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W. Somerset Maugham

Born

in British Embassy, Paris, The United Kingdom

January 25, 1874

Died

December 16, 1965

Genre

Fiction, Short Stories

Influences

Guy de Maupassant, Honoré de Balzac, Anton Chekhov, Ramana Maharshi ...more

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William Somerset Maugham was born in Paris in 1874. He spoke French even before he spoke a word of English, a fact to which some critics attribute the purity of his style.

His parents died early and, after an unhappy boyhood, which he recorded poignantly in Of Human Bondage, Maugham became a qualified physician. But writing was his true vocation. For ten years before his first success, he almost literally starved while pouring out novels and plays.

Maugham wrote at a time when experimental modernist literature such as that of William Faulkner, Thomas Mann, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf was gaining increasing popularity and winning critical acclaim. In this context, his plain prose style was criticized as 'such a tissue of clichés' that one ...more

Combine Editions
W. Somerset Maugham’s books

Average rating: 4.06 · 312,730 ratings · 28,508 reviews · 1,721 distinct works • Similar authors

	Of Human Bondage 4.16 avg rating — 63,591 ratings — published 1915 — 1097 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Razor’s Edge 4.19 avg rating — 56,365 ratings — published 1944 — 436 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Painted Veil 3.98 avg rating — 54,040 ratings — published 1925 — 25 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Moon and Sixpence 4.12 avg rating — 28,433 ratings — published 1919 — 1281 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Theatre 4.17 avg rating — 10,221 ratings — published 1937 — 153 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Up at the Villa 3.74 avg rating — 9,337 ratings — published 1941 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Cakes and Ale 3.78 avg rating — 8,318 ratings — published 1930 — 318 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Magician by W. Somerset Maugham, Robert Calder (Introduction) 3.58 avg rating — 5,675 ratings — published 1908 — 675 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Ashenden 3.87 avg rating — 4,344 ratings — published 1927 — 258 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Christmas Holiday 3.73 avg rating — 3,369 ratings — published 1939 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Polls

January 2018 Short Story Poll

A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf, 112 pages, 1929

106 votes, 33.5%

Selected Poems by Emily Dickinson, 54 pages, 1880

37 votes, 11.7%

White Nights by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 82 pages, 1848

34 votes, 10.8%

The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West, 82 pages, 1918

29 votes, 9.2%

Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov, 126 pages, 1925

28 votes, 8.9%

The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell, 48 pages, 1944

25 votes, 7.9%

Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg, 56 pages, 1956

24 votes, 7.6%

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin, 106 pages, 1963

15 votes, 4.7%

Liza of Lambeth by W. Somerset Maugham, 128 pages, 1892

9 votes, 2.8%

With The Night Mail: A Story Of 2000 Ad by Rudyard Kipling, 58 pages, 1905

9 votes, 2.8%

316 total votes

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