Collected Stories
By (Author) W. Somerset Maugham
Everyman
Everyman's Library
15th September 2004
5th August 2004
United Kingdom
Hardback
848
Width 136mm, Height 211mm, Spine 45mm
895g
In this edition of his collected shorter fiction we can see why Somerset Maugham, celebrated as the author of Cakes and Ale and Of Human Bondage, is also regarded as a master of the short story. Open this substantial volume at any page and you will find evidence of his extraordinary art. Without narrative tricks and in a plain prose style, Maugham introduces us to the enormous range of characters and experiences he encountered in an unusually long life and recorded with the cool accuracy of a good doctor diagnosing disease. There are many famous stories here; some of them made into films such as The Force of Circumstance, Rain, P & O and The Colonel's Lady; others, less famous, charting mundane but mysterious events in all four quarters of the world.
W. Somerset Maugham was one of the twentieth century's most popular novelists as well as a celebrated playwright, critic, and short story writer. He was born in Paris but grew up in England and served as a secret agent for the British during World War I. He wrote many novels, including the classics Of Human Bondage, Cakes and Ale, Christmas Holiday, The Moon and Sixpence, Theatre, and Up at the Villa.