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W. Somerset Maugham in The Dead Ladies Project
Home > BlogThe Dead Ladies Project by Jessa Crispin
Crispin, Jessa. "St. Petersburg/W. Somerset Maugham." The Dead Ladies Project. Exiles, Expats & Ex-Countries. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2015.I finally got around to read this book, since it was just there in the library. If ever libraries have another of their existential crises, to provide books that you don't want to buy isn't such a bad reason for being. Otherwise, imagine the books one may never hav…
New Biography of W. Somerset Maugham
Home > Blog >Holden, Philip. "Selves in Dialogue: W. Somerset Maugham and Dementia's Stories." a/b: Auto/Biography Studies 30.2 (2015): 249-69.Today I came across a piece of interesting news. There is going to be another biography on W. Somerset Maugham! I was surprised and not surprised. I guess I was surprised that I was actually right in assuming that there will be another one, even though it seems to be of common consensus that the most recent one by Selina Hastings is …
"W. S. M. : R. I. P.": Alec Waugh on W. Somerset Maugham
Home > Blog >Alec Waugh by Bassano Ltd | Somerset Maugham by Bassano Ltd
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Waugh, Alec. "W.S.M.: R.I.P." My Brother Evelyn & Other Profiles. London: Cassell, 1967. 271–94. Myself, I always felt that he was the one person in the world who could completely understand me. (283) Alec Waugh, whom I mentioned in a previous post when talking about Hugh Walpole and Cakes and Ale, wrote a very sympathetic portrait of W. Somerset Maugham after his death…
"The Great William Somerset Maugham Seen Through the Eyes of a Friend—"
W. Somerset Maugham, Barbara Back (middle row, second from right/left), Gerald Haxton, & Friendsfrom Hastings's The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham
This post concerns an article written by W. Somerset Maugham's closest female friend, Barbara Back, about him. Before talking about it, I am going to give some background about its writer.
Barbara Back is not an unfamiliar name to those who become interested in Maugham's life. However, I haven't come across much about her. Fro…
Gods of Modern Grub Street - W. Somerset Maugham
Adcock & Hoppé - Gods of Modern Grub Street 1923W. Somerset Maugham
Adcock, A. St. John, and Hoppé E. O. "William Somerset Maugham." Gods of Modern Grub Street. Impressions of Contemporary Authors. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1923. 213–9.
This is a book of essays by Arthur St. John Adcock (1864–1930), editor of The Bookman, novelist, poet, critic, journalist, lawyer by training, quite a versatile man though he advised against the diffusiveness of talents in others.
As …
"Somerset Maugham and Posterity" – Glenway Wescott
Images of Truth - Glenway WescottWescott, Glenway. Images of Truth. Remembrances and Criticism. New York: Harper and Row, 1962.
I am going to talk about Wescott's book, or more accurately, a chapter from his book, with delight and indulgence: "Somerset Maugham and Posterity."
Glenway Wescott (1901–1987) was an American author, one of the expatriates in the famous '20s and someone who knew Maugham personally since they met in 1928; their friendship continued for years to come.…
"But you were living before that,/ and also you are living after": Grant Overton on W. Somerset Maugham
Recently, perhaps something like in the last two months, I came across several old (and some not so old) books on Maugham by or on people who knew him, which gives me an idea to write a series of posts on them, linking them together to construct an image of W. Somerset Maugham.One of these books, And did he stop and speak to you?, such a playful title, delightful, gives me a name for these posts. G. B. Stern, known as "Peter," used a line from Robert Browning's poem "Memor…
Fifty Works of English Literature We Could Do Without - Brigid Brophy et. al.
Brophy, Brigid, Michael Levey and Charles Osborne. Fifty Works of English Literature We Could Do Without. New York: Stein and Day, 1968.I was very curious about this book, which was quoted by the reference book Contemporary Literary Criticism, vol. 1, in the Maugham entry, which I mentioned in an earlier post. Its title is deadly fascinating and it certainly lives up to its expectations.
No sarcasm is intended in my last comment. It is indeed an interesting book, full of humour, if you know …
One Hundred Best Books - John Cowper Powys
Powys, Cowper John. One Hundred Best Books With Commentary and an Essay on Books and Reading. New Delhi, Isha Books, 2013.This brief post is about a little curious book that came to my hand. Modern readers would not be unfamiliar with listmania; this list was originally published in 1916 by the literary critic of the time. Not unusual at his time, naturally he was not only a critic, but also novelist, poet, lecturer, and philosopher.
I do admire people who are willing and are able to make …
Contemporary Literary Criticism Vols. 1, 11, 15 - Maugham Entries
Gunton, Sharon, et. al., eds. Contemporary Literary Criticism. Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research Co., 1973–1980It is with a heavy heart that I write this post. I came across this mighty reference series by chance and upon reading the Maugham entries, I am very surprised at the errors and the editors' choice of extracts to be included, presumably to give the readers a general impression of individual authors.
