Incidentally, W. Somerset Maugham inspired some mimesis of his own. [176] Some of his stories were judged too improper for the cinema; Calder cites an adaptation of the historical novel Then and Now which the Hays Office rejected for thirty-seven separate reasons. "[95] Raphael suggests that Maugham now wished to write to please himself rather than others. [27] In 1897 he published his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, a tale of working-class adultery and its consequences. Morgan describes him: Maugham's biographers have differed considerably about Searle's character and his influence for better or worse on his employer. [26] In maturity, he recalled the value of his experiences: "I saw how men died. He was the highest paid author of the 1930s. [104] As always, Maugham wrote continually. Second, Maugham was what Northrop Frye. Subject: History. Looking back, he described his early attempts to be heterosexual as the greatest mistake in his life. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. [5][57] Bryan Connon comments in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, "After this it seemed that Maugham could not fail, and the public eagerly bought his novels [and] volumes of his carefully crafted short stories". After a year at Heidelberg, he entered St. Thomas medical school, London, and qualified as a doctor in 1897. Postscript on 5/13 : I thought the name Joo Cezar de Castro Rocha sounded familiar - he's one of Ren Girard . [116] He did the same on American television, introducing the Somerset Maugham Theater series, which a reviewer said enjoyed "tremendous popularity and has won for him an audience of millions of enthusiastic fans". 22. William ('W.') Somerset Maugham. . [25] The local physician in Whitstable suggested the medical profession, and Maugham's uncle agreed. [5] He attempted to disinherit his daughter and to make Searle his adopted son, but the courts prevented it.[124]. [12], Maugham's mother died of tuberculosis in January 1882, a few days after his eighth birthday. [110] He came from Bermondsey, a poor district of London. Maugham's British and American publishers issued and reissued various, sometimes overlapping, permutations during his lifetime and subsequently. William Somerset Maugham, bedst kendt som bare W. Somerset Maugham, (fdt 25. januar 1874 i Paris, dd 16. december 1965 i Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat nr Nice) var en betydningsfuld engelsk forfatter.. [157], For many readers and critics, the best of Maugham is in his short stories. His daily routine was to write between an early breakfast and lunchtime, after which he entertained himself. [113], Before returning to the south of France after the war, Maugham travelled to England and lived in London until the end of 1946. Most viewed. Syrie Wellcome. W. Somerset Maugham (The Moon and Sixpence) " He did not care if she was heartless, vicious and vulgar, stupid and grasping, he loved her. Competence is the word. He studied in Dune and qualified as a doctor, but found his calling in writing. "[33], Before the publication of his next novel, The Making of a Saint (1898), Maugham travelled to Spain. (1874-1965), Novelist, playwright and spy. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Plays; Volume 1 by W Somerset 1874-1965 Maugham at the best online prices at eBay! Again, despite the suffering of the main characters, there is a reasonably happy ending for the central figure, Kitty. While there, he established and endowed the Somerset Maugham Award, to be administered by the Society of Authors and given annually for a work of fiction, non-fiction, or poetry written by a British subject under the age of thirty-five. This was Alan Searle, whom Maugham had known since 1928, when Searle was twenty-three. . Under 1. verdenskrig var han hemmelig agent i Rusland; hans spionroman Ashenden: Or the British Agent (1928; "Ashenden: Den hemmelige agent") bygger p denne erfaring. The new vicar dismisses the verger for being illiterate. I saw what hope looked like, fear and relief; I saw the dark lines that despair drew on a face. [183] On radio, the BBC's connection with Maugham goes back to 1930, when Hermione Gingold and Richard Goolden starred in an adaptation of "Before the Party" from his 1922 volume The Casuarina Tree. [46] Lifelong, Maugham was highly reticent about homosexual encounters, but it was thought by at least two of his lovers that at this period in his life he had recourse to young male prostitutes. Filmed at Somerset Maugham's villa at Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat on the Mediterranean, this program features the author and playwright in a far-ranging 1955 conve. He is never boring or clumsy, he never gives a false impression; he is never shocking; but this very diplomatic polish makes impossible for him any of those sudden transcendent flashes of passion and beauty which less competent novelists occasionally attain. I cannot tell you how I loathe the theatre. ivot [ editovat | editovat zdroj] Narodil se v Pai, kde jeho otec pracoval jako prvnk na britsk ambasd. It is very natural". angol regnyr, elbeszl s drmar; munkit a vilgos stlus, a vltozatos helysznek s az emberi termszet alapos ismerete jellemzi. