's life allowed Maugham to travel and to 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. It was a collection of essays that he had contributed to the solid magazines of the day and he issued it, as became his sense of decorum, anonymously. His uniqueness inspired several other writers like Ian Fleming and George Orwell. Simon and Schuster, 1984. sfn error: no target: CITEREFChancellor2005 (, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Painting the Century: 101 Portrait Masterpieces 1900–2000, List of ambulance drivers during World War I, "Camilla's nephew, the tortured musical genius", "Somerset Maugham'S Ten Best Novels Of The World", Caxton Club Biography (Archived October 26, 2014), 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, W. S. Maugham: correspondence, contracts, and manuscripts in Indiana University. His father was an English lawyer at the British embassy … Maugham was appointed a Companion of Honour in the 1954 Birthday Honours. His uncle rejected the Civil Service, believing that it was no longer a career for gentlemen after a new law requiring applicants to pass an entrance examination. 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. Maugham developed a stammer that stayed with him all his life. By the next year, he had four plays running simultaneously in London, and Punch published a cartoon of Shakespeare biting his fingernails nervously as he looked at the billboards. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... From the Italian Renaissance and Victorian era to India and Canterbury, delve into the lives of Dante, Isaac Asimov, and other writers. [9] Miserable both at his uncle's vicarage and at school, the young Maugham developed a talent for making wounding remarks to those who displeased him. He became an orphan at the age of 10 and returned to England where he would be raised by his uncle. Naipaul, Kingsley Amis, Martin Amis and Thom Gunn. The move was emotionally damaging, as Henry Maugham was cold and emotionally cruel. In 1938, he visited the Hindu sage Ramana Maharishi at his ashram in India, after whom he modeled the spiritual guru of his 1944 novel The Razor's Edge.[39][40]. W. Somerset Maugham, or Somerset Maugham, as he is usually referred to, was perhaps the most respected English author of the 20th century to achieve a major presence in films; not only were many of his novels, short stories, and plays adapted into movies, but Maugham had the distinction of being portrayed on screen twice by Herbert Marshall. Nigel Beale. He proofread Of Human Bondage at a location near Dunkirk during a lull in his ambulance duties. William Somerset Maugham. It has been adapted as a play and as several films. He wrote only one book that was not of this character. Since he tended to see attractive women as sexual rivals, he often gave the women of his fiction sexual needs and appetites, which was unusual for authors of his time. His first novel Liza of Lambeth (1897) sold out so rapidly that Maugham gave up medicine to write full-time. [2] Since French law declared that all children born on French soil could be conscripted for military service, his father arranged for Maugham to be born at the embassy, diplomatically considered British soil. [16] Throughout this period, Maugham continued to write. It was loosely based on the life of French artist Paul Gauguin. Since French law declared that all children born on French soil could be conscripted for military service, his father arranged for Maugham to be born at the embassy, diplomatically considered British soil. "Rain", in particular, which charts the moral disintegration of a missionary attempting to convert prostitute Sadie Thompson, has kept its reputation. Spouse/Ex: Syrie Maugham (m. 1917–1929) Children: Mary Elizabeth Maugham (1915–1998) Early Life. [3] His grandfather, another Robert, was a prominent lawyer and co-founder of the Law Society of England and Wales. [52] In 1948 he wrote "Great Novelists and Their Novels" [also known as "Ten Novels and Their Authors" and "The Art of Fiction"], in which he listed the ten best novels of world literature in his view.[53]. During World War I he worked as a secret agent. Edith died of tuberculosis six days later on 31 January at the age of 41. To be a good citizen, it's important to be able to put yourself in other people's shoes and see the big picture. [61] George Orwell said that Maugham was "the modern writer who has influenced me the most, whom I admire immensely for his power of telling a story straightforwardly and without frills". Too old to enlist when the First World War broke out, he served in France as a member of the British Red Cross's so-called "Literary Ambulance Drivers", a group of some 24 well-known writers, including the Americans John Dos Passos, E. E. Cummings, and Ernest Hemingway. Born in the British Embassy in Paris, where his father worked, Maugham was an orphan by the age of ten. I saw what hope looked like, fear and relief ..."