Cakes and Ale; or, The Skeleton in the Cupboard | Characters
It is difficult to find a novel that is more of a roman a clef than Cakes and Ale. Two of the principal characters are thought by many critics to be based on famous persons: Driffield on Thomas Hardy and Kear on Hugh Walpole. Maugham denied the claim, saying that his characters were composites, formed from many sources, including himself. The case for Hardy can be doubted, despite some sharp similarities: Driffield's high reputation that reflected Hardy's; the depiction of the death of a child that shocked the reading public (found in Driffield's Cup of Life and...
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