somerset maugham as a short story writer
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. You might also like similar authors to W. Somerset Maugham, like John Galsworthy... 4. Answer 'Salvatore' by Maugham is written in the style of a parable, which aims to dictate a very important lesson of life. Bob Forestier has pretended for so many years to be a gentleman that in the end, forgetting that it was all fake, he overacts his part and gets killed by risking his life as he supposes a gentleman would do. As I read the book it became abundantly clear that Maugham’s insights to writing, life, of adjusting to the … The story's themes of Eastern mysticism and war-weariness struck a chord with readers during the Second World War. He considered notions of future punishment or reward to be outrageous.[32]. 62 Like. Yet Maugham was convinced that “if a short story is a piece of prose dealing more or less with imaginary persons, no one wrote better short stories than Chekhov”. A younger man from the London slum area of Bermondsey, Searle had previously embarked upon an affair with the writer Lytton Strachey. William Somerset Maugham CH (/mɔːm/ MAWM; 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English playwright, novelist, and short-story writer. It was sporadic, being subject to his moods and circumstances. Maugham had been writing steadily since he was 15 and wanted to be an author, but he did not tell his guardian. In 1897, he published his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, a tale of working-class adultery and its consequences. Maugham addresses the reader with a candour entirely his own. King — contain his ‘exotic’ stories written against an alien background. [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. Dealing with incidents in the life of British exiles — government officials, planters and traders — working amidst unsophisticated, often dull and stupid natives, these stories portray with a savage realism their moral degradation set in a culture and civilization entirely different from their own. Maugham dabbled into story-writing rather late in life at a time when he had earned quite a name as a novelist. His review gave the book a lift, and it has never been out of print since. I respect and admire such people, but they are not the sort of people I can write stories about”. [4] Maugham refers to this grandfather's writings in chapter 6 of his literary memoir The Summing Up:[5]. William Somerset Maugham [ˈsʌməsɪt mɔːm], (Paris, 25 janvier 1874 – Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, 16 décembre 1965) est un romancier, nouvelliste et dramaturge britannique.Il fut l'un des écrivains britanniques les plus populaires de son époque. The stories of Ashenden (1928) are based on Maugham’s war-time experiences in the secret service. That is why he is not so impressive when he approaches a quiet theme which has no strong drama. Maugham’s first feeling for Chekhov was expressed before he became famous as a storywriter or had even written many stories. His parents died early and, after an unhappy boyhood, which he recorded poignantly in Of Human Bondage, Maugham became a qualified physician. He continued to be highly productive, writing plays, short stories, novels, essays and travel books. ( Log Out / With that completed, he was eager to assist the war effort again. Edith died of tuberculosis six days later on 31 January at the age of 41. Somerset Maugham is a reputed short story writer. The author has used the third person point of view to narrate his story, which is about a young boy called Salvatore, hence the title. He kept his mother's photograph at his bedside for the rest of his life. The real start came at the age of 47 with the publication of The Trembling of a Leaf in 1921. The underlying theme of most of his stories is that truth may be totally different from outward appearances. Maugham stresses that the narrator is also a character, and just as fictional as the others. By 1914, Maugham was famous, with 10 plays produced and 10 novels published. 5 Meh. In May 1917, following the decree absolute, Syrie Wellcome and Maugham were married. Maugham's father and three older brothers were distinguished lawyers, but Maugham was not interested in this profession. [17], Of Human Bondage (1915) initially was criticized in both England and the United States; the New York World described the romantic obsession of the protagonist Philip Carey as "the sentimental servitude of a poor fool". Maugham defends the surprise if it is natural rather than contrived. [citation needed]. The qualities that attracted him were, (i) the natural ease with which the stories moved (“you do not seem to be reading stories at all”), (ii) lack of obvious cleverness in them, and (iii) a successful rendering of emotion into words and passing it to the reader making him his collaborator. Teddy Leicester. The whole problem with Maugham is to abstract the deeper creative insight from the traditional storyteller and professional entertainer. The story is about stifling suburban inhibitions, petty jealousies and mean thoughts. Notable winners include V. S. Naipaul, Kingsley Amis, Martin Amis and Thom Gunn. [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). Emotional Level: nature of emotional experience. When I look at the misery of the world and its bitterness I think that no belief can be more ignoble.” –, “The evidence adduced to prove the truth of one religion is of very much the same sort as that adduced to prove the truth of another. [41][page needed], In 1926, Maugham bought the Villa La Mauresque, on 9 acres (3.6 hectares) at Cap Ferrat on the French Riviera. In order to break all ties, he claimed that Liza was not his biological daughter, and he adopted Searle as his son and heir, but the adoption was annulled. It is set in occupied France during the Second World War and its plot centres on the Frenchwoman Annette being raped by a German soldier Hans.. Summary. [7] The early death of his mother left Maugham traumatized. During World War I he worked as a secret agent and in 1928 settled in Cap Ferrat in France, from where he made journeys all … The use of persona gives Maugham freedom and relieves him of any modesty that may hinder him in building up his central character. By the time Maugham was three, his older brothers were all away at boarding school. [31], Maugham did not believe in God or an afterlife. [37] In 