[12], 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 medical degree. This ancient arabic tale was retold by William Somerset Maugham near the end of his play Sheppey (1933). W. Somerset Maugham Quotes. He wrote a critique of the novel, charging Maugham with plagiarism, in a review published in Vanity Fair. Maugham was orphaned at the age of 10; he was … After Maugham's return to Britain, his uncle found him a position in an accountant's office. During and after the war, he travelled in India, Southeast Asia and the Pacific. By 1914, Maugham was famous, with 10 plays produced and 10 novels published. Ian Fleming noted that he wrote the short story "Quantum of Solace" as an homage to Maugham's writing style. William was the fourth son of six children, of which only four survived. A life in letters: W Somerset Maugham Born 25 January 1874 in Paris. The play was adapted as a film by the same name in 1929. Enjoy the best W. Somerset Maugham Quotes at BrainyQuote. Crowley took some offence at the treatment of the protagonist, Oliver Haddo. W. Somerset Maugham, 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. Maugham's homosexual leanings shaped his fiction, in two ways. Mae West. [6], Maugham has been described both as bisexual[22][23][24] In that period, Maugham began a relationship with Alan Searle, whom he had first met in 1928. It is generally agreed to be his masterpiece and to be strongly autobiographical in nature, although Maugham stated, "This is a novel, not an autobiography; though much in it is autobiographical, more is pure invention." Maugham wrote comedies, psychological novels and spy stories (although the latter part of his work is hardly ever seen as belonging to crime fiction proper). For the next five years, he studied medicine at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School in Lambeth. Maugham gave Philip Carey a club foot (rather than his stammer); the vicar of Blackstable appears derived from the vicar of Whitstable; and Carey is a medic. Born in Paris, he was the sixth and youngest son … In certain respects the natural responses of the species are denied to him. For a public man of Maugham's generation, being openly gay was impossible. Through these novels, he captured the imagination of the readers by portraying genuine characters and conveying their relationships, greed and ambition in a realistic manner. They typically express the emotional toll the colonists bear by their isolation. William Somerset Maugham, better known as W. Somerset Maugham, was born on January 25, 1874, Paris, France. Maugham, who had qualified as a medic, dropped medicine and embarked on his 65-year career as a man of letters. At age 16, Maugham refused to continue at The King's School. Quotations by W. Somerset Maugham, British Playwright, Born January 25, 1874. Maugham's supernatural thriller, The Magician (1908), based its principal character on the well-known and somewhat disreputable Aleister Crowley. Jolyon Toby Dennis Maugham QC (/ m ɔː m /; born 1 July 1971) is a British barrister. Somerset Maugham's Biography. He drew upon his experiences as an obstetrician in his first novel, Liza of Lambeth (1897), and its success, though small, encouraged him to abandon medicine. However subtly he sees life he cannot see it whole...I cannot now help asking myself whether what I see in El Greco's work of tortured fantasy and sinister strangeness is not due to such a sexual abnormality as this. Biography and Fiction: Somerset Maugham and Of Human Bondage. His mother, Edith Mary, died when he was eight and his father, Robert, a lawyer at the British embassy in … Maugham's short fable "An Appointment in Samarra" (1933) is based on an ancient Babylonian myth: Death is both the narrator and a central character. W. Somerset Maugham, an eminent British playwright, novelist and short story writer is better known as a master of short and concise novels. In 1897, he published his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, a tale of working-class adultery and its consequences. [citation needed] He did not want to become a lawyer like other men in his family, so he trained and qualified as a physician. He traveled in Spain and Italy and in 1908 achieved a theatrical triumph—four plays running in London at once—that brought him financial security. Maugham returned to Britain from his ambulance unit duties in order to promote Of Human Bondage. He was a brilliant teller of tales, one of the most widely read authors of the twentieth century, and at one time the most famous writer in the world, yet W. Somerset Maugham’s own true story has never been fully told. She was a genius who wrote electrifying poetry, full of rage and unconventional images. His mother was the socialite Edith Mary Snell, and his father was Robert Orman