The main problem that such errors cause is naturally their perpetuation, since they s…
"W. Somerset Maugham" in Seven Friends by Louis Marlow
Marlow, Louis. Seven Friends. London: The Richards Press, 1953.This post is about a most fascinating book by Louis Marlow, whom I know next to nothing, except that he has written a chapter on W. Somerset Maugham.
Louis Marlow's real name is Louis Wilkinson (1881–1966), as observed, died just a year after Maugham; an Englishman who lectured widely in the United States.
A writer himself, he also wrote about other writer friends that he knew.
What is most attractive about Marlow is that…
Books of Criticism on W. Somerset Maugham
Following some previous posts, here are the last old volumes on English Literature recovered from storage. We will be looking at the entries of W. Somerset Maugham, which are brief in these few books.Evans, Ifor, Sir. A Short History of English Literature. Middlesex: Penguin Books Ltd., 1962.
Popularity sometimes affects the judgements of critics in estimating the worth of a writer, and no modern author has suffered in this way as much as W. Somerset Maugham (b. 1874). His early novels, whic…
Adventures in English Literature - W. Somerset Maugham
Inglis, Rewey Belle, Stauffer, Donald A., and Larsen, Cecil Evva. Adventures in English Literature. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1952.Another old book on literature, which I do not even remember ever possessing. By the look of it, it could be a secondary school textbook. In this post, we will look at the entries of W. Somerset Maugham in it.
Maugham in Adventures in English Literature
The Modern English Novel
The manner of many of these novels – Galsworthy, Stevenson, Conrad, Hardy,…
W. Somerset Maugham in A Handbook to Literature
Holman, C. Hugh, and William Harmon, eds. A Handbook to Literature. 6th ed. New York: Macmillan, 1992.This random old books revisit has slowly turned into a reappraisal of W. Somerset Maugham's standing in the academic world. Admittedly my books are from the 90s curriculum, but I do have a relatively new shorter tenth edition of The Norton Introduction to Literature.
Not only criticisms of Maugham post an interest, their absence sometimes is more telling.
The Norton Anthology, one of th…
More Criticism of W. Somerset Maugham
Drabble, Margaret, ed. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.Long forgotten old books keep appearing. This can hardly be called a book of criticism, but a handbook of sort about writers who are considered worth mentioning in the history of literature, a Who's Who reference book.
I think it would be interesting to have a look at how Maugham's professional career is outlined and having known more about him, how such brief outline fares, espec…
Certain W. Somerset Maugham Criticism
Recovered from storage (finally all boxes folded!) are two long forgotten books. As a matter of fact, I confess that I do not remember if I read them at all.I suspect that most likely as in the case of yesteryear's newspaper advertisements old criticism offers but a glimpse into past fashion (except perhaps for those interested in reception theory, but then, again, probably book reviews would have been more telling), however, it is amusing to have a look.
Ward, A.C. Twentieth-Century En…
W. Somerset Maugham. An Appreciation. By Richard Aldington -- Review
Aldington, Richard. Somerset Maugham. An Appreciation (New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1939)Recently I read Richard Aldington's old panegyric pamphlet on W. Somerset Maugham’s work as a whole up to the year 1939.
It is a brave and welcoming effort of the critic to revindicate Maugham’s worthiness to be considered a serious writer of literature.
However, it would take more than Aldington’s moral indignation, genuine enthusiasm, and facile arguments against some equally ill supported c…
W. Somerset Maugham in Frank Scully's Rogues' Gallery
Scully, Frank. “W. Somerset Maugham.” In Rogues’ Gallery. Profiles of My Eminent Contemporaries. Hollywood: Murray & Gee, Inc., 1943. 15-36.This post is about a chapter in Frank Scully’s work, Rogues’ Gallery. Although Scully proclaims in the preface that the word portraits don’t come in any specific order, there must be some underlying principle that he uses to organize them. W. Somerset Maugham has the honour to occupy the first place.
W. Somerset Maugham - The First Rogue
For those, i…
An Unwritten Story By Somerset Maugham by Yuri Nagibin
Nagibin, Yuri. An Unwritten Story By Somerset Maugham. Moscow: Raduga Publishers, 1988.This book had intrigued me for quite some time. Forgive my ignorance of Russian writers; my knowledge is confined to the classics. My favourite translator is Constance Garnett, so you can imagine.... I hesitated to buy it and finally I could borrow it from the library and took a look at what it was all about.
Un Unwritten Story By Somerset Maugham
I have to say that it is an irresistible title (though I m…
W. Somerset Maugham. A Study of the Short Fiction -- Review
Archer, Stanley. W. Somerset Maugham. A Study of the Short Fiction. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1993.This post will look at a book of literary criticism of W. Somerset Maugham’s short stories. It is an interesting study, and upon finishing it, the reader would have wished for more.
W. Somerset Maugham’s Short Stories
This book contains three parts; only the first part consists of Archer’s analysis and criticism of Maugham’s short fictions.
The introduction is well-written, with Maugham’s lif…