Maugham, W(illiam) Somerset (Vol. 1) - Maugham, W(illiam) Somerset 1874–1965
Maugham, W(illiam) Somerset 1874–1965
French-born British novelist and short story writer, best known for Of Human Bondage. (See also Contemporary Authors, Vols. 5-8, rev. ed.; obituary, Vols. 25-28.)
By the nineteen-thirties, after having for many years been either despised or ignored by intellectuals, Somerset Maugham had moved unobtrusively to a high place both as a dramatist and as a writer of fiction. In his case, popular favour preceded critical acclaim, and his satirical mind must have found a wry satisfaction in the spectacle of the experts belatedly hastening to catch up with independent public approval….
[Of Human Bondage (1916)] is a fine achievement, but work of a more distinctively personal kind was to come. Cakes and Ale (1930) has incisiveness, brilliance, genuine pathos, and beauty. It is his best novel, for, here, sardonic wit and satire do not drive out human sympathy and understanding…. The...
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