W. Somerset Maugham

Collected Short Stories Volume 1, written by a master of the form, is a classic collection that traverses various landscapes from England, France, and Spain to the silver sands of the South Pacific. Among the stories is the renowned 'Rain', portraying the tragedy of a narrow-minded and overzealous missionary and a prostitute. Another notable inclusion is 'The Three Fat Women...

An ambitious novel by the formidable talent, Somerset Maugham. The Razor's Edge follows Larry Darrell, a young American in search of the absolute. The progress of this spiritual odyssey involves him with some of Maugham’s most brilliant characters. His fiancée, Isabel, faces a choice between love and wealth, which has lifelong repercussions. Her uncle, Elliot Templeton, is the quintessential expatriate...

Of Human Bondage is the first and most autobiographical of Maugham's masterpieces. It is the story of Philip Carey, an orphan eager for life, love and adventure. After a few months studying in Heidelberg, and a brief spell in Paris as a would-be artist, Philip settles in London to train as a doctor. And that is where he meets Mildred,...

Stunningly rejacketed as part of a major reinvention of this neglected 20th century master. Kitty Fane is the beautiful but shallow wife of Walter, a bacteriologist stationed in Hong Kong. Unsatisfied by her marriage, she starts an affair with the charming, attractive and exciting Charles Townsend. But when Walter discovers her deception, he exacts a strange and terrible vengeance—Kitty must...

The third volume of Somerset Maugham's Collected Short Stories, introduced by the author, contains the celebrated series about Ashenden, a secret service agent in World War I. Based on Maugham's own experiences with the British Intelligence service in Switzerland, the stories are vignettes in which he dramatises both the romance and absurdity of espionage as well as its ruthlessness and...

In this classic guide, Maugham introduces and discusses what he considers to be the ten greatest novels and their authors. Here are some of the formulae of greatness in the genre, as well as the flaws and heresies that enfeeble it. Maugham's choice list: Fielding's Tom Jones; Dickens's David Copperfield; Flaubert's Madame Bovary; Balzac's Old Man Goriot; Wuthering Heights by...

Stunningly written and cleverly done, Maugham masters the enthralling and shocking world of Machiavelli. Maugham found a parallel to the turmoil of our own times in the duplicity, intrigue and sensuality of the Italian Renaissance. Then and Now enters the world of Machiavelli, and covers three important months in the career of that crafty politician, worldly seducer and high priest...

A tense potboiler set on an exotic Pacific island by one of the 20th century's bestselling authors. On his way home from a remote Pacific island, Dr Saunders travels with two strangers: the treacherous Captain Nichols, and Fred, a handsome Australian with a shadowy past. Driven to shelter from a storm on the island of Kanda, the trio meet good-natured...

Another collection of sparkling essays by one of Britain's most neglected masters of the form. The Vagrant Mood is a brilliantly varied and colourful collection of essays. From Kant to Raymond Chandler; from the legend of Zurbaran to the art of the detective story; from Burke to Augustus Hare, Somerset Maugham brings his inimitable mastery of the incisive character sketch...

Crippled and disconsolate, sixteen-year-old Catalina is the one person unable to join in the festivities of the Feast of the Assumption. Yet that is when she miraculously meets and talks with the Blessed Virgin as though she were her own mother. But in the dark days of the Spanish Inquisition, the Church is apt to take a serious view of...

From 1892 to 1949, Somerset Maugham recorded his thoughts and observations in this journal, which confirms his acute vision and his outstanding ability as a creative artist. A Writer's Notebook contains his notes while a medical student in London and follows his career as he travelled around the world developing his incomparable talent. At times light-hearted, occasionally barbed, this is...

Here is Maugham's famous heroine - the intelligent, spirited and passionate Mrs Craddock. Bertha Ley comes of age, inherits her father's money and promptly marries a handsome, calm and unimaginative man. Bertha is wildly in love with Edward and believes she can be happy playing the role of a dutiful wife in their country home. But, intelligent and sensual, she...

Maugham's set of stories about his wartime spy John Ashenden, who prefigured James Bond with his exploits with exotic enemies and exotic women. When war broke out in 1914, Somerset Maugham was dispatched by the British Secret Service to Switzerland under the guise of completing a play. Multilingual, knowledgeable about many European countries and a celebrated writer, Maugham had the...