W. Somerset Maugham’s Followers (6,224)

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 · 305,213 ratings · 27,478 reviews · 1,829 distinct works • Similar authors

	Of Human Bondage 4.16 avg rating — 62,474 ratings — published 1915 — 1132 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 — 55,104 ratings — published 1944 — 441 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 — 52,821 ratings — published 1925 — 473 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 — 27,785 ratings — published 1919 — 1657 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 4.18 avg rating — 9,909 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 — 8,819 ratings — published 1941 — 118 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 — 8,115 ratings — published 1930 — 285 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 — 5,538 ratings — published 1908 — 1291 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 — 4,182 ratings — published 1927 — 244 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 — 3,314 ratings — published 1939 — 6 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

More books by W. Somerset Maugham…

Need another excuse to treat yourself to a new book this week? We've got you covered with the buzziest new releases of the day, according to early...

Polls

July 2016 New School Classic Group Read

1954, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, 182 pages

48 votes, 21.6%

1945, Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, 351 pages

28 votes, 12.6%

1951, My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier, 352 pages

21 votes, 9.5%

1957, Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger, 201 pages

19 votes, 8.6%

1925, The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham, 246 pages

19 votes, 8.6%

1997, American Pastoral by Philip Roth, 432 pages

14 votes, 6.3%

1944, Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges, 174 pages

13 votes, 5.9%

1982, The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, 448 pages

13 votes, 5.9%

1968, The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, 294 pages

13 votes, 5.9%

1995, The Reader by Bernhard Schlink, 216 pages

13 votes, 5.9%

1992, The Shipping News by Annie Proulx, 352 pages

12 votes, 5.4%

1938, Brighton Rock by Graham Greene, 269 pages

8 votes, 3.6%

1986, The Whirlpool by Jane Urquhart, 80 pages

1 vote, 0.5%

222 total votes

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