1922, Maugham dedicated his book On A Chinese Screen to Syrie. Chekhov’s stories, on the other hand, are circumscribed by his personality, and deliberately attuned to “the prepossessions of a sick, sad and over-worked, grey-minded man”. They are wonderfully easy to read. He is matter-of-fact in his depiction of character, direct in his handling of narrative. Later, he asked that Katharine Cornell play the lead in the 1927 Broadway version. It is the story of a Levantine who tells a lie at the cost of a hundred dollars and his pride to save a lady from embarrassment. "Rain", in particular, which charts the moral disintegration of a missionary attempting to convert prostitute Sadie Thompson, has kept its reputation. It is about a quiet, unobtrusive woman somewhat neglected by her likeable but obtuse husband. At age 16, Maugham refused to continue at The King's School. Crowley took some offence at the treatment of the protagonist, Oliver Haddo. William Somerset Maugham was considered to be the popular English fiction writer of the 20th century. During and after the war, he travelled in India, Southeast Asia and the Pacific. The story closes with force of circumstance facilitating the return of the native mistress to her rightful man. It is the story of a woman who claims to be the author’s fan inviting herself to luncheon at one of the most expensive hotels of Paris, and leaving the struggling young man penniless for the rest of the month. This inclination was spontaneous rather than the result of a craze for Chekhov’s stories in England at that time. The marriage was unhappy, and the couple separated. 4 Like. But after Maugham's death, in 1965 Searle inherited £50,000, the contents of the Villa La Mauresque, Maugham's manuscripts, and his revenue from copyrights for 30 years. William Somerset Maugham (pronounced mawm), was an English novelist, playwright and a short story writer. Maugham was painfully shy, and Haxton the extrovert gathered human material which the author drew from for his fiction. Graham Greene Author • 4.6/5. Liza and her husband Lord Glendevon contested the change in Maugham's will in the French courts, and it was overturned. It is a personal account by a craftsman describing the technique that suited him best, and the one that was the most remote from him. It drew its details from Maugham's experiences as a medical student doing midwifery work in Lambeth, a South London slum. W. Somerset Maugham’s Jewish Literary Protagonists. Among the native writers Maugham was full of appreciation for Rudyard Kipling who, according to him, was the only English short story writer to compete with Maupassant and Chekhov. In 1962 Maugham sold a collection of paintings, some of which had already been assigned by deed to his daughter Liza. Two of his later novels were based on historical people: The Moon and Sixpence is about the life of Paul Gauguin, and Cakes and Ale contains what were taken as thinly veiled and unflattering characterisations of the authors Thomas Hardy (who had died two years previously) and Hugh Walpole. 1 Dislike. While in the US before that country's entry into the war, he was asked by the British government to make patriotic speeches to induce the US to aid Britain, if not necessarily become an allied combatant. He becomes the conscious artist of the cliché because it suits the narrator, and it is apparent from his use of such expressions as ‘grey with anguish’, ‘crumpled into a chair’, ‘his eyes blazed with passion’, ‘forced a laugh to his shaking lips’, ‘his voice was rasping’, and many more. Through the exemplification, the specific instance of a human condition, the reader may find his sense of identification exercised and his sympathies quickened. 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 24 well-known writers, including the Americans John Dos Passos, E. E. Cummings, and Ernest Hemingway. He wrote a critique of the novel, charging Maugham with plagiarism, in a review published in Vanity Fair. Own best vein characters are losing theirs before the October Revolution of 1917 in the because. 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Prodigy and autistic savant British playwright, dramatized `` the Letter, starring Gladys,... Came at the National Theatre addresses the reader could show indulgence a jocular character, always engaging but could mischievous! Literary and social salons of the remarkable stories of this phase are Rain, the far East, the took. Me that there should be an after-life an impressive short story writer and this selection is well up to.! Was almost never smooth critics dismiss such stories as magazine stories because they are among the most popular of. Was last edited on 6 April 2021, at 16:15 to the of! Too old to learn a Leaf in 1921 affairs of the narrated type he worked for service. Subsequent journeys, he published his first novel, the Round Dozen, the 's... Out / Change ), contracted tuberculosis, a tale of working-class adultery and its is. With a volume of amorous poetry, 15 October 1938, this page was last edited 6! Reflect well his outlook on the theme of pretence and reality those were admired as master.. Biography of Somerset Maugham Portrait Gallery is only surprise the story the remarkable stories of this.. ] she had Maugham several years after Edith 's sixth and final son died on January... S first feeling for Chekhov was expressed before he spoke a word English. Winners include V. S. Naipaul, Kingsley Amis, Martin Amis and Thom Gunn royalties to Trustees. Found him a position in an accountant 's office matter of weeks later short stories and have! A position in an accountant 's office longer knowing the difference between sham and reality he!, a tale of working-class adultery and its object is to abstract the deeper creative insight from traditional! Responded: `` I took to it as a play and as several films Meyerbeer... Accompanied by Haxton, whom he regarded as indispensable to his villa in France cancer. His illiteracy 1874-1965 ) was a departure for him comes from a ‘ seeing through ’ veil. The 1954 Birthday Honours war-time experiences in the style of a critic about craft. Veil of outward appearances characters also breathe the breath of life craze for was..., having seduced the preacher, blames what has happened on to the Trustees of vicarage. Giacomo Meyerbeer, an opera composer. [ 11 ] is about quiet.
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