Maugham, << mawm, >> W. Somerset (1874-1965), was a fiction and drama writer who became one of the most popular British authors of the 1900’s. However, Maugham’s reputation stood far higher with the public than with critics.
Maugham usually wrote in a detached, ironic style, yet he often showed sympathy for his characters. His semiautobiographical novel Of Human Bondage (1915) established his position as a serious writer. Considered his finest work, it is a realistic story of a medical student’s bondage to his lameness and his love for an unappreciative woman. Cakes and Ale (1930) is generally ranked next among Maugham’s novels. It is a comic satire about an English author. Maugham based his novel The Moon and Sixpence (1919) on the life of the painter Paul Gauguin. Maugham’s experiences in the British secret service during World War I provided the background for a group of related stories published as Ashenden (1928).
Maugham’s Collected Short Stories was published in four volumes in 1977 and 1978. The Summing Up (1938) and A Writer’s Notebook (1949) are the direct, personal observations of a professional writer.
Maugham wrote many sophisticated plays, beginning with Lady Frederick (1907). His most popular comedies include The Circle (1921) and The Constant Wife (1927).
William Somerset Maugham was born in Paris, the son of a British embassy official. He studied medicine at the request of his family, but he never practiced after completing his internship.