Maugham, a lawyer. William Somerset Maugham (January 25, 1874 – December 16, 1965) was an English playwright, novelist and short story writer. W. Somerset Maugham (1874 – 1965) was a British playwright, novelist and short story writer. In Paris, Strickland woos and wins W. Somerset Maugham : … Maugham’s plays, mainly Edwardian social comedies, soon became dated, but his short stories have increased in popularity. In maturity, he recalled the value of his experience as a medical student: "I saw how men died. [59], Maugham was one of the most significant travel writers of the inter-war years, and can be compared with contemporaries such as Evelyn Waugh and Freya Stark. [33][34] It was part of an attempt to keep the Provisional Government in power and Russia in the war, by countering German pacifist propaganda. There he hosted one of the great literary and social salons of the 1920s and 30s. Anthony Burgess praised his influence. One of Maugham's friends, describing the difference between Haxton and Searle, said simply: "Gerald was vintage, Alan was vin ordinaire. Maugham was orphaned at the age of 10; he was brought up by an uncle and educated at King’s School, Canterbury. W. Somerset Maugham : … Notable winners include V.S. W. Somerset Maugham: Quotes Conformity It is not difficult to be unconventional in the eyes of the world when your unconventionality is but the convention of your set. They had a daughter named Mary Elizabeth (1915–1998). Philip's clubfoot causes him endless self-consciousness and embarrassment, echoing Maugham's struggles with his stutter and, as his biographer Ted Morgan notes, his homosexuality.[57]. Deetsember 1965 uun Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat bi Nizza) wiar en ingels skriiwer an dramaatiker.. Leewent. On this and all subsequent journeys, he was accompanied by Haxton, whom he regarded as indispensable to his success as a writer. In June 1917, Maugham was asked by Sir William Wiseman, an officer of the British Secret Intelligence Service (later named MI6), to undertake a special mission in Russia. In 1947 Maugham instituted the Somerset Maugham Award, awarded to the best British writer or writers under the age of thirty-five of a work of fiction published in the past year. They changed their daughter's surname, originally registered as Wellcome and reflecting Syrie's marriage. W. Somerset Maugham William Somerset Maugham ( MAWM; 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English playwright, novelist, and short story writer. At last, the fascinating truth is revealed in a landmark biography by … Maugham's play The Letter, starring Gladys Cooper, had its premiere in London in 1927. Born in Paris, he was the sixth and youngest son … Popular British novelist, playwright, short-story writer and the highest-paid author in the world in the 1930s, Somerset Maugham graduated in 1897 from St. Thomas' Medical School and qualified as a doctor, but abandoned medicine after the success of his first novels and plays. Maugham refers to this gran… His uncle allowed him to travel to Germany, where he studied literature, philosophy and German at Heidelberg University. This was a collection of 58 ultra-short story sketches, which he had written during his 1920 travels through China and Hong Kong, intending to expand the sketches later as a book. The protagonist is a disillusioned veteran of the First World War who abandons his wealthy friends and lifestyle, travelling to India seeking enlightenment. To Authors Index. However, Maugham endured a traumatic childhood - he was orphaned at the age of ten when his mother died from tuberculosis and his father died from cancer. He had adapted it for the stage from a story published in 1924 in Hearst's International; it was reprinted in his collection The Casuarina Tree (1926). William Somerset Maugham was born at the British Embassy in Paris, France, where his father was an English lawyer handling the legal affairs of the British embassy. His family assumed Maugham and his brothers would be lawyers. He continued to be highly productive, writing plays, short stories, novels, essays and travel books. Biography. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest paid author during the 1930s. Notable winners include V. S. Naipaul, Kingsley Amis, Martin Amis and Thom Gunn. He considered notions of future punishment or reward to be outrageous.[32]. [62] In his novel Misery, Stephen King places a rich collection of Maugham's books in the house where most of the plot is set, and incidentally praises Maugham's mastery of storytelling. He later lived in the South. [51], Maugham's public view of his abilities remained modest. He attended King’s School in Canterbury. "[31], Maugham did not believe in God or an afterlife. [37] In 1922, Maugham dedicated his book On A Chinese Screen to Syrie. 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