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). [188] His urbane spy, Ashenden, influenced the stories of Raymond Chandler, Ian Fleming, Georges Simenon and John le Carr. His style is without a trace of imaginative beauty. There are but two important critics in my own country who have troubled to take me seriously and when clever young men write essays about contemporary fiction they never think of considering me. Syrie and Liza were with him for part of the year, providing a convincing domestic cover, and his profession as a writer enabled him to travel about and stay in hotels without attracting attention. [177] In the first screen version of Rain (1928) expurgations fundamentally altered the characters;[178] an adaptation of "The Facts of Life" in the 1948 omnibus film Quartet omitted the key plot point that the scheming young woman on whom the young hero turns the tables is a prostitute with whom he has just spent a night;[179] in "The Ant and the Grasshopper" a young adventurer marries not a rich old woman who dies soon afterwards but a rich young one who remains very much alive. [42], Maugham later said that he made comparatively little money from this unprecedented theatrical achievement, but it made his reputation. Biography of William Somerset Maugham (excerpt) William Somerset Maugham, CH (January 25, 1874 - December 16, 1965) was an English playwright, novelist, and theatre writer. [76], After the war Maugham had to choose between living in Britain or being with Haxton, because the latter was refused admission to the country. [173], In a study published thirteen years after Maugham's death, Robert L. Calder notes that the writer's works had been made into forty films and hundreds of radio and television plays, and he suggests "it would be fair to say that no other serious writer's work has been so often presented in other media". He returned to Britain and spent three months in a sanatorium in Scotland. [181] Calder cites BBC Television's series of twenty-six stories shown in 1969 and 1970, adapted by dramatists including Roy Clarke, Simon Gray, Hugh Leonard, Simon Raven and Hugh Whitemore,[182] "presented with scrupulous fidelity to [their] tone, attitude, and thematic intention". Although Maugham's former reputation has become somewhat eclipsed. [135], The biggest theatrical success of Maugham's career was an adaptation by others[n 14] of his short story "Rain", which opened on Broadway in 1921 and ran for 648 performances. It is all very well for you, you are author, actor and producer. When W. SOMERSET MAUGH AM was asked to select and edit the ten best novels in world literature, he thought at once of Balzac. During the First World War Maugham worked for the British Secret Service, later drawing on his experiences for stories published in the 1920s. [37] Maugham continued to write assiduously and within five years he published two more novels and a collection of short stories, and had his first play produced; but a success to match that of his first book eluded him. Add a one-line explanation of what this file represents. His American publishers estimated that four and a half million copies of his books were bought in the US during his lifetime.[127]. William Somerset Maugham Theatre I THE door opened and Michael Gosselyn looked up. He achieved fame initially as a dramatist with plays such as Lady Frederick (1912) and The Circle (1921). . Contents. I saw how they bore pain. [119] He was widely understood in literary circles to have turned down a knighthood and to have hankered after the more prestigious and exclusive British honour, the Order of Merit, saying to friends that the CH "means 'Well done, but'". After losing both his parents by the age of 10, Maugham. Publisher: Franklin Classics. His grandfather, Robert Maugham (17881862), was a prominent solicitor and co-founder of the Law Society of England and Wales. [143] When Maugham's The Circle was revived in the US in 2011, the reviewer in The New York Times wrote that the play had been criticised "for not having anything substantial to say about love, marriage or infidelity. [22] A family friend found Maugham a position in an accountant's office in London, which he endured for a month before resigning. 