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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 · 310,072 ratings · 28,140 reviews · 1,853 distinct works • Similar authors

	Of Human Bondage 4.16 avg rating — 63,199 ratings — published 1915 — 1113 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 — 55,932 ratings — published 1944 — 45 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 — 53,596 ratings — published 1925 — 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
	The Moon and Sixpence 4.12 avg rating — 28,177 ratings — published 1919 — 1591 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 — 10,108 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 — 9,153 ratings — published 1941 — 116 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 — 8,232 ratings — published 1930 — 280 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 — 5,624 ratings — published 1908	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 — 4,291 ratings — published 1927 — 243 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 — 3,348 ratings — published 1939 — 4 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…

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Polls

December 2015 Short Story Poll

1843, The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, 31 pages

22 votes, 17.9%

1905, The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry, 32 pages

18 votes, 14.6%

1985, The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg, 32 pages

17 votes, 13.8%

1979 The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter, 126 pages

14 votes, 11.4%

1835, The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol, 48 pages

12 votes, 9.8%

1936, The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber by Ernest Hemingway, 72 pages

12 votes, 9.8%

1865, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk by Nikolai Leskov, 88 pages

9 votes, 7.3%

1834, The Queen of Spades by Alexander Pushkin, 52 pages

8 votes, 6.5%

1983, Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal, 98 pages

5 votes, 4.1%

1897, Liza of Lambeth by W. Somerset Maugham, 128 pages

5 votes, 4.1%

1955, Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo, 128 pages

1 vote, 0.8%

123 total votes

1 comment

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