W. Somerset Maugham
21) Cakes and Ale
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Description
Of all Somerset Maugham's novels this is the most entertaining and arguably his best ever. Rosie is a barmaid with a heart of gold and a skeleton in her closet. Maugham's portrait of her makes his novel fairly glow with witty observations of the contemporary literary scene. Features Willie Ashenden, who resurfaces in Maugham's Ashenden.
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Description
William Somerset Maugham was an English playwright, novelist, and short-story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest-paid author during the 1930s.
Both Maugham's parents died before he was 10, and the orphaned boy was raised in Whitstable, Kent by a paternal uncle, who was emotionally cold. He did not want to become a lawyer like other men in his family, so he trained and qualified as a physician. His first...
23) Catalina
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Description
Set in the time of the infamous Spanish Inquisition, Catalina is a novel both richly historical and affectingly human. Two eminent persons, natives of the city, were arriving after an absence of many years, and great doings had been arranged in their honor. In the Lady Chapel of the church a crippled girl prayed to the Blessed Virgin whose day it was, too. No greater things were planned for the girl, Catalina, but greater things awaited her.
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Kate Burton reprises her Tony-nominated performance as Constance Middleton in W. Somerset Maugham's classic comedy of manners. There's something Constance Middleton's friends are dying to tell her: her husband is having an affair, with her best friend! Despite their hints, Constance remains ever cool, and seemingly oblivious. Or is she?
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The Narrow Corner is a novel by the British writer W. Somerset Maugham, published by William Heinemann in 1932.
A quote from Meditations, iii 10, by Marcus Aurelius, introduces the work: "Short therefore, is man's life, and narrow is the corner of the earth wherein he dwells." In the story, set "a good many years ago" in what is now Indonesia, a young Australian, cruising the islands after his involvement in a murder in Sydney, has a passionate affair...
26) Of human bondage
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Description
"It is very difficult for a writer of my generation, if he is honest, to pretend indifference to the work of Somerset Maugham," wrote Gore Vidal. "He was always so entirely there." Originally published in 1915, Of Human Bondage is a potent expression of the power of sexual obsession and of modern man's yearning for freedom. This classic bildungsroman tells the story of Philip Carey, a sensitive boy born with a clubfoot who is orphaned and...
27) The razor's edge
Author
Publisher
Vintage International
Pub. Date
2003, 1944
Description
Leaving wealth and loved ones behind, Larry Darrell journeys to the mountains of India in search of spiritual wisdom.
Author
Publisher
Everyman's Library
Pub. Date
2004
Description
In this edition of short fictional works by the prestigious twentieth century author, writer Ashenden turns secret agent in World War I, the chasms of misunderstandings between colonizers and natives comes to a head, and a poetry writing woman clashes with her, the only hardcover edition of short stories by one of the twentieth century's most enduringly popular fiction writers. Though W. Somerset Maugham was also famous for his novels and plays, it...
30) Of human bondage
Publisher
Kanopy Streaming
Pub. Date
2014.
Description
Bette Davis rose from the ranks of Warner Bros. contract players to become a screen superstar when she was loaned out to RKO to appear in John Cromwell's adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage. Leslie Howard (Gone with the wind) stars as Philip, a British medical student who becomes infatuated with a most unlikely woman: a vulgar waitress named Mildred (Davis). Undeterred by Mildred's obvious contempt of him (and her disgust for his...
31) THE PAINTED VEIL
Publisher
Warner Home Video
Pub. Date
c2007
Description
Set in the 1920s. A young English couple, Walter a middle class doctor and Kitty, an upper-class woman, get married for all the wrong reasons and relocate to Shanghai. Kitty falls in love with someone else. When Walter discovers her infidelity, in an act of vengeance, he accepts a job in a remote village in China that is being ravaged by a deadly epidemic. He takes his wife along and their journey brings meaning to their relationship and gives them...