25 and 68, Sternlicht, p. 72; Innes p. 254; Rogal, p. 247 and Curtis, p. 398, Last edited on 22 February 2023, at 08:19, The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, W. Somerset Maugham on stage and screen Plays, List of works by W. Somerset Maugham Novels and story collections, W. Somerset Maugham on stage and screen Film adaptations, " In Fine Society, Infidelity and Its Consequences", "The 100 best novels: No 44 Of Human Bondage by W Somerset Maugham (1915)", "Somerset Maugham's Ethically Earnest Fiction", "W. Somerset Maugham's apocryphal second-rate status: setting the record straight", "W. Somerset Maugham: Theme and Variations", Works by W. Somerset Maugham in eBook form, Works by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham, National Theatre, Maugham's Theatrical Collection, National Theatre, Shakespearean Characters, William Somerset Maugham's stories on Malaya, Borneo and Singapore, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=W._Somerset_Maugham&oldid=1140893483, This page was last edited on 22 February 2023, at 08:19. William Somerset Maugham is one of the best known English writers of the 20th century. It was a departure from his previous style; its moral ambiguity and equivocal ending puzzled the critics and the public. Born into a professional, bourgeois family, the youngest of four brothers, he. [123] Nonetheless, his final years, according to Connon, were marred by increasing senility, misguided legal disputes and a memoir, published in 1962, Looking Back, in which "he denigrated his late former wife, was dismissive of Haxton, and made a clumsy attempt to deny his homosexuality by claiming he was a red-blooded heterosexual". But at first glance, Maugham's progression to worldwide fame and great wealth seems relatively straightforward. [85] They divorced in 1929. Appearing in popular magazines such as Nash's, Collier's, Hearst's International, The Smart Set, and Cosmopolitan, his stories Wilson later admitted that he had not read, Meyers, p. 9; Maugham (1975), p. 15; Coward, pp. Of their seven children, three died in infancy. The British ambassador, Lord Lyons, had a maternity ward set up within his embassy which was legally recognised as UK territory enabling British couples in France to circumvent the new law, and it was there that William Somerset Maugham was born on 25 January 1874. Together they made extended visits to Asia, the South Seas and other destinations; Maugham gathered material for his fiction wherever they went. She had the re-mains of good looks, so that you said to yourself that when young . He is widely considered to be one of the greatest English writers ever. Who Is W. Somerset Maugham's Wife? He would rather have misery with one than happiness with the other. The protagonist of the story is Roger Charing, a tall, handsome, rich, experienced middle-aged man. Gosselyn was a tall, stoutish, elderly woman, much taller than her husband, who gave you the impression that she was always trying to diminish her height. [36], The Making of a Saint, a historical novel, attracted less attention than Liza of Lambeth and its sales were unremarkable. William Somerset Maugham. It drew its details from his obstetric duties in South London slums. In the US they spent time in Hollywood, which Maugham despised from the first, but found highly remunerative. Love, Life, Change. MR. KNOW-ALL / Somerset Maugham () Bridging Text and Context: Write 80 - 100 words. [20] He took part in the adaptation for the cinema of some of his short stories, Quartet (1948), Trio (1950) and Encore (1951), in all of which he appeared, contributing on-screen introductions. Maugham's job was to counter German propaganda, and to encourage the moderate republican Russian government under Alexander Kerensky to continue fighting. Maugham, who had been writing steadily since he was 15, intended to make his career as an author, but he dared not tell his guardian. View interactive tab. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Between 1908 and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Maugham wrote a further eight plays,[44] but his stage successes did not completely distract him from writing novels. [120] Morgan observes: Although most of Maugham's early successes were as a dramatist, it is for his novels and short stories that he has been best known since the 1930s. He said that lacking any great powers of imagination he wrote about what he saw, and that although he could see more than most people could, "the greatest writers can see through a brick wall my vision is not so penetrating".[202]. In addition, Carey has a. He thinks he's Somerset Maugham." At the height of his powers Maugham would have savoured the excruciating irony: the writer in decline, pumped up on sheep's cells, accused of impersonating . [78] He spent much time travelling with Haxton. William Somerset Maugham ( Prizs, 1874. janur 25. [21] Brooks encouraged Maugham's ambitions to be a writer and introduced him to the works of Schopenhauer and Spinoza. [73] It was well received: reviewers called it "extraordinarily powerful and interesting",[74] and "a triumph [that] has given me such pleasure and entertainment as rarely comes my way";[75] one described it as "an exhibition of the beast in man, done with such perfect art that it is beyond